" Corps de ballet literally means the "body" of the ballet compagny, referring to the group of dancers who are not principals. This large groupeof dancerzs outs together portfolios of work, often across several dance compagnies. Most professional dancer today fall into this group, and they stitch together careers through dedication, grit, and no small amount of skill-without the promise of prestige or financial success. In "Passionate Work", dance hobbyyist and sociologist RuthHorowitz captures their stories.

By tracing these working lives, Hotowitz troubles the conventional binary understanding between passion and work. She explores dancers' stratégies for sustaining passion through the ups and down of career, examining how dancers evaluate the rewards and challenges of a notoriously underpaid, uncertain profession. Above all, Horowitz spotlights the practices dancers utilize to achieve a sense of biographical continuity in a world marked by rupture." 4e de couverture

Contents

Introduction : The Concert Dance World
1- A Nutcraker lens : Passion and precarious labor
2- Learning the Practice of Ballet : Body and self
3- Career Decision Challenges : Aspirations and sticky self
4- Companies : Corporate bodies / human bodies
5- Portfolios : Precarious work and creative labor
6- Distancing from the Performing self
7- New Work : New identities and adapted self
Conclusion : Passionate Work in Perspective
Glossary, notes, references and Index[-]