Ideas from Hannah Schwadron
Explore below how humor, dance, and community practice turn the familiar, like Swan Lake, into powerful commentary on the world around us.
Humor, Parody & Popular Dance
Schwadron's 2018 book, The Case of the Sexy Jewess, is an exploration of "sexed-up" female Jewish caricature in 21st-century American media. With chapters dedicated to Fanny Brice's recreation of Swan Lake in Funny Girl (1968) and Black Swan (2010), this book is a poignant lens through which readers can view the identity performance of Swan Lake. Image courtesy: Amazon
In the iconic Funny Girl (1968), Fanny Brice (Streisand) performs a spoof of Swan Lake, which reimagines Odette as a comedic character who questions the huntsman's plot to "shoot the swans." Image courtesy: Heritage Auctions
The recreation of Swan Lake in Funny Girl (1968) was inspired by a real-life Fanny Brice character; a swan ballerina from the 1930 film Be Yourself. Image courtesy: IMDb
Return to The Handmaid's Tale
Community Practice: Lecture, Workshop, Writing
In her performative lecture titled "The Ballerina's Phallic Pointe," Susan Leigh Foster argues that the ballerina is a vehicle for performing masculine desire. Erect, and in flesh-toned clothes, the ballerina is often under the indirect control of a secondary male dancer. Image courtesy: Hemispheric Institute
Melissa Melpignano's direction of the UTEP performance "Swamp Lake" highlights the ecological issues that El Paso, Texas faces. Melpignano fosters an environmentally conscious community around a rework of a classic ballet. Image courtesy: KTEP.org
In addition to making dance works and award-winning short dance films, contemporary ballet artist and pedagogue Ilana Goldman has also published two important articles: "Reducing Perfectionism Through Contemporary Ballet Pedagogy," in the Oxford Handbook of Ballet Pedagogy and "Dear Ballet Teachers, Let's Talk About Race," a collaboration with Paige Cunningham, published in Antiracism in Ballet Teaching. Image Courtesy of FSU Dance
Repair & Reimagining Within Ballet
In 2026, the Dutch National Ballet premiered a reimagined version of the classic ballet, La Bayadère. The project culminated after several years of collaborations by a team of expert dance researchers, Rachel Beaujean, Kalpana Raghuraman, Dr. Priya Srinivasan and Ted Brandsen, whose revised concept and libretto moves the ballet away from orientalist perspectives of the original by focusing on historical and cultural contexts. Image: Dutch National Ballet website
In "Final Bow for Yellowface," Arts administrator Phil Chan and New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin works to eliminate blackface and yellowface from ballet productions, like The Nutcracker. Learn more about their project, Chan's book, and ballet's problematic stereotypes at yellowface.org
Shobana Jeyasingh's "Bayadère – The Ninth Life" is a "radical reimagining of Marius Petipa's legendary ballet La Bayadère," complete with a new musical score. Jeyasingh choreographs the work anew and incorporates technology to critique imperialism, Orientalism, and the male gaze. Image: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance website