Dancing Shakespeare

This monograph is the first history of ballets based on William Shakespeares works from the birth of ballet as an independent art form in the eighteenth century to the present. It focuses on two main questions: How can Shakespeare be danced?, and How can dance shed new light on Shakespeare? One purpose of the book is to demonstrate that the study of wordless performances allows us to gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeares texts. It argues that ballets based on Shakespeares works direct the audiences attention to the bare bones of the plays: their situations, their characters, and the evolution of both. Moreover, they reveal and develop the choreographies that are written into the texts and highlight the importance of movements and gestures as signifiers in Shakespeares plays. This book will provide students and scholars of literature, dance, and music with an interest in Shakespeare adaptations and ballet with an overview of the history of the subject, and with practical case studies that will give them ideas and tools for their own work. Beyond academic audiences, the books argument and subject will be of interest to an international readership of lovers of Shakespeare, ballet, and the arts.