Frank Staff was the first South African choreographer to explore the concept of modem ballet in South Africa. Through the creation of his ballet companies, the South African Ballet and later the Frank Staff Ballet, he pursued unusual subject-matter not seen previously on a South African ballet stage. This thesis explores his legacy to South African dance and is divided into ten chapters with a separate introduction and conclusion. The aim, from the outset, has been to trace Frank Staff's career with particular reference to his choreographic contribution to ballet and musical theatre in South Africa. Appraised throughout in terms of critical opinion and dancers' commentaries, the study is chronologically based with emphasis on individual works created by Staff. There is an overview of Staff's early career, the rationale being to trace the earlier part of his career (from 1933 to 1952) in order to provide a basis from which Staff's most creative phase, i.e. that of the 1950's, might be explored. Staff's subsequent return to South Africa and possible reasons for choosing Johannesburg as his domicile are alluded to, as well as his vision for a new Johannesburg ballet company, the creation of the Frank Staff Ballet School and the South African Ballet Company. The South African Ballet's first regional tour to Benoni followed by a short tour to Kimberley and Vereeniging before returning to Pretoria for further performances is detailed and an examination of the South African Ballet's second Johannesburg season in November 1955 is made. An investigation into Staff's choreographic contribution to Leslie French's 1956 Johannesburg production of The Tempest as well as Staff's early involvement with Brian Brooke's musical theatre encapsulates his important contribution to South African musical theatre, which was a major interest throughout his life. 1957 was the most important and prolific period for Staff and his latest choreographic achievements demonstrates a broadening of his creative powers and a reaching out for previously unused influences in terms of dance and subject matter. The thesis' conclusion includes some of the possible frustrations Staff might have encountered as a choreographer working in South Africa during the 1960's and alludes to his Afro-centric works before his illness and untimely death in 1971.

This dissertation explores intercultural theory through an investigation of butoh methods that shift performance processes of ballet. Theories of Post colonialism and Performance have been interrogated and applied to distill a theme, Butoh-Ballet. A qualitative research approach was undertaken for this study following a short series of dance workshops in butoh carried out on four members of Cape Town City Ballet company, in Cape Town, in 2013. This dissertation will show how butoh could contribute to overcoming colonial constructs, which have penetrated all spheres of South African society including Dance and its discourse. Dance research is fairly new in South Africa and largely situated within Contemporary dance. Ballet in South Africa has received relatively less critical analysis. The dissertation is particularly focused on expanding worldviews beyond a Eurocentric bias. Feminist notions as explicated by Ketu Katrak and Rustom Bharucha are considered in parallel to the philosophies of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. I also borrowed from Gayatri Spivak's notion of 'decolonising the imagination', to suggest that butoh may provide a means for ballet to re-imagine the body and its performance. This study acknowledges my subjective, 'endarkened' voice that emanates from my hybrid identity as Coloured, woman, pioneer Butoh artist, in postapartheid South Africa. I have proposed that butoh balances an external focus of the body found in ballet, with a more spiritually nuanced approach found in butoh. My argument hopefully marks the earliest reflective analysis of the subtle shifts butoh could make to ballet in South Africa today.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 231-236).

Diss.--München, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 385-394.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 200 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 28).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Hamburg, 2001.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universität Hamburg, 2001.

Memoria para optar al Título de Periodista / De entre todas las artes escénicas que con mayor o menor éxito se han desarrollado en Chile, la danza (y el ballet, considerando éste como su expresión más técnica y sistematizada) es sin duda la manifestación artística más postergada en cuanto a contar con registros históricos y estudios completos respecto a su historia y desarrollo en nuestro país. Si bien existen algunos textos, como los escritos por la periodista Yolanda Montecinos, no es menos cierto que toda o casi toda la bibliografía actual se refiere a la formación del Ballet Nacional Chileno (Banch) particularmente a su “época de oro” bajo la dirección de Ernst Uthoff, y a la historia del Ballet de Santiago. La mayoría de estos registros abarcan la historia nacional hasta 1962, pero no hay estudios importantes respecto al fenómeno de la “Danza Independiente” y a la generación de jóvenes coreógrafos nacionales que comienzan sus actividades a mediados de las década de los ’80. Muchos de ellos han desarrollado exitosas carreras dentro y fuera del país en los últimos años, y han dado vida a una verdadero boom dancístico que comprende la formación de compañías, colectivos y asociaciones gremiales. El Estado, por su parte, se ha hecho eco de este fenómeno inaugurando un ciclo para la creación de instancias que permiten la difusión y desarrollo de la danza, así como de las artes en general. A la carencia de registros históricos completos se suma la dispersión del material existente. En lo que se refiere a danza se pueden encontrar artículos, opiniones, entrevistas y una serie de documentos de la más variada índole diseminados en fuentes también muy diversas. La recopilación y reconstrucción histórica es entonces una primera

Dissertation--Musikwissenschaft--Salzburg--Univ. Salzburg, 2001.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).