Prof Stephanie Jordan

Formerly Head of the Department of Dance (1992-2000), Stephanie Jordan is currently Research Professor in Dance and Director of the Centre for Dance Research, and she has responsibility for student research programmes in Dance.

With a background as dancer, musician and dance critic, her academic career led her to publish and present at conferences internationally and, during the last ten years, she has toured widely to Australia, South Africa, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, North America, and throughout Europe. Stephanie has written three books: Striding Out: Aspects of Contemporary and New Dance in Britain(1992), Moving Music: Dialogues with Music in Twentieth-Century Ballet (2000) and Stravinsky Dances: Re-Visions across a Century (2007), all published by Dance Books. For Moving Music, she was awarded the 2001 Special Citation of the Dance Perspectives Foundation, New York, the major annual dance book award. In the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercise, it was her field of Music and Dance that was specially commended, equivalent to the top rating of 5*, the highest award for Dance. In the 2008 RAE, her field was similarly commended, alongside other work of the Centre for Dance Research. Stephanie has also edited Parallel Lines: Media Representations of Dance (with Dave Allen, 1993), Following Sir Fred’s Steps: Ashton’s Legacy (1996), Europe Dancing: Perspectives on Theatre Dance and Cultural Identity (with Andrée Grau, 2000) and Preservation Politics: Dance Revived, Reconstructed, Remade (2000). In 2002, her edited collection of writings by the Russian choreographer Fedor Lopukhov was published in the American series Studies in Dance History.

Stephanie’s work on Stravinsky and dance began when she was commissioned by the George Balanchine Foundation, New York as project director for the analytical video Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky (2002), working with dancers from New York City Ballet. Later, she compiled with Larraine Nicholas the database Stravinsky the Global Dancer: A Chronology of Choreography to the Music of Igor Stravinsky (2003). This was the foundation for Stravinsky Dances, which encompasses contemporary dance and radical, conceptual work of the twenty-first century as well as ballet. For her work in music and dance, Stephanie has received grants from the Radcliffe Trust, British Academy, the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland (for work in its Stravinsky archive), and Harvard University’s John M. Ward Fellowship in Dance and Music for the Theatre (2001-2002). Grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Board/Council have supported the Stravinsky database and a second analytical DVD/video in collaboration with Geraldine Morris and The Royal Ballet entitled Ashton to Stravinsky (2004).

For the 2004-5 season, Stephanie curated ‘The Ashton Exchange’, the first academic series in dance to be held at the Royal Opera House. Since 2007, she has written programme notes for The Royal Ballet.

Stephanie’s main teaching at Roehampton lies in the area of research student supervision, but she also contributes to history and analysis courses in the MA dance programmes. A variety of committee and consultancy work has included the following: membership of the Arts Council Dance Panel, the judging panel for the Prudential Awards for the Arts, the Arts and Humanities Research Board Postgraduate Panel, Research Assessment Exercise panels in 2001 and 2008, editorial boards of Studies in Dance History and Dance Research, and membership of the Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research. Stephanie has also contributed as a speaker and consultant to numerous television and radio programmes, including the 2002 BBC documentary on The Rite of Spring and broadcast of the Royal Ballet in Firebird and Les Noces.

Publications

(2007) Counterpointing Stravinsky: Recovering the Dance Perspective, Movimento et Volumina Symposium, April 28, University of Salzburg.

(2007) Stravinsky Dances: Re-Visions across a Century, Alton, Hants: Dance Books.

(2007) Structural Categories for Relating Music and Dance: Towards an Analytical Method, Die Beziehung von Musik und Choreographie im Ballett, Berlin: Tanzarchiv Leipzig (Documenta choreologica), Eds. Michael Malkiewicz and Jörg Rothkamm, 27-34.

(2006) Divertimento from Le Baiser de la fée: Ghost Stories, Dance Chronicle, 29/1, 1-16.

(2006) Sacre Dances: Stravinsky in Multiple Guises and Disguises, Tanz im Musiktheater--Tanz als Musiktheater, November 9-12, Hochschule für Musik under Theater, Hanover.

(2006) Stravinsky and the Choreomusical Gesture, Music and Gesture II, July 21, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester.

with Geraldine Morris (2005) Ashton Choreographs Stravinsky, Dance Now, 14/1, 91-95.

(2005) Dancing 'Les Noces', Igor Stravinsky: 'Les Noces' Study Score, London: Chester Music, Ed. M. Mazo, xxiv-xxvi.

