Jessica Zeller (she/her)
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jessicazeller.bsky.social
Jessica Zeller (she/her)
@jessicazeller.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.1K following 260 posts
Professor of Dance, PhD, MFA
Posts on: pedagogies, ballet, higher ed, other sundries. Views expressed are my own.
Books: Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies (Routledge); Shapes of American Ballet (Oxford)
https://linktr.ee/jessicazeller
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jessicazeller.bsky.social
I'm still working on the clearest way to communicate this. The "why not" has to be central to any classroom AI policy, and it has to be made to matter to the students in the room.
A screenshot from the reposted article with black text on a white background that says: Chatbots regurgitate and rearrange fragments mined from all the text previously written. As plagiarists, they observe and randomize their sources but do not transcend them. Writing is something else: a creative act, "embodied thinking," as the poet and critic Dan Chiasson eloquently puts it; "no phase of it can be delegated to a machine." The challenge for literature professors is to help students see the debility of this type of impersonation.
July 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
I'm delighted to announce the book launch for Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies. I'll be facilitating a conversation around some of the book’s themes with a panel of ballet faculty and students.

When: April 8, 4:30-5:30pm
Where: Erma Lowe Hall Studio Theatre, TCU
All are welcome.
A digital flyer for the book launch of Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies in various shades of purple and gray. A QR code linked to routledge.com is in the bottom right corner, with text that says "use discount code Human25 for 25% off March 1-June 1, 2025."
March 8, 2025 at 9:20 PM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
Preparations for Historical Studies in Dance this week include adding this nugget as a framework for discussing Balanchine. Obviously this is applicable well beyond him (too many to name…), but he’s an apt place to start.

Also, if you haven’t read Dederer yet, add her to the top of your list.
A slide with black text on a gray background, with purple borders at the top and bottom that says: On monsters: “they did or said something awful, and made something great. The awful thing disrupts the great work; we can’t watch or listen to or read the great work without remembering the awful thing. Flooded with knowledge of the maker’s monstrousness, we turn away, overcome by disgust. Or… We don’t. We continue watching, separating or trying to separate the artist from the art. Either way: disruption.”… “What do I do about the monster? Do I have a responsibility either way? To turn away, or to overcome my biographical distaste and watch, or read, or listen?” – Claire Dederer, “what do we do with the art of monstrous men?“ The Paris review, November 20, 2017. See also: Claire Dederer, Monsters: a Fan’s Dilemma (New York: Knopf, 2023).
January 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
An apt Strange Planet comic for those starting the semester tomorrow:
A comic with four windows, featuring blue figures in a classroom on a pink background, looking at a piece of paper. Standing figure: "Ok young beings, this is the schedule for this revolution's knowledge transmission. This is how I will impart knowledge and prepare you for existence." Seated figure with raised hand: "Will we follow this schedule precisely and complete it?" Standing figure: "Not at all. That is how I'll prepare you for existence."
January 12, 2025 at 7:51 PM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies is now available for preorder at a discount! Shipping starts 12/30. #Ballet #Pedagogy #Praxis #Ungrading

To preview the Introduction & get 20% off, visit the book’s page here and use discount code SMA24. www.routledge.com/Humanizing-B...
A digital book discount flyer. The cover of Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies, which features three gray wooden figures in ballet poses on a white background above a wine-colored box with the title and author in white lettering, is on the right side. On the left side is “Save 20%” in large red letters on a white background. “Use Code SMA24” is written in white text on a blue box, and in blue text below is “Valid on www.routledge.com 1 October 2024 - 31 January 2025." There are red and pink abstract shapes in the upper right and lower left corners, and the Routledge and CRC Press logos are in black at the bottom of the image.
December 10, 2024 at 1:53 AM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
The proofs are in. 🤍
The title page of a book: Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies: Philosophies, Perspectives, and Praxis for Teaching Ballet. Jessica Zeller. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London and New York. An excerpt from Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies (Zeller, page 2) that reads: “While pedagogies are the purview of teachers, ballet's students are the embodied reflection of pedagogic work. They are its why. As both individuals and groups in the ballet class, they are collaborators and innovators. They bring fortitude and insight to their work through bodily knowledge and lived experience. They are people in and of the world who exist in and beyond ballet. When I teach, it is always the students who remind me that dancing, learning, and working in dialogue can generate immense joy. Students are at the heart of the pedagogic project, and they are the heart of this book.”
November 14, 2024 at 2:32 AM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
That feeling in #academia when you realize you're enduring page 28 of the Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944): www.cia.gov/static/5c875...
Excerpt from the Simple Sabotage Field Manual: "General Interference with Organizations and Production," under the heading "Organizations and Conferences," 1. Insist on doing everything through "channels." Never permit shortcuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions. 2. Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments. 3. When possible, Referral, all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five. 4. Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible. 5. Haggle over precise, wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions. 6. Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting, and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision. 7. Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste, which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on. 8. Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group, or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon." 28
October 17, 2024 at 3:01 PM
jessicazeller.bsky.social
Manuscript submitted!
🥳🤓
My second book, Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies: Philosophies, Perspectives, and Praxis for Teaching Ballet, will be available from Routledge in early 2025.
Here’s a sneak peek at the Table of Contents:
Image of Microsoft Word Document, black text on white screen. Table of Contents for Humanizing Ballet Pedagogies: Philosophies, Perspectives, and Praxis for Teaching Ballet. Acknowledgments, Introduction, Part One: Philosophies, 1. Ideal-driven Pedagogies, 2. Student-driven Pedagogies, Part Two: Perspectives, 3. Teacher Presence and Behavior, 4. Student Voices, Part Three: Praxis, 5. Student Agency and Autonomy, 6. Evaluation and (Un)Grading, 7. Reflective Practices, Conclusion: Reflections on Becoming, Selected Bibliography.
July 30, 2024 at 10:19 PM