New York guest lecturer addresses history of gender marginalization in ballet

Bronislava Nijinska was an accomplished 20th century choreographer whose legacy has been marginalized in academic discourse. This Friday, historian Lynn Garafola will bring Nijinska's story to the forefront and speak to the larger issue of gender inequality in dance history. 

Garafola is a professor emerita at Barnard College, which is partnered with Columbia University, and is the second guest lecturer this semester with the Carolina Symposia in Music and Culture. Her lecture will be held in Person Hall at 4:15 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Garafola discovered her passion for Russian ballet as a graduate student at the City University of New York and has written and edited several works on the subject since.

Friday’s lecture, titled “Discourses of Memory: The Marginalization of Bronislava Nijinska,” focuses on critics’ disparagement of a prolific 20th century Russian-born choreographer whose work was often overshadowed by her brother’s. Garafola examines how these perceptions of Nijinska have been perpetuated in academia.

“One of the questions I ask is why has she been so marginalized?” Garafola said. “Why does she seem to be erased at a particular moment in history?” 

The answers to these questions speak to the larger pattern of gender discrimination in dance and music over time. Garafola delves into the sexist language critics used to discuss Nijinska, as well as the erasure of her work from the canon of ballet history, in which she was often diminished to merely "Nijinsky's sister."

Garafola’s lecture stems from a book she is writing about Nijinska and how her works have been neglected by historians. Garafola has also published a book called “Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes,” which is about the ballet company of which Nijinska was a part. 

 “Thirty years ago, I would have said that by now all these issues would have been resolved, but I see that they are not,” Garafola said.

Carolina Symposia in Music and Culture is an annual lecture series organized by UNC musicology graduate students. Graduate student Emily Hynes said that the Symposia series aims to highlight marginalized identities in music.

“The idea is to hopefully make it as interdisciplinary as possible,” Hynes said. “Bringing to light people’s stories that haven’t really been told much before or given much attention comes to the forefront.” 

Both Garafola and Hynes said that though the lecture’s audience is primarily music students and faculty, the themes are relevant to the entire student population, particularly in the dance and women’s and gender studies departments.

“While it’s very specific in terms of the research it’s presenting, the ramifications are much broader,” Garafola said. 

Ph.D. student Aldwyn Hogg Jr. also said that Garafola’s lecture is accessible even to people who are unfamiliar with the subject matter.

“The most important thing is that you actually experience how another person thinks and talks about music,” Hogg said. “To hear how someone else thinks music can be political, to hear how someone else thinks music can be beautiful.”

Hynes said that recently, musicology has emphasized addressing this gender discrimination, a goal that complements the theme of Garafola’s lecture and the Symposia as a whole.

 “I would really hope that people latch on to this idea of memory,” Hynes said. “It all has to do with how we remember and how we give attention to those people who were marginalized.”

@lizcj00

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