Dance | The Guardian: “There are no mothers-in-law in ballet,” said George Balanchine, meaning there are some details you can’t express through dance steps. Actually, a lot of details. If you’ve ever watched dance and thought “what’s going on here?” you wouldn’t be alone. Even the best-known ballets can be baffling to a newcomer: a woman has been turned into a swan, you say, and can only be returned to human form by a man swearing his true love to her? And then her doppelganger comes along, played by the same dancer, but it’s actually an evil sorcerer’s daughter? You what now?!
7 comments:
I think there is a lot to say about the culture of ballet-going as seen by people who are often not involved. As someone who at one point knew several of the more popular ballets; the plots themselves are whack. They are not often easy to follow, they usually have an odd ending, and sometimes the plot just doesn’t really end. Putting on something that has a complicated plot is a difficult task, but presenting it without words to an audience that has had no experience with it beforehand is a whole different ballpark. I love the idea of getting rid of the program notes though. It ruins the story. To advocate for the other confused folks out there, I think those notes could be “released” during the intermission. I like Shakespeare because the plots are fun and funky, I however do not understand a lick of English. I’ll walk in blind, see how much I can understand, and then confirm what I did get by reading act I on Wikipedia. Repeat when it’s done. Something similar could work in ballet (at leas for now)
When it comes to the triple threat and telling a story I feel that dance is the most underrated aspect. While acting and song are often used to propel a plot and character I feel that dance is just as important when it comes to telling a story as it drives emotions and morals. I feel like many young artists, especially those who are not performers, can undervalue dance in a piece of theater especially if their exposure to theater is primarily backstage or in a booth where they can only listen to the action onstage. I was one of these young artists who undervalued dance. It was until I was exposed to dance separate from just entertaining or pushing a story that the art form really moved me. I agree with the mindset that dance is best used in musical theater not to explain a story but rather to visualize emotion and details behind onse choices or past.
Theo
For an audience to really have a powerful experience from ballet, I think you have to get into a different mindset; while the ballet will do its best to communicate the story with clarity, sometimes there are details you just won’t pick up, but you can still appreciate tonal shifts and the wider framework of the piece, feeling the emotions that each dance and moment is meant to convey. So you still get this transformative experience and can get immersed, even in a story you don’t fully understand. I haven’t watched a lot of ballet but I do think it would be super interesting to see a dancer’s process in a story-based piece compared to an actor who has the language of words, while dancers can only use their body, requiring an immense amount of focus and stamina. I think it’s all right to be impacted by ballet without fully understanding; creating your own understanding instead.
As someone who ultimately has no experience at all with ballet or other types of dance, this article was a really good read. I never knew that different types of dances carried different meanings with them: for example, the article mentions ballet and bharatanatyam, and their inherent meanings. Then, the idea of telling a story through dance is also new to me. It's really crazy to think that there's a part of the industry that specializes in dance with a narrative. I can imagine how much different it must be from ordinary theater, but I imagine that, even though it might be more difficult to tell a story, it would be easier to express emotion and feeling through this medium. The different ways of telling the story itself, too, are pretty interesting because there are so many ways to go about it. I've never been to a performance like this, but I would jump at an opportunity to go.
This was a really interesting take on storytelling through dance. As someone who has danced and performed most styles of dance (ballet, contemporary, hip hop, jazz, etc), I understand the author’s point very well. Ballets have really weird plots, which are at times, really hard to follow. Apart from the more well known ballets, such as Romeo and Juliet, or Cinderella, most people usually need a synopsis before the show to somewhat understand the plot. I think it is cool that ballet can use hand miming to get a story across, but I also think it’s important that dance portrays a story through the actual movement rather than relying on those mimes to push the story forward. When I was in 9th grade, I helped with a performance of the Jungle Book, which was a combined ballet and contemporary show. For the ballet pieces, miming was used, and for the contemporary pieces, it seems like the actual movement is more heavily relied on to move the story forward.
When I used to be active in dance, one thing that made me love the artform was the way in which the music and movement told a story. It takes so much training, choreographing skills and thought to be able to tell a story through only miming. I enjoyed how the article goes in depth on various choreographers develop their stories and initiatives within a piece. When I read that the choreographer Bourne does not utilize dramaturgs within their work because of their belief that the choreographer should be the dramaturg. I was highly impressed by the intimacy in wish they wished to develop between themselves and the piece. Additionally, I love the ending paragraph of the article in which it states that one doesn't have to always comprehend the story of a dance number. Dance can speak to you by just evoking happiness, making you feel as if you need to get up and move or by merely just being a beautiful form of art.
I learned a lot from this article and I think there were also a lot of good points. Sometimes ballet is hard to follow, so having a bit in the program is kind of nice, especially if you are new to the art form and aren’t used to the kind of though provoking demands that the art form requires. I did not know that dramaturge were often used in ballet, although it makes perfect sense to want as much detail about a story as possible when trying to translate that story to movement. I kind of like the comment about how the audience congratulates themselves for understanding a familiar story. I have been that audience member and I see how that outcome can be problematic for creators. I think that there are a lot of different opinions about the topic, as noted in the article, but I think it would be good to communicate to the audience what is expected of them. If they should come in with an understanding, if there is a note in the program, or if they want to they art to speak for itself. All are good.
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