Choreographing Shakespeare

"Choreographing Shakespeare presents a hitherto unexplored history of the choreographers and performers who have created dance adaptations of Shakespeare. Elizabeth Klett investigates forty of these works produced between 1940 and 2016 by choreographers in Britain, America, and Europe. Through examination of these productions, in genres such as ballet, modern dance, and hip-hop, this book argues that while many of these dance adaptations strive to design legible and intelligible stories and characters, they all nonetheless achieve the feat of moving beyond the Shakespearean texts to engage with musical and choreographic influences, and to celebrate the beauty of pure movement. Five chapters examine adaptations of the comedies, tragedies, late romances, and sonnets, augmented by six new interviews with contemporary choreographers, offering a rehearsal room perspective on the practical challenges that these artists tackle. Choreographing Shakespeare offers both breadth of coverage and in-depth analysis of how Shakespeare's poetic language is translated into the usually wordless medium of dance, and is essential reading for undergraduates or researchers with an interest in the connection between Shakespeare and movement"--