Innehåller bibliografiska referenser och index.

Introduction: On contemporaneity in ballet: Exchanges, connections, and directions in form / Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel and Jill Nunes Jensen -- Part I: Pioneers, or game changers -- William Forsythe: Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and the Forsythescape / Ann Nugent -- Hans van Manen: Between austerity and expression / Anna Seidl -- Twyla Tharp’s classical impulse / Kyle Bukhari -- Ballet at the margins: Karole Armitage and Bronislava Nijinska / Molly Faulkner and Julia Gleich -- Maguy Marin’s social and aesthetic critique / Mara Mandradjieff -- Fusion and renewal in the works of Jiři Kylián / Katja Vaghi -- Wayne McGregor: Thwarting expectation at The Royal Ballet / Jo Butterworth and Wayne McGregor -- Part II: Reimaginings -- Feminist practices in ballet: Katy Pyle and Ballez / Gretchen Alterowitz -- Contemporary repetitions: Rhetorical potential and 'The Nutcracker' / Michelle LaVigne -- Mauro Bigonzetti: Reimagining 'Les Noces' (1923) / Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel -- New narratives from old texts: Contemporary ballet in Australia / Michelle Potter -- Cathy Marston: Writing ballets for literary dance(r)s / Deborah Kate Norris -- Jean-Christophe Maillot: Ballet, untamed / Laura Cappelle -- Ballet gone wrong: Michael Clark’s classical deviations / Arabella Stanger -- Part III: It’s time -- Dance theatre of Harlem: Radical Black female bodies in ballet / Tanya Wideman-Davis -- Huff! Puff! And blow the house down: Contemporary ballet in South Africa / Gerard M. Samuel -- The Cuban diaspora: stories of defection, brain drain, and brain gain / Lester Tomé -- Balancing reconciliation at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet / Bridget Cauthery and Shawn Newman -- Ballet Austin: So you think you can choreograph / Caroline Sutton Clark -- Gender progress and interpretation in ballet duets / Jennifer Fisher -- John Cranko’s Stuttgart Ballet: A legacy / E. Hollister Mathis-Masury -- “Ballet” is a dirty word: Where is ballet in São Paulo? / Henrique Rochelle -- Part IV: Composition -- William Forsythe: Creating ballet anew / Susan Leigh Foster -- Amy Seiwert: Okay, go! Improvising the future of ballet / Ann Murphy -- Costume / Caroline O’Brien -- Shapeshifters and Colombe’s Folds: Connective Affinities of Issey Miyake and William Forsythe / Tamara Tomić-Vajagić -- On physicality and narrative: Crystal Pite’s 'Flight Pattern' (2017) / Lucía Piquero Álvareź -- Living in counterpoint / Norah Zuniga Shaw -- Alexei Ratmansky’s abstract-narrative ballet / Anne Searcy -- Talking shop: Interviews with Justin Peck, Benjamin Millepied, and Troy Schumacher / Roslyn Sulcas -- Part V: Exchanges inform -- Royal Ballet Flanders under Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui / Lise Uytterhoeven -- Akram Khan and English National Ballet / Graham Watts -- The race of contemporary ballet: Interpellations of Africanist Aesthetics / Thomas F. DeFrantz -- Copy 'Rites' / Rachana Vajjhala -- Transmitting 'Passione': Emio Greco and the Ballet National de Marseille / Sarah Pini and John Sutton -- Narratives of progress and Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal / Melissa Templeton -- Mark Morris: Clarity, a dash of magic, and no phony baloney / Gia Kourlas -- Part VI: The more things change… -- Ratmansky: From Petipa to now / Apollinaire Scherr -- James Kudelka: Love, sex, and death / Amy Bowring and Tanya Evidente -- Liam Scarlett: “Classicist’s eye...innovator’s urge” / Susan Cooper -- Performing the past in the present: Uncovering the foundations of Chinese contemporary ballet / Brown McLelland -- Between two worlds: Christopher Wheeldon and The Royal Ballet / Zoë Anderson -- Christopher Weeldon: An Englishman in New York / Rachel Straus -- The Disappearance of poetry and the very, very good idea / Freya Vass -- Justin Peck: Everywhere We Go (2014), a ballet epic for our time / Mindy Aloff -- Part VII: In process -- Weaving Apollo: Women’s authorship and neoclassical ballet / Emily Coates -- What is a rehearsal in ballet? / Janice Ross -- Gods, angels, and Björk: David Dawson, Arthur Pita, and contemporary ballet / Jennie Scholick -- Alonzo King LINES Ballet: Voicing dance / Jill Nunes Jensen -- Inside 'Enemy' / Thomas McManus -- On “Contemporaneity” in ballet and contemporary dance: 'Jeux' in 1913 and 2016 / Hanna Järvinen -- Reclaiming the studio: Observing the choreographic processes of Cathy Marston and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa / Carrie Gaiser Casey -- Contemporary partnerships / Russell Janzen.

"Nearly four hundred and fifty years in, ballet still resonates-though the stages have become international, and the dancers, athletes far removed from noble amateurs. While vibrations from the form's beginnings clearly resound, much has transformed. Nowadays ballet dancers aspire to work across disciplines with choreographers who value a myriad of abilities. Dance theorists and historians make known possibilities and polemics in lieu of notating dances verbatim, and critics do the daily work of recording performance histories and interviewing artists. Ideas circulate, questions arise, and discussions about how to resist ballet's outmoded traditions take precedence. In the dance community, calls for innovation have defined palpable shifts in ballet's direction and resultantly we have arrived at a new moment in its history that is unquestionably recognized as a genre onto its own: Contemporary Ballet. An aspect of this recent discipline is that its dancemakers, more often than not, seek to reorient the viewer by celebrating what could be deemed vulnerabilities, re-construing ideals of perfection, problematizing the marginalized/mainstream dichotomy, bringing audiences closer in to observe, and letting the art become an experience rather than a distant object preciously guarded out of reach. Hence, the practice of ballet is moving to become a less-mediated and more active process in many circumstances. Performers and audiences alike are challenged, and while convention is still omnipresent, choices are being made. For some, this approach has been drawn on for decades, and for others it signifies a changing of the guard, yet however we arrive there, the conclusion is the same: Contemporary Ballet is not a style. That is to say, it is not a trend, phase, or fashionable term that will fade, rather it is a clear period in ballet's time deserved of investigation. And it is into this moment that we enter"-- Provided by publisher.