Remounting a Ballet in a Different Context: A Complementary Understanding of Routines Transfer Theories
Routine Dynamics in Action: Replication and Transformation
ISBN: 978-1-78756-586-9, eISBN: 978-1-78756-585-2
Publication date: 28 May 2019
Abstract
In this chapter, the authors enter the world of ballet to be inspired by artistic teams. This original point of view proposes a complementary understanding of the dynamics of routines replication where preserving the authenticity of the project’s intent is emphasized over economic efficiency considerations.
The authors propose that analyzing the remounting of a ballet as an in-depth extreme case study provides an opportunity to learn more about other aspects that can be relevant in transfer stories: the importance accorded to the intent of the routine to be transferred; the existence of a dialogical dynamic that engages artifacts and memories of this intent; the existence of a meta-routine that structures and enables the transfer of sub-routines across geographical distance in another context. The authors will see that, in this case, routines replication is also made possible through sharing of a routine’s ostensive aspect which is embedded in a professional culture.
The overarching priority in remounting a show is strict respect for the choreographer’s original intent. As replicator and imitator teams encounter the consequences of a new location and its characteristics, the authors will examine how they face the replication dilemma, coordinate themselves, and use innovation to achieve replication.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Luciana D’Adderio for her support and generous comments and the anonymous reviewer for his thoughtful suggestions. We would like to thank the Mosaic Research Group as well as the community spirit of the EGOS SWG on organizational routines which welcomed and challenged our research in a benevolent way. Finnaly, José Saramago said that “writers make national literature and translators make world literature,” so we would also like to thank Peter Roberts, translator and ballet lover, complicit in writing this chapter, who has uplifted our words. Finally, we would like to thank the community spirit of the EGOS SWG on organizational routines which welcomed and challenged our research in a benevolent way.
Citation
Blanche, C. and Cohendet, P. (2019), "Remounting a Ballet in a Different Context: A Complementary Understanding of Routines Transfer Theories", Feldman, M.S., D’Aderio, L., Dittrich, K. and Jarzabkowski, P. (Ed.) Routine Dynamics in Action: Replication and Transformation (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 61), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-30. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20190000061002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited