2026 Events and Presentations

Once Upon a Ballet: Storytelling in Ballet Culture Pedagogy, Production, and Scholarship

Adjudicated CORPS Member Presentations

Reimagining Scheherazade: From Fokine to King
Caroline Rocher Barnes
Assistant Professor, Towson University

Power, Peasants, and Practice-as-Research:
Rechoreographing Giselle to explore ethical balletmaking conditions through transferable dancer-centered practices

Julianne Cerreta | Independent Scholar
Steffi Carter | Independent Scholar

Updating the narrative of the traditional ballet technique class:
how shifts in technique class structure can better meet the physical demands on dancers

Jennifer Deckert | Associate Chair, University of South Carolina
Olivia Waldrop | Senior Instructor, University of South Carolina

Repertory as Memoir: The Life of Nicholas Magallanes as Seen Through His Roles
Steven Ha | Assistant Professor, University of Oklahoma

The Archive Isn’t Straight: Reclaiming the Queer Legacy of John Lind
Chelsea Hilding | Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University

Finding Balance: Connecting Ballet and Music Through Collaborative Storytelling
Justine Sheedy-Kramer | Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Utah

Reworking the Swan through Possible Ballet
Silvia Susana Wolff | Professor, Federal University of Santa Maria

Stories Ballet Teachers Tell: bell hooks’s “confessional narratives” as Liberatory Pedagogical Praxis in the Ballet Class
Jessica Zeller | Professor, Texas Christian University

Pas de Quatre: Embodied Stories in a Plotless Ballet
Emma Capen | Associate Instructor, University of Utah

A Lost Feminist Perspective: Re-examining the power of the Wilis
Julia Cooper | Instructor, Colorado State University

Ballet exceptionalism: how ballet became elitist and resistant to change
Jennifer Fisher | Professor, University of California, Irvine

Transforming Ballet Education: Student Centered Pedagogy
Chris Kaiser | Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point

After the Final Bow- Unspoken Stories of Career Transitions in Ballet
Liz Lloyd | Graduate Student, Washington University

Breaking the Cookie Cutter Nutcracker Mold for the 21st Century
Timothy Lynch | Assistant Professor, University of Utah

From Curiosity to Revision: Locating the Self Through Contemporary Ballet Course Development
Bruce McCormick | Associate Professor, University of Southern California

Affect, Feeling, and Emotion: The Heart and Art of Storytelling in Ballet
Fiona Scruggs | MFA Candidate, Sarah Lawrence College

Telling the Story of DTH: Arthur Mitchell’s Love Letter
Joselli Deans | Associate Professor, University of Utah
Anjali Austin | Professor (Retired), Florida State University
Christina Pierangeli | Adjunct Faculty, Coppin State University
Keith Saunders | Associate Professor, Texas Christian University

Aging Gracefully, Teaching Powerfully: Menopause and Strength in Ballet Pedagogy
Kristin Marrs | Associate Professor, University of Iowa
Jennifer Weber | Assistant Professor, University of Georgia

Laughter and the Mad Scene
Beth Twigs | Assistant Lecturer, University of Wyoming

Ballet’s Storytelling Language: A Framework for Teaching Artistry
Chelsea Weidmann | Instructor, Project Move

Exploring Ballet-specific Identity through Dancers’ Adolescent Experiences
Erica Bauer | Graduate Student, Miami University (OH)

Collaborative Storytelling Workshop: Weaving Together Voices of Loss and Hope
Madeline Jazz Harvey | Associate Professor, Colorado State University

M | Tyler Schnese

THICK SKIN | Caroline Rocher Barnes

Unspoken | Ilana Goldman

The Wild Little Horse | Madeline Jazz Harvey

The Magic of Trees | Elizabeth Gillaspy