Rising Hegemon
I am a total philistine on ballet. I know pretty much the same amount about ballet as I do, say, cricket. It's an amazing art-form, requiring incredible athleticism that I imagine means the careers are short and the long-term damage substantial.
So allow me to wax philosophically about something in which I am totally ignorant -- let's call it the Glenn Beck method of blogging.
As I sit here at 2:50 a.m. I can only think of two ballets -- Swan Lake and the Nutcracker Suite [Is that actually the name? Too lazy to google] -- though that is better than I can do with cricket players, I cannot think of one of them. Hell, come to think of it, I can name a half-dozen famous ballet dancers, while I can name only two ballets.
I imagine this probably still puts me in the upper fifty percentile of the American population (maybe it is because it is dominated by Russians and that whole anti-communism thing had something to do with it?).
Perhaps I'm stupidly missing some other obvious and well-known ballet, and obviously there are many performances to integrate ballet into other dance-hybrids in well-known pieces, like say West Side Story and about any other Broadway musical, but I cannot think of them now. That's not to demean ballet, but myself. After all I performed horridly at calculus, doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile.
What is it like to be in an art form so dominated by only two pieces? Is there any American ballet performer who hasn't done each of these works to the point they are sick of them? Could there be some professionals stuck in the hell of having performed them ONLY?
I mean not many folks know a lot about opera or symphonic music, but I can name far more composers of each, let alone pieces (and they have unoriginal names like "...Symphony #_x_" in the latter) than I can ballets (I realize there's some overlap between them, like say Tchaikovsky).
Anyway so much for that...strange thing to write about. Perhaps my coffee is laced with something else this morning without my knowledge?
20 comments:
It's "The Nutcracker." The Suite is a series of pieces from the whole ballet, extracted for concert performance. Like what Stravinsky did with "The Firebird." You might also give Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" and Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe" a listen, just for starters.
It's laced with something, I tell ya. Give me some.
It's not fair, I'm married to a ballet teach, choreographer and former dancer, so my education has been a whole lot more "rigorous." But I have a feeling you'd recognize more names if you heard them.
Sleeping Beauty, for example.
Regardless, The Nutcracker is danced yearly as a standard money maker, it's the PBS Celtic Thunder or Three Tenors for the ballet world. I can hum practically the whole ballet in my sleep.
The way it's kept new is to tweak the choreography each year to adapt to the dances you've got. I mean, how many variations on playing video football players can you get, yet how many versions of John Madden NFL or whatever it is, are there? Boggles the mind.
The art form is not dominated by only two pieces. That would be like saying rock and roll is dominated by only Elvis and the Beatles.
Have you even heard of George Balanchine? Neither of those ballets you mentioned are by him. But he was a person of popular culture, I even noticed his passing (on the same day as Muddy Waters, no less, it was a very sad day) long before I knew anyone who actually danced.
You probably know more than you think you do, but then don't we all.
Who's been brewing shroom tea in the Bunn?
A good movie is supposed to rearrange the furniture in the attic a bit. Less chance of it making the dreaded $100 million that way, tho. So the muscles of intelligence atrophy. Film is pretty much dead these days.
You might be making a mistake I made for ages: I thought ballet and opera weren't "serious music." Opera really was the greatest show on earth and ballet was silly dancing to mostly second rate music. Give me concert music and chamber music. That's the real stuff.
And then I found muself moved to tears at the finale of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals. How charming! How indefatigably charming! Can the humn spirit fly any higher than that?
We need to let ourselves be charmed. Even by ballet.
No ballet for me. I'd rather watch mules or camels being beaten -- they usually deserve some cruelty just for orneriness.
_The Red Shoes_ is really a must-see movie - I can't imagine The Black Swan beats it. The 10 min or so of ballet in the middle is fantastic (literally), using cinema, Dali sets and technicolor to create a surrealistic dream. I'm not a big ballet fan but I get strong indications of the amazing art that was the Ballet Russe, to which The Red Shoes has interesting connections.
You've hit on it: the next big ballet should be about camels and mules being beaten.
To me, Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" is the most beautiful ballet score of all. Seeing Marcia Haydee dance it with the Stuttgart was one of the most exhilarating evenings of my life.
And, I think the reason Atta's post and the comments thread have taken on a life of their own is that we're all so sick of The American Condition. It's nice to talk about something else for a change.
I blame Gadaffi for your coffee.
And The Black Swan is what Sundance has for porn.
I saw "Black Swan" with an ex-dancer (career-changing, onstage accident), who confirmed my suspicion that one should never see a film about something about which one knows a lot. As a professional musician, I have a terrible time watching films about professional musicians — there is just too much wrong, unbelievable stuff in the films.
Therefor, you are the perfect moviegoer for "Black Swan", because you could enjoy the movie without getting all upset about "THAT would NEVER happen, sheesh!"
I'm sort of faced with the same thing. I am an artist who works in a medium hardly anyone has ever heard about: hooked wool rugs. Only I create art images rather than typical patterns. Here's a link to one of my rugs in progress:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/Rughooker/9ba11fb9.jpg
So even if it's never seen by millions of people, there is still a following, albeit a small one. With that, and with my own satisfaction, I will be content.
no. you have to blame disney and mickey mouse.
Blame it all on Juan Valdez
Ballet is fun. Beautiful, exiguously clad women and beautiful music, comfy chairs to sit in. You should watch some Balanchine when the grrlz are just in white practice duds or Peter Martins' "Calcium White Night."
Shut up.
I've been wrong before but it is so rare it is in nano ;-)....... When I first read this , I was sure it wouldn't go anywhere. I was wrong and I'm glad. So many commenters that I haven't seen or haven't seen for so long. It is truely an epiphytic moment for me. For the record I've got eclectic taste in music as long as it doesn't include a steel guitar and nasel singing. Dance ?..... Watching people spin around on their toes, leap through the air or wiggy the hips. Well there is nothin' wrong with it but.....
read James Wolcott's blog. He has a lot to offer us laymen on the ballet world, as well as a passion for performers like veronica part, who he explains is The Best Ballerina on earth and why she is. Plus he has
vox
cont. Wolcott, besides ballet has very sharp observations on the world of politics and idiots.
vox
When the movie starring makers of animated GIFs comes out I am prepared to be VERY ANGRY.
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