Columbus at the Alhambra: The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and London Music Hall Ballet

The ballet Chicago, choreographed by Émile Grédelue, premiered at London’s Alhambra Theatre in 1893 to celebrate the opening of the Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition. The ballet featured a cast of characters exploring the Chicago fairgrounds, including a character reminiscent of Buffalo Bill, the Wild West showman. It also depicted a series of “ethnic” dances, such as “Redskins,” “Irish Jig,” and “American Plantation Dance.” The show was a critical and popular success, running for 53 weeks. Chicago lies at the intersection of dance, empire, and race. The Chicago World’s Fair commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas and promoted the US as a world power that could stand beside European empires. Scholars such as Robert W. Rydell and Paul Young have shown that nineteenth century world’s fairs celebrated Western exceptionalism, imperialism, and racial hierarchy. This paper will explore the staging and reception of Chicago and focuses on the following questions: How does Chicago reflect Victorian notions of empire and race? What does Chicago reveal about representations of American culture and racial caricatures in British popular entertainment? Does its success reflect a wider trend of British interest in American culture, particularly the American West?

Kristine Feria is pursuing an MA in History at the University of Toronto, where she is researching Soviet ballet tours across Canada from 1959 to 1974, funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). She completed her Joint Honours BA in History and Political Science at the University of Ottawa and worked in archives and records management at the Privy Council Office and Global Affairs Canada. She trained in classical ballet for 17 years and completed the Royal Academy of Dance Vocational Syllabus. Her primary research interests are the sociopolitical dimensions in the performance and reception of classical ballet in North America and Britain between the late-nineteenth and late-twentieth centuries.