I have recently completed a monograph, Literature, Modernism, and Dance for Oxford University Press. Two future research projects will come out of this work: one which extensively explores the reception of the Ballets Russes in Britain and its impact on British literary aesthetics in the later twentieth century; the second is an extended project on Samuel Beckett and choreography, which explores Beckett’s relationship to innovations in European modern dance and dramaturgy; third is a consideration of geometry and modernism, focussing on the influence of classical and neo-classical philosophies of space and movement on literature and dance in the twentieth century. I also continue to co-edit the Cambridge Edition of Joseph Conrad’s Chance (1914) with Allan Simmons (St Mary’s, London), Justin Tonra (Virginia), and John H. Stape (General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of Conrad), a project that should be completed by 2015.
Nineteenth-, Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Literature; Twentieth-Century drama and dance.
Doing Conrad: Doing History: Alice Kinkead and the Conrads
Conference paper
Howard, Andrée (1910–1968)
Internet publication
<jats:p>Andrée Howard belonged to a group of British choreographers, including Frederick Ashton and Antony Tudor, who began their careers with the Polish-born Marie Rambert in London. As a choreographer Howard worked predominantly within a ballet idiom, but she extended and exploited this to develop the potential for dramatic expression in the medium of modern ballet. Her versatile approaches to genre included the use of abstract and narrative forms and a witty penchant for comedy; her styles ranged from lyrical and poetic to strikingly theatrical. During the 1930s and 1940s, Howard danced with, and created many ballets for, Rambert’s Ballet Club and the Ballet Rambert Company. She found artistic collaboration within the intimate atmosphere of a small group, and her best choreography is represented by ‘‘chamber’’ ballets created among individuals familiar with her working methods. As a talented visual artist, she frequently designed the sets and costumes for her ballets. Her major choreographic innovations belonged to the field of narrative ballet, where her focus on psychological expression was often inspired by literary text, as in Lady into Fox (1939) and La Fête étrange (The Strange Celebration) (1940), although she did not exclusively work in this medium. She also produced pure dance works throughout her career, including Assembly Ball (1946) and Veneziana (1953) for Sadler’s Wells Ballet.</jats:p>
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Invited to respond to a panel on Empiricism and Research
