the dancers who give up family and relationships to pursue a career in it,
the heartbreak they suffer from rejection after rejection, and sometimes...they kill.
(Just kidding! Murder might be a familiar story point in films but in real life, not so much.)
The story ballets themselves - the classics - are filled with competition: between men for the hand of a princess, between women for the love of a prince. Like soap operas, they are often fueled by the baser instincts of humans, which makes the stories both easier to understand and acceptable to audiences.
I'm a bit bored by the classics but I don't mind seeing competition on the stage: it makes for great partnering, emotive choreography, and interesting characters. But quite frankly, I'm tired of it in real life.
I'm tired of divas in classes.
I'm tired of the needless drama off-stage.
I'm tired of the hierarchical division of schools and companies.
I'm tired of the outdated images of the perfect ballerina.
I'm tired of the lack of support among dancers, teachers and schools.
I'm tired of people who think ballet (or any art form) is a zero sum game. To paraphrase the popular saying, there's enough ballet for everyone; it's not like pie.
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| cc lic, Sean MacEntee, Banoffee Pie |
Tired. Yes, tired of all the obstacles that people who have been "running the show" for years and years put in front of others. They put perfection before passion, rules above everything else. A student doesn't "look right" because of their background, their skin color, their body shape? Goodbye! As much as we - in 2019 - would like to believe ballet is becoming inclusive, um, no. Just no, we are not. Body shaming is a MAJOR thing in ballet. Promoting one or two dancers of color in a big company helps but until those companies start hiring dancers who really don't look like the traditional ballerina, we are just looking at a few token individuals.
I understand the aesthetics of ballet. I love the lines - for most of my life, I have been the lines. I fit the traditional mold and when I wore my hair in a bun for years, I looked the part of a ballet dancer and teacher to a T (pun intended!). But that doesn't mean I think all dancers should look like that.
That's boring.
And that is death to ballet.
Ballet will wither and die if it's boring to too many people. It will suffer a quiet demise if people don't attend shows and classes, if they don't donate or buy merchandise or dancewear. It will disappear.
This isn't hyperbole. This is reality.
This past weekend I had an opportunity to talk extensively and separately to two different people about ballet, one who is a professional dancer and the other a hobby dancer. Both people had vastly different "needs" from ballet but I found myself saying much the same things to each of them. I said this:
If ballet doesn't evolve
to reflect the culture of the people in the audience,
it will die.
You know, I get that a big professional company will say, we promote the idealization of ballet, and I understand that. An ABT or a San Francisco Ballet is the ideal: there are a few companies, with a few principals, and they represent perfection, the top of the heap, the achievement of years of training for its dancers who have been competing with each other their whole lives.
Oops, there's that word competition again.
But what if...everyone was represented on that stage? What if the people in the audiences saw themselves up there? What if the stories that were told were more contemporary, more unusual, with pairings and partnering and relationships that were reflective of the entire world, not merely the typical status quo that we have seen for years and years?
And what if all of this encouraged more people to attend more shows? What if it empowered more people to become ballet dancers, to study the form, to promote the art form to their friends and families and co-workers? What if they pumped more money into the continually poverty-stricken world of ballet that has relied on the kindness of a handful of wealthy donors and dismal government funding? What if they started to believe in the power of ballet, its discipline, its lessons, its beauty and grace, and they wanted it taught everywhere?
That pie just got a lot larger, didn't it? There's a slice for the big companies and the small locals, for the pre-professional schools and the hobby studios, for the teachers and choreographers who all want the same thing....to keep ballet alive.
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| cc lic, Stephanie, Cherry Pie |
I'm being super specific about ballet because I think other forms of dance have evolved. Hip-hop, contemporary, jazz, modern...ever wonder why they are so popular at schools? Why do kids of all genders and ages want to study those dances? Because they're easy? No. Because they're accessible.
Why are we competing? Why aren't we supporting? Why are we disdainful of other schools and companies and teachers and choreographers? I want all my students to love ballet FOREVER. I want them to tell their friends and families. I want them to share their love of it. I want them to promote it and encourage kids to study, to buy tickets to shows - yeah, even if those classes are not with me and those shows are not mine. Why? The more people who love ballet, the better it is for ballet as a whole and the better it is for me, for you, for all of us. I could go into the many, many things that ballet brings to a person's life (mentally, physically, socially) but that's a rant for another day.
As we move into 2020 and look for ways to improve our community and our culture, to find common ground and encourage balance and beauty among all of us, let's do this:
Don't let ballet die. Kill the competition.
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