Ballet in Transition: 1789-1840
(Edmund Fairfax)

While broad dance-history surveys not uncommonly state that the art of ballet underwent significant changes during the years 1789-1840, there has been, however, little attempt to discern what specific changes affected the technique and style of dance in French theaters, changes which, in turn, were widely imitated in other theaters. This illustrated presentation will attempt to fill the void in part, discussing the dissolution of the old system of distinct dance styles, which informed stage-dancing in the eighteenth century before the French Revolution; the emergence of a new blended style under the influence of the superstar dancer Auguste Vestris during the Revolution; and finally the advent of a reactionary style associated with the age of Romantic ballet and specifically with Marie and Philippe Taglioni. The presentation will look at some specifics in technique and choreography, notably height of leg-extensions, port de bras, pointe-work, step innovation, and the formation of enchaînements.

Edmund Fairfax, Toronto, Canada

Edmund Fairfax is an independent dance historian specializing in eighteenth‑century ballet. His groundbreaking study The Styles of Eighteenth‑Century Ballet (Scarecrow Press) appeared in 2003. He is currently working on completing a major study to be called The Technique of Eighteenth‑Century Ballet, as well as a reconstructive study, with a critical edition of the score, of Maximilien Gardel's 1777 pantomime ballet La chercheuse d'esprit (with Mojca Gal), one of the “classics” of the period. His comprehensive research overturns a number of antiquated notions concerning early ballet. From 2003 to 2008 he was an assistant and adviser to the dance company Ballet Espressivo in Toronto. His choreography in the eighteenth‑century style has appeared on stages in Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Greece, most recently at the Potsdam Early Music Festival (2024) and the Athens World Congress of Dance Conference (2025). He studied classical ballet in Toronto, where he lives, and has an academic background in English literature and music history (University of Regina) and theoretical linguistics (University of Toronto), with special interest in the history of the early Germanic languages, particularly Gothic and Old English.

Dance, Food and Politics: Choreography at/of Banquets in Early Modern Italy
(Petra Zeller-Dotlačilová)

In the early modern period, banquets, or sumptuous dinners, were much more than convivial moments around a table. They were both ritual and entertainment, representational events of the rulers, a total artwork of art where culinary art intertwined with visual and performing arts. Scenography and decoration, music and dance, meals and drinks were conceived and organised as a complete performance, with its own meticulously designed dramaturgy.

This paper will investigate various forms and roles of dance at banquets, as well as their general “choreography”, in various courts of northern Italy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. More concretely, the case studies include the spectacular “cene” at the Ferrara court of the d’Este family, dancing banquets of the Savoia in Turin, and Milanese events influenced by Spanish and Austrian rulers. Who danced and why? How does the choreography relate to the occasion of the event? Did the dance correlate with the food and drinks served, and if so, how?

Comparing events from various periods and places will allow us to observe the transformations, as well as similarities, in the use of dance for aesthetic and political purposes at the banquets.

Petra Zeller-Dotlačilová, Basel, Schweiz

Petra Zeller Dotlačilová holds PhDs in Dance and Theatre Studies (Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2016, Stockholm University, 2020). In her research, she specializes in European dance history and theatrical costume from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. She participated in the research projects ‘Performing Premodernity’ at Stockholm University (2014-2019) and ‘Ritual Design for the Ballet Stage (1650–1760)’ at Leipzig University (2015–2017). In 2021, she was awarded a scholarship by the Swedish Research Council for her three-year research project ‘The Fabrication of Performance: Processes and Politics of Costume-Making in the 18th Century’, conducted in collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Since 2024, she has been a postdoc on the SNSF research project ‘The Night Side of Music: Towards a New Historiography of Musicking in Europe, 1500-1800’ at the University of Basel. Her monograph Performance Costume in Eighteenth-Century France was published by Bloomsbury in 2026.

La fiesta de la Momería. (Barcelona, 1701)
(Pilar Montoya Chica)

On the occasion of the arrival to Barcelona and mariage of Philip V with Maria Luisa Gabriela of Savoy, the Council of Catalonia organized, in 1701, the comic festivity known as La Momería. Knowledge of this event has been preserved thanks to a detailed account dated 1702, housed in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.

It featured the participation of twelve ladies and an equal number of gentlemen, all members of the Catalan nobility, richly attired and performing a selection of the most representative dances of the time: Canario, Gran Duque, Xácara, Paradeta, Turdion, Torneo, Ayrosa catalana, and Minouet—the latter being one of the earliest documented instances of the minuet’s presence in Spain.

The contents of the present study include, in addition to the base text, the consultation and analysis of primary sources on dance complemented by instrumental compilations.

Finally, the primary aim of this research is to contribute to the understanding of such cultural phenomena and to approach a proposal for the recreation of these repertoires, acknowledging the necessary artistic liberties as an intrinsic part of the reconstruction process.

Pilar Montoya Chica, Zaragoza, Spain

Trained at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Aragón and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Pilar Montoya is one of the most relevant harpsichordists, organists and historical dancers on the current scene.

