Jessica Zeller, Ph.D., M.F.A., is an Associate Professor of Dance in the TCU School for Classical & Contemporary Dance. She teaches studio-based courses in ballet, restages 19th century ballets, and teaches Dance Studies coursework in Dance Histories, Theories, Pedagogies, and Methodologies.
Zeller aims to design and teach courses that center humanity, equity, and vitality in the ballet studio and the classroom. In the tradition of Critical Pedagogy, she seeks to balance a critique of unjust systems and hierarchies with the hopeful view that liberatory education is always possible. In the tradition of Feminist Pedagogy, she seeks to honor and acknowledge each individual student; their histories and ways of knowing and being in the world. And in defiance of ballet’s exclusionary traditions, she seeks to make space for each student to find the form in their individual body to their desired end—to overturn ideals for the sake of healthy artistic development and embodied agency. (See Teaching Philosophy and Writings.)
Much like her teaching, Zeller’s research brings ballet pedagogy into dialogue with Critical and Feminist pedagogies. Her forthcoming book, Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies: Philosophies, Perspectives, and Praxis for Teaching Ballet (Routledge) theorizes ballet pedagogy as a critical praxis and considers a range of approaches for humanizing, equitable teaching in ballet. Her 2016 book, Shapes of American Ballet: Teachers and Training before Balanchine (Oxford UP) unearths the work of European and Russian ballet pedagogues during the early twentieth century. Other writings of note are her chapter in the 2021 anthology (Re:)Claiming Ballet, and her “Reflective Practice in the Ballet Class: Bringing Progressive Pedagogy to the Classical Tradition,” in the Journal of Dance Education. (See Research.)
In addition to presenting research at CORPS de Ballet International conferences and in a 2019 public lecture for the Temple University Dance Studies Colloquium Series, Zeller has facilitated dialogues around Ungrading and progressive pedagogies in Dance programs and faculty development workshops. Recently, she was a panelist for the Royal Academy of Dance’s Guest Lecture Series, served on the faculty of the Digital Pedagogy Lab, and was a guest on several education podcasts. Her teaching has been formally acknowledged with a TCU Deans’ Teaching Award and a feature in TCU Magazine. She currently serves as Past-President of CORPS de Ballet, International.
Recent Highlights
In Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies, Jessica Zeller offers a new take on the ballet pedagogy manual, examining how and why ballet pedagogies develop, considering their implications for students and teachers, and proposing processes by which readers can enact humanizing, equitable approaches.
This book supports pedagogical thinking and development in ballet. Across three parts, it reflects how pedagogies come to be: through rationales, dialogues, and practices. Part 1, Philosophies, offers a contextual reading of ballet pedagogy’s historic relationship to ideals, and it describes an alternative approach that takes its meaningful purpose from the embodied knowledge of participants in the ballet class. Part 2, Perspectives, looks at how the teacher’s person shapes the ballet class. It draws from a new survey of ballet students that illuminates the direct effects of pedagogies and proposes future directions. Praxis, Part 3, includes three theoretically based approaches that can be applied directly or adjusted to readers’ contexts for teaching ballet: yielding to student agency and autonomy, ungrading graded ballet classes in higher education, and practicing reflection for growth. Grounded in the wide range of people who participate in ballet, themes of equity, ethics, and humanity are at the heart of this book.
In conversation with Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt, Christina Johnson, and Jessica Zeller.
Join us on 21 September at 7pm UK/2pm ET/1pm CT for this free panel, facilitated by the RAD’s Head of Research, Dr. Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel.
Book Chapter: “‘Can you feel it?’: Pioneering Pedagogies that Challenge Ballet’s Authoritarian Traditions”
In (Re:) Claiming Ballet. Edited by Adesola Akinleye. 172-188. Chicago: Intellect Press, 2021.