About Sylvie Vitaglione
New York, NY
Sylvie Vitaglione (CBA ’19) is a scholar of Screendance whose research concentrates on site-specific choreographic practices in dance films. She is trained in Vaganova-style ballet at the Academie de Danse Classique Princesse Grace in Monaco and modern and contemporary dance at University of California – Berkeley where she earned a BA in dance and performance studies. Vitaglione completed her MA in film studies at University College London and her PhD in cinema studies at New York University. Her research has been supported by a New York University London Global Research Initiative Fellowship and a Tisch Dance and New Media Grant. Her recent publications include Surface Tension: Experimental Dance Films And The Undoing Of Urban Space (2016) and New Materials: Natural Elements and the Body in Screendance (2016). As an adjunct professor, Vitaglione has taught core film classes and seminars on dance films and music videos at New York University, The New School, and CUNY.
Between Pain and Pleasure: Ballet Documentaries and the Exhausted Body
Sylvie Vitaglione’s project studied the theory and practice of ballet documentaries, arguing that through film, ballet is able to vent and display boredom, fatigue, injuries, and pain. She argues ballet documentaries offer a melodramatic cinematic counterpoint to the effortless, polished, and seemingly perfect stage version of ballet. For this project, she examined how seminal ballet docs have depicted company life, touring, rehearsals, dressing rooms, performances, and the personal lives of dancers in order to produce a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the insular world of ballet, highlighting narrative themes such as sacrifice and religious devotion to Art.
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