The Meaning of "Ballet"
By Cassandra Shaffer
Many people do not know what ballet is. The usual response to a statement like
this one is: "They think [ballet is] about little girls in tutus and satin
slippers, when it's really a lot of hard work, sweat, and blood." While this is
certainly true, it is far beside the point in this case.
In this case the 'people" who misunderstand the meaning of ballet are the
recreational- track
dance students themselves, mostly teenagers. While whether or not they should be
called "dancers" is another controversy altogether, these students have spent
much time studying and performing ballet-- yet they have not grasped much beyond
the annual recital or dance class.
Generally speaking, their idea of the "ballet world" nowadays comes mostly from
movies. More specifically, they think ballet is the movie
Centre Stage.
Everything they know about the professional ballet world: the intensity, the
relations between dancers, casting and weight issues, and even the preparations
of pointe shoes comes from
Centre Stage.
They take the rivalry they see on-screen and disproportion it to fit life at
their studio, so that when another student gets a 4-count featured sequence in
the recital dance, they are suddenly "living in a cruel and ruthless ballet
world!"
Relationships between dancers are often complex, if not volatile. "Sexual
politics have always played a part in ballet," states dance author Adrienne
Sharp, "what does it do to the lover and the beloved?" Such issues spawn from
mental love/hate relationships based on competition to even physical
relationships between partners or company members. As with all people,
relationships change over time, but much more so with ballet dancers.
To such students, pointe work is a routine, a once or twice a week regime:
releves at the barre, echappes, chaines, and piques. A blister here, a pulled
muscle there. A pair of pointe shoes lasts anywhere from a month to a year. Then
comes the recital dance, rehearsing their teacher's choreography and anxiously
awaiting arrival of costumes. There are no thoughts on whom they are dancing
for--that this choreographer gets so bad-tempered in rehearsals, that one has
such a unique style, that one can never make up his mind. Aside from short
featured roles, there are no issues of casting, no ranking, no promotions or
demotions except in the case of class levels.
In some cases, these points would lead to a conclusion that students as opposed
to professionals have it easy. They work not more than three times per week,
they don't need to worry about their company rank, or how much they make. Fellow
dancers are a little more than "friends from dance" (or, in some cases,
enemies). Yet to them ballet is just a hobby: something fun, something for the
college resume, something that does not consume their life. Pre- professional
students usually have a different grasp of ballet because they spend so much
time immersed in the art form. To a pre- professional- track student, dance is
not just their current life, but their future life as well. They tend to have a
better understanding of what goes on in a ballet career, from competition to
relationships to intense schedules. Meanwhile, both types of students are aware
that ballet is hard work, hard work to achieve beauty. Because, after all,
beauty (or the illusion thereof) in itself is a true part of ballet.
Source :
http://www.oocities.org/roseannplessl/index2.html