(2005) The Demons in a Database: 'Stravinsky the Global Dancer' and 'Le Sacre', Conference presentation, Diaghilev Festival, May 16, Perm, Russia.

(2004) Ashton and Music, Conference Presentation, 'Ashton Celebration Symposium', July 12, Lincoln Center Festival, New York.

with Geraldine Morris (2004) Ashton to Stravinsky: A Study of Four Ballets with Choreography by Frederick Ashton, Dance Books.

(2004) Balanchine the Musician: An Introduction, Conference Presentation, 'George Balanchine: Past, Present and Future', June 4, The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

(2004) Finding the Dance Behind the Screen, Conference Proceedings, 'Art and Documentation', November 6, National University of the Arts, Seoul, 51-65.

(2004) Loss or Gain? Finding the Dance Behind the Screen, Lecture Presentation, 'Danse et Cinéma Seminaire', May 3, College International de Philosophie, Paris.

(2004) Loss or Gain? Finding the Dance Behind the Screen, Conference proceedings, Arts and Documentation, National University of the Arts, Korea, 50-61.

(2004) The Demons in a Database: Interrogating 'Stravinsky the Global Dancer', Dance Research, 22/1, 57-83.

(2003) Dance Research at Roehampton University of Surrey, Conference Proceedings, 'III Jornadas de Danza e Investigacion', November 8-10, UAB University of Barcelona, 103-106.

(2003) 'Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fee': Ghost Stories: George Balanchine and the Transformation of American Dance', Conference Presentation, 'From the Maryinsky to Manhattan', October 31, University of Michigan.

(2003) Other Worlds: Sounding the Spirit, Of Another World: Dancing Between Dream and Reality, Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, Museum Tusculanum Press, Ed.M Dithmer, 223-236.

with Larraine Nicholas (2003) Putting the Canon in its Place: Tales from the Database ‘Stravinsky the Global Dancer', Conference Proceedings, Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, June 26-29, University of Limerick, 67-69.

(2003) Putting the Canon in its Place: Tales from the Database ‘Stravinsky the Global Dancer', Conference Proceedings, 5th International Academic Conference, December 2, School of Dance, Korean National University, 17-25.

(2003) Radical Discoveries: Pioneering Post-modern Dance in Britain, Reinventing Dance in the 1960s:Everything was Possible, Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, Ed. S Banes, 151-164.

(2003) Settling the Score: The Complications of the Choreomusical Canon, Lecture Presentation, 'La Danse et la musique seminaire', April 28, Centre National de la Danse, Paris.

(2003) Settling the Score: The Complications of the Choreomusical Canon, Conference Proceedings, 5th International Academic Conference, December 2, School of Dance, Korean National University, 26-35.

with Larraine Nicholas (2003) Stravinsky in All Directions, BBC Radio 3, Promenade Concert Interval Talk.

with Larraine Nicholas (2003) Stravinsky the Global Dancer, , www.roehampton.ac.uk/stravinsky.

(2003) Wedding Bouquet, Dance Now, 12:2, 73-78.

(2002) Music Dances: Balanchine Choreographs Stravinsky, George Balanchine Foundation, New York.

(2002) Volume Up: Dance Knowledge Through Music, Conference Proceedings, 6th NOFOD Conference, 'Dance Knowledge', January 10-13, Trondheim, 21-36.

(2002) Writings on Ballet and Music, Fedor Lopukhov, Studies in Dance History, Madison: Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, 224 pp.

(2001) Cultural Crossings: Containing the Crisis…and the Indian in our Midst, Danse: langage propre et message culturel [Dance: Distinct Language and Cross-Cultural Influences], Montreal: Editions Parachute, Ed. C Pontbriand, 111-120.

(2000) Europe Dancing: Perspectives on Theatre Dance and Cultural Identity, co-edited with Andrée Grau, London: Routledge.

(2000) Moving Music: Dialogues with Music in Twentieth-Century Ballet, London: Dance Books.

(2000) Preservation Politics: Dance Revived, Reconstructed, Remade, ed. S. Jordan, London: Dance Books.

(1996) Following Sir Fred’s Steps: Ashton’s Legacy, ed. S. Jordan, London: Dance Books.

(1993) Parallel Lines: Media Representations of Dance, co-edited with Dave Allen, London: John Libbey.

(1992) Striding Out: Aspects of Contemporary and New Dance in Britain, London: Dance Books.