Madison Mainwaring Winner of Marguerite Peyre Prize

Madison Mainwaring received the Marguerite Peyre Prize, which is awarded to graduate students in recognition of excellence in the thesis or exceptional contributions to the Department, or a combination of qualities of research, teaching, and collegiality.

Her disseration was entitled “Reclaiming the Silences of Dance: Women and Ballet in Nineteenth-Century France”.

Through a detailed reconstruction of the records of the Opera, this dissertation rewrites the history of the French romantic ballet from the dancers’ perspectives, analyzing what happened backstage through contemporary accounts and readings of visual material. Mainwaring casts a new light on women’s and performance history, reversing two centuries of ignorance about the women artists of the dance stage.

Advisor: Maurice Samuels
Readers: Carolyn Dean, Jill Jarvis, and Rhonda Garelick