Description
The rising influence of new materialism has encouraged the recognition of objects ranging from weapons to passports as shaping international politics. Objects of art and culture remain, however, under-recognized as contributors to international political life. This paper addresses this gap with an international political history of ballet shoes. It argues that, from its artisan emergence in 17th century France to its rise as a global commodity, the ballet shoe has functioned as a globalization technology. Thanks to dancers’ movements across borders, it evolved over centuries to enable increasingly fast and powerful movement on the stages of Europe and, later, the world. The hardening of the shoe and related acceleration of the dance form glorified efficient and powerful movement as an ideal of modernity and legitimized a quest for increased rapidity in transport, trade and communication. Its evolution also facilitated repeated performances of an ideal of white femininity that glamorizes a patriarchal, heteronormative, Eurocentric and economically unequal world order. Together, these trends facilitated imperial conquest and capitalist expansion. The paper concludes that, while recent queer and antiracist transformations of the shoe and its use challenge some of its problematic history, its production, use and mediatization remain enmeshed in the production and legitimization of global inequalities.
