The Royal class
Let’s take a look at some beauty.
This is a video of company class at one of the best ballet companies in the world, Britain’s Royal Ballet. “Company class” means it’s a class that’s taken by the company members, who are professional ballet dancers. But the class itself is very much like most of the ballet classes I’ve taken in my life, a goodly portion of which were taught by British teachers.
I described the progression of a ballet class in this previous post. A class is carefully designed to warm up the body in a progression of exercises aimed to stretch, strengthen, protect, and build, and it is composed of equal parts hard hard work and enjoyable artistry. It goes from small movements at the barre to bigger ones, then to smaller (and slower) movements in the center to bigger ones, culminating in large jumps and movements across the room in a diagonal and in a circle.
The video is long, so I’m starting it at a point late in the class in order to show you some of the big jumps and the diagonals and circle movements.
A few comments. Note how very young the women look (and are, for the most part). Shorn of their stage makeup, costumes, and glamor, extremely slender but strong, with small sleek torsos and long strong legs, they have a purity and a dedication that lends them the air of acolytes in some secular artistic/athletic church. The men are likewise sleek and strong, and not especially big, but when they jump you can tell that ballet doesn’t consider the sexes the same. The men’s movements are large and bold, despite their grace, and many of them add special little fillips and tricks at the end of the combinations.
Each person is in his/her little world, a world in which, unlike with a stage performance, they don’t have to worry about projecting to an audience. The mirror is their audience–that, the other dancers and the teacher. But in a class it’s possible to dance for the sheer joy of it, and I think what comes through loud and clear is what a wonder it is to be able to soar through the air with such control, making your body a thing of beauty and line and echoing the music.
I was not as good a dancer as they are, of course. But I was good enough that I felt that feeling regularly, and there’s nothing in the world quite like it.
Note also the teacher, mirroring in a smaller way with his body and hands and facial expression the ebb and flow of the movement, coaxing more out of the students, watching them intently and lovingly. He choreographs a little dance for each exercise, over and over again, teaches it to them quickly, and then watches and moves on to the next.
Standouts: the guy at 1:14:52 is quite a turner, as is the girl in the light-colored leotard and dark skirt at 1:15:40 who executes a series of fouettes and does periodic doubles with her hands on hips. What a natural turner! What speed around a plumb-straight line!
Naught to do with dancing (except Feet), but I just found this site for folks who have mismatched feet/shoe sizes (moi, 7.5 & 8.5). Putting it out there as a public service.
http://oddshoefinder.com/
Happy Saturday!
Thank you, Neo. As I watched, I realized something important (to me).
I love football, and watch a zillion games each year from adequate college teams through fantastic pro teams, and so I appreciate the differences in the abilities of players, and can measure the exceptional brilliance of a spectacular performance. The same with being in the audience at live theater, especially musicals, and opera. I’ve been in the audience at amateur products, at pro-am productions, and at the best–I have lived in Los Angeles since I was a kid, and the best of live theater in LA is as good as it gets. With any live theater, I go to watch the performance with a sense of excitement, expecting to love it, and so I do, no matter the level of that performance. But I can measure the best I see, because I’ve seen a broad spectrum of talent in the very same roles.
This is why watching that video is so wonderful. I realized that the only ballet I’ve watched, live or the little I’ve seen on video, has been among the best in the world. I can appreciate some of the differences in style of the best dancers in the same ballet with the same choreography; but, I just realized that I haven’t been privileged enough with a range of live ballet to have seen the range of talent in the same movements as I have with football and theater.
Of course, I’ve seen the ballet “chorus” accompanying the stars. But I remember the scene in “Chorus Line” where a great star is trying to get back into theater and she is auditioning with a group for the chorus line of a show, and the director who is judging the auditions, and who knows who and what she is, deliberately orders her to change a lot of her flashier movements to conform to the rest of those trying out–the chorus is not the place for individualism, it requires a conformity and symmetry of performance. It occurs to me that it must be true in ballet, too, because I realize I’ve never seen a ballet where those on stage accompanying the star(s) deviate from the true symmetry of the group actions. I realize I’ve never seen lesser talents carrying through with the same choreography as the great ones.
Here, in this video, I know that they are all professional, and even here I see differences beyond style, and I can get more of an appreciation for the true wonder of the movements of the best.
Watching the video was a great experience, and I realize now that I should watch some good to excellent amateurs star in the same ballet, and learn more about the differences.
I hope I’ve made some sense of this. Thanks, again!
That was a lot of fun! But no reverence? Sad.
The full class knocked my socks off! Posting it at my blog
Neo, this is one of the things that make me read your blog. Never, and I mean never, have I had any interest in dance, especially ballet.
But, you posted something, and commented on it in an interesting way that made me want to view it.
Thanks for sharing your passion and showing others (more of an education than just a showing) what makes it so darn good.
In that way you remind me of the late Johnny Carson; he didn’t just have the latest young hip celebrities on – he also had folks like Beverly Sills on and would talk about something in Opera (Opera, like ballet, doesn’t hold my interest) that would make us all watch.
So, thank you!
charles:
You’re welcome!
And the pleasure is mine.
I don’t get the purpose of the class. It doesn’t look as if there’s a new or modified technique or step. Is it a matter of keeping standards up?
Richard Aubrey:
If professional dancers don’t take class every day or close to it, their technique quickly falters. Company class is also a way of keeping a unity of style consistent with the company director’s vision.
If a body isn’t kept warmed up and trained in the movements, the chance of injury increases when they try to reach their plateau after a halt.
That gets more problematic the older a person gets, as their self recovery rate is lowered due to metabolic and cellular changes. Degradation.
Much like shooting, high dexterity actions degrade, as Neo mentioned.
I’m not much of a culture vulture, although I always enjoy a symphonic concert if the program is traditional, i.e. a highly listenable, beautiful work of art rather than tendentious cacophony. By virtue of living my adult life in Chicago and Los Angeles, I’ve been fortunate to see the CSO and the LA Phil on a number of occasions, sometimes with world-renowned guest artists.
I’ve never attended the ballet. That clip was unbelievable.