The discussion of how contemporary ballet distinguishes itself from classical ballet was particularly noteworthy and brought to mind similar conversations about modern dance and postmodern dance. And the readability must be praised. So often, academic books are unnecessarily wordy, and the point gets buried in the prose. Here the message was definitely well researched and analytical, but also clear and concise... The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet is going to be a terrific reference addition to any dance library.
Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel is Head of Research at the Royal Academy of Dance. Farrugia-Kriel is editor of Focus on Education, and her books include Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta (2020), and her essays have been published in Dance Chronicle, the South African Dance Journal, The Sunday Times of Malta, and in The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance. Farrugia-Kriel has organized conferences in London, Paris, and New York, and steered three dance symposia in Australia.
Jill Nunes Jensen is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University. Her research serves as the primary scholarship on Alonzo King LINES Ballet and is published in When Men Dance, Dance Chronicle, Theatre Survey, Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century, and Re-thinking Dance History, 2nd Edition. As co-editor for Conversations: Network of Pointes with Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel (2015) the idea to curate a special topics conference on contemporary ballet was catalyzed
(New York, 2016) and ultimately this anthology. Nunes Jensen has been an invited speaker on AKLB and Contemporary Ballet, most recently at the San Francisco Ballet and Duke University.