Ursula Pellaton - Understanding dance

Ursula Pellaton, video still oral history interview, 2019
A publication of the SAPA Foundation by Julia Wehren

Ursula Pellaton's enthusiasm for dance began in 1963 with a performance of Giselle in Zurich. She has been a passionate visitor to dance events ever since and has followed the events as a journalist and historian for almost as long. She has written for the daily newspapers Landbote and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, among others. Her almost lexical knowledge of dance and ballet is exceptional.

Ursula Pellaton has traveled to St. Petersburg many times to research Russian ballet. She also focuses on the history of dance in Switzerland; she designed an exhibition on the expressive dancer Sigurd Leeder, who influenced an entire generation of Swiss dance artists. In her biography Understanding Dance, dance critic and historian Ursula Pellaton talks about her many commitments to dance, Russian ballet, the Zurich Opera House and Swiss ballet history.

The book was produced as part of the project Geschichte(n) zum Tanz in der Schweiz. The project was awarded the Federal Office of Culture's 2018 Cultural Heritage Prize and was supported by the Federal Office of Culture, the UBS Cultural Foundation, the Ursula Wirz Foundation and the Corymbo Foundation.


We still have a few copies and you are welcome to order the book from the SAPA Foundation.