The veiled ballerina : a feminist approach towards the prevalence of patriarchy in the structures of romantic ballet

Abstract

This research is carried out through a feminist perspective as it challenges the longstanding notion that the Romantic era is the quintessential historical period for women in ballet. It asks, did women really have creative or managerial control in this time? Were they empowered or is history over-glorifying their reality? Who is writing their history and how is it affecting our perception? What is the way forward? This dissertation explores how the role of women in the Romantic era of ballet was shaped by the aristocratic roots of professional ballet. These beginnings, together with the patriarchal and elitist ideologies of aristocratic society from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, carved out a female role which was largely manipulated by a cohort of male choreographers and ballet masters. In addition, this dissertation also considers how male critics and historians perpetuated the gender-specific trends and characteristics of this era.