Monday, September 04, 2023
The perils and pirouettes of staging a ballet aboard the Queen Mary 2
The Washington Post: Imagine the challenge: You’re a dancer with an esteemed ballet company, drilled to the point of distraction in the art of flawless arabesques, chassés, coupés. The execution of diaphanous spins, exquisite leaps, perfect one-footed landings.
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While this article focused on the performance of the dancers on the ship, I wonder how being on a ship like this would influence technical aspects. My guess is that backstage spaces and storage would be very limited due to the confined space on the ship. They might also have restrictions on the amount of power they can draw from the ship's electrical system. I have heard that there are jobs for techs on cruise ships and have seen the ships advertising at events like USITT, but I have never really thought about how the ship-board environment would impact the work.
The other idea that this article sparked was what might happen to performance in space as the space tourism industry rapidly expands. So far space has not been accessible enough to even consider producing any forms of theater, but I wonder if there might be a demand for some form of live performance as space becomes increasingly commercialized. This is of course a long time out but I wonder what the performance would look like. It seems like adding the third dimension could be a complete reimagining of what a performance is or what is theater.
As a former ballet dancer, I find the prospect of performing a ballet on a moving ship to be terrifying. When I’m dancing en pointe, something as small as the marley being laid with a seam too sharp can affect my performance. This has consciously affected how I work as a technician as I place extra work in ensuring a safe dancing stage. While I’m certain the dancers above the Queen Mary are far more experienced and apt to these changes than I would be, I hope that the technicians on board are extra cautionary in the sweeping of the stage, dying of the pointe shoes, and other procedures that could lead to injury as the risks are already higher given the rocking stage. This being said, I’m so glad that the accessibility of ballet with the daytime classes and nighttime performances onboard the ship is increasing. Ballet is a historically elitist and expensive art form and the spreading of this art form, even on a rocking ship, is exciting to me.
This article, The Perils And Pirouettes Of Staging A Ballet Aboard The Queen Mary 2 was very interesting to read. One of my dream jobs for a couple of years now has actually been to be a performer on a cruise ship. While this might seem niche, many disney musicals get their start on Disney Cruise ships and I really want to be a disney princess. However, this article gave me a lot more to think about. They are absolutely correct when it is said that the floor is your dance partner. Whenever I am in dance class, especially ballet, we are told to work the floor, so I cannot imagine how difficult a tilted and moving floor could be. This definitely brings up safety concerns and dancers will have to be trained in a specific way to handle it. Another part of the article that stood out to me was the woman who cried after seeing their performance because she had never seen a ballet before. This was very beautiful for me and got me excited by the idea of how many diverse people cruise ships bring together allowing ballet to be shared to a wider audience.
I think it is a very unique and difficult task to dance, let alone a form like ballet that has such strict form and technique, on a cruise ship with unpredictable waves and a constant changing of gravity. I really love ballet as an art form and find myself watching many productions online, or in person if I get a chance. I think being a ballet dancer is extremely admirable and the strength required is incredible, I don't even know how I would start to prepare to dance on a cruise ship. I greatly appreciate that not only were ballets performed and open to the public on the ship, but that classes and workshops were provided. As the article mentions, I think most people who go see ballet are those with an interest in more classical art forms, but on the cruise ship people who have never had the opportunity to experience ballet get a chance to, and possibly find a new passion.
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