First Prize for harpsichord in Paris, graduated in Orchestra Conducting at Royal School of Music in London, her concert activity takes place in Europe, America and Japan. Regularly invited to participate in conferences and give master classes on baroque music and dance both in Spain and abroad.

Professor at Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castilla y León, Director of the early dance company “Los Comediantes del Arte”, Master’s professor at the Universidad de Salamanca and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, author of articles on Spanish baroque dance published in specialized magazines, she is currently working on her Doctoral Thesis on theatrical dance under the reign of Felipe V directed by B. Lolo.

Ballet at Vienna’s Kärntnerthortheater After the Napoleonic War
(Mary and Robert Riggs)

The Congress of Vienna (1814-15) ushered in the Biedermeier era of peace and the reaffirmation of aristocratic autocracies with their support of the arts but also Metternich’s repressive censorship of them. Peace promoted a thriving international exchange of talents and styles at the Kärntnerthortheater, the court’s venue for opera and ballet. Austrian composers collaborated with prominent dancers/choreographers from France (Aumer, Henry) and Italy (F. Taglioni, Astolfi, Samengo, et al.).

Ballets were performed on average twelve times per month but always as the second, longer half of a double bill. The first was either a comic one-act French operetta or a one-act Singspiel. Multiple societal influences determined this acute juxtaposition of comedic vocal works with serious, often tragic ballets. The censored scenarios of the ballets were based on historical, biblical, or literary sources, and many incorporated national folk dances from the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire and beyond. PowerPoint excerpts illustrate this rarely studied preromantic pantomimisches ballet repertoire in which Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elßler launched their careers.

Mary Barres Riggs, Oxford, MS, USA

Mary Barres Riggs (B.A., art history, Harvard University; M.A., dance history, University of Utah, thesis: “John Neumeier and the Symphonic Ballet: Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler.” She has presented papers at national and international conferences, including: the Society for Dance History Scholars, the Congress on Research in Dance, the Sounding Habsburg Conference in NYC, and the EADH Conference in Edinburgh.

She studied ballet with Leon Danielian, Kathleen Crofton, and at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. She learned four major roles from Bronislava Nijinska and made her professional debut dancing the “Rag Mazurka” in Nijinska’s Les Biches at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. On a six-week tour of Europe with the American Classical Ballet (with Rudolph Nureyev as guest artist), she performed principal and solo roles in Les Biches, Chopin Concerto, Graduation Ball, Carnaval, and La Sylphide. She also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and for two years with the ballet of the Niedersächsische Staatsoper in Hannover.

Robert Riggs, Oxford, MS, USA

Robert Riggs (Ph.D., musicology, Harvard University) began his career as a violinist, spending five years performing with the Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester in Hannover. Most of his teaching career for musicology and violin was at the University of Mississippi, where he was Chair of the Department of Music, directed the University Artist Series, and performed with the Oxford Piano Trio. He has presented papers at numerous national and international conferences, and his publications include: articles on Mozart, performance practice, and aesthetics (in The Musical Quarterly, Mozart-Jahrbuch, Journal of Musicology, and College Music Society Symposium); two books, Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher and The Violin (both with the University of Rochester Press); two chapters in The Creative Worlds of Joseph Joachim (Boydell and Brewer); and one chapter in Joseph Joachim: Identities | Identitäten (Olms Verlag).

Mary and Robert Riggs have made joint presentations at musicology conferences in London, Toronto, Vienna, and at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. In 2024 they published “Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: Ballet by John Neumeier” in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.

The Last Imperial Ball (1903)
(Anita Makuszewska)

During the period of Europeanization of Russia, court dances accompanied the radical social changes initiated by Peter the Great becoming the important link between Eastern and Western cultures. The process led to the noticeable dissonance between the practices of ancient dancing rituals and folk theatre and the new culture of court entertainment: spontaneity and freedom of pliaska stood in opposition to dance performed according to a fixed order (Lotman 1980, Levitt 2009, Sirotkina 2010).

In the 19^th century ceremonies and theatrical productions confirmed that country emerged from the isolation striving to strengthen its position as a European and colonial power. This permutation of real political and military intentions with music and dance established the role of performing arts as a means of promoting scenarios of power (Wortman 2006).

The first attempt to evoke national heritage on the stage was made by Arthur Saint-Léon in The Little Humpbacked Horse (1864) with dancers performing authentic (and imaginary) folk dances.

However, the ultimate manifestation of nostalgia of pre-Petrine Russia was revealed in the Imperial Ball (1903) - the last bow of the Romanovs which marked the eve of modern empire. 

Anita Makuszewska, Warsaw, Poland

Anita Makuszewska graduated from the Warsaw Ballet School and the M. Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of Music in St. Petersburg at the ballet directing department. She has more than twenty years’ experience in promoting and teaching the art of ballet in Poland and abroad. Currently she is lecturing at the Faculty of Psychology at the University SWPS (Warsaw, Poland).