Dance, Desire, and Anxiety in Early Twentieth-Century French Theater

'Charles Batson's subtle and perceptive study of the reception of early modern ballet in Paris uncovers anxieties raised by the spectacle of the male dancing body and locates them in relation to concerns about French national identity before and immediately after the first world war. Focusing on key works by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Ida Rubinstein, and the unjustly neglected Ballets Suédois, Batson uses an intimate knowledge of the French literary scene to uncover tacit assumptions that anticipate more recent deconstructive analyses of the instability of sex and gender.' Ramsay Burt, Senior Research Fellow, School of English and Performance Studies, De Montfort University ’...undoubtedly a very significant contribution to dance scholarship and cultural history.’ French Studies ’Batson's well-researched study argues persuasively that, in fact, the performances of the Ballets Russes and, later, the Ballets Suédois, reveal as much - or more - about the French themselves than they do about either Russians or the Swedes...Richly embedded in references to contemporary theory and current reasearch by cultural critics and historians, Batson draws upon well-known and lesser-known studies in musicology, dance history, literary and performance theory, and gender theory...it is a valuable book. Whereas studies of early twentieth-century French theater generally treat only the theater proper, Batson blurs the boundaries of 'French theater' to embrace the (Russian and Swedish) ballet. He thereby reveals ballet's important contribution to avant-garde theater in France, and its significant role in the development of avant-garde esthetics in the other arts.’ French Review