Enjoyment of movement in ballet
This enjoyment of dancing seems to be usually missing in a lot of ballet, where the dancers are working on making their difficult, unnatural, but lovely movements look easy, and their acting is so often to express emotions other than enjoyment of the dance.
That’s always been true of ballet, which as an art has a great many themes that are tragic, as in opera and theater. And yet even within those ballets, if you watch the full-length versions, there are quite a few passages that express a lighter quality and feature the joy of dance. For example, Act One of Giselle is an excellent example of that, in which the peasant girl Giselle – whose love of dance is a big part of her character – dances joyfully with the man she considers her boyfriend and also dances solo to express her happiness. Here’s an example of a solo:
And of course there are tons of “happy peasant” dances within such ballets. It’s true, however, that modern-day ballet dancers are not as good at conveying joy as previous ones once were. But some of them can still do it if it’s in the choreography. A great example is “Stars and Stripes” by Balanchine, choreographed in 1958. Here’s a performance from 1993 (not so recent, but still not SO long ago) that’s just plain fun, and the dancing is superb – particularly by Woetzel, but really by both soloists:
I wish I had a good video of Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering. It is a ballet that truly expresses the joy of dance, although more recent renditions can’t stand up to the original, in my opinion. It was choreographed in 1969, and I saw the original many times, live. It draw vaguely on folk dance motifs, and the music is Chopin. The 1969 cast danced it with a sense of abandon and risk that was thrilling. But here’s a little bit of a more recent production that (at least to me) fails to convey that excitement; the lifts (and what I call the “swoops” and “drags” and “swings” and “tosses”) are relatively restrained and tame. But it’s still beautiful:
And this pas de deux from the ballet remains glorious:
It is very very difficult to find any video of the original production. I know that the Lincoln Center Dance Library has it, but unless something has changed, you have to go there to watch it. Here is a video, however, that shows a few old and brief snippets of three parts of it, and only the first and third are of the original production; the second is from the 1980s, I believe. The video gives you a little bit of the flavor anyway, especially the third bit that features one of my favorite dancers of all time, Violette Verdy, doing a small part of her solo. Take it from me; she was transcendent in Dances At a Gathering. The role was choreographed on her, and no one else can come close:
Neo, I know you are a fan of Ballet. But last night I watched a video of Ellenor Powell doing a dance which was wonderful. “Pinball” dance
I mention again this recent Hedgehog Review article: Beyond the Exaltation of the Individual Dancer: How Thomas Forster reminds us of the social dimension of dance.
Thanks for more joyous ballet examples. Fracci indeed seems to be enjoying herself, even doing a counter-clockwise turn rather than the more usual (80%? 90%?) clockwise turns. I love spinning myself, and watching a bit of spinning in dances.
The Russian academy vid from a few days ago provides good contrast, and seems more fun. Especially for the men, who seem to always move in masculine ways, unlike the three fine male dancers in Dances at a Gathering.
When males are mirroring the lovely, graceful moves of a ballerina, there’s something effeminate about it that bothers me. Somehow Woetzel avoids this, while the other males in Stars and Stripes don’t. And their marching was cringeworthy, from a guy who remembers actually marching daily to meals for my two years at the Naval Academy.
I liked the ballroom dance course I took at USNA, and was quite hot for the instructor, who agreed to go with me to the big annual graduation dance, tho I can’t remember her name. At Stanford, I took more ballroom dance courses, as well as: modern dance, folk dance, tap dance, and jitterbug, with lots more women in all except the latter, where only pairs could sign up. Modern dance was kind of pre-ballet, and was fun but … not masculine* enough for me to be comfortable. One of my smartest ideas was to invite my future wife to take a ballroom dance course with me in Slovakia, where I was able to practice & learn to dance well with her.
As a single guy in the 80s, I was able and willing to go Dancing By Myself (with a record selection and a mirror’s reflection, or just a TV on a wall with old cartoons). One time, just before slam dancing became popular, I was so wild that I bumped another person’s head with my face, breaking my nose and bleeding all over.
Tho picking up hot babes was also a theoretical goal, it was mostly for me to move to the music. I was really glad that high impact aerobics classes had a good number of guys in them, to complement my running and ultimate frisbee playing. Not at all the case in Slovakia, so I stopped going to aerobics.
Now recovering from a torn Achilles tendon (from indoor frisbee), my dance loving wife and I missed another ball season, so I’m dancing deprived. It’s good Slovak culture has some space for folk dance as well as a formal graduation prom dance where the guys have mostly all gone thru an optional but almost culturally required dance course. And there’s a formal dance course graduation dance, too.
In folk dance one Hungarian boot dance was similar to parts of the Russian dance, slapping boots, thighs, hands with stomping, also done in Slovakia.
Like sports, I prefer playing and dancing (with abandon! No more), to watching. But with Neo doing the editing so I can just see highlights, it’s occasionally very nice. A bit like the spinning ballerina who can be seen as spinning either direction, from many years ago.
*I know that gays dominate in dance in the US, but I think much less so in Europe. Without knowing sex orientations, there’s never the less feelings of masculinity, strength & pride, that are different than feminine virtues like flowing grace & beauty. Woetzel had a masculine grace where the leading male soldier seemed more to mirror a feminine grace.
I was strongly turned off by this in modern dance, as well. I suspect many American boys are also aware of, and turned off of dance because of so many gays in dance. I missed break dancing–fear of nose bleed type problems. Glad it’s now popular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcNy9LLNEpM
Comic performance of “Dance of the Little Swans” (1976)
Channel “Soviet Humor”
For balance, in the context of “global challenges”. 😀
Le Dsnseur, mon seuer. I don’t know ti spell it to save my life.
Le Dsnseur de horse. Goddam it.
Here’s a pop example of a guy dancing in a way I could have done, and still like, tho I’d be a bit wilder. Interesting but not pretty, with a very interesting physical appearance. Post Malone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzPQ_jA00bk&list=PLDIoUOhQQPlWt8OpaGG43OjNYuJ2q9jEN&index=72
I’ll prolly sing this song in karaoke, as my leg gets good enough to let me go out and enjoy croaking in public, usually with wife.
Thanks, Super Tuck for great Little Swans!
Lots of good footwork, good example of lovely women doing the usually more masculine boot dance with far more feminine grace.
Ain’t got ‘nough stompin’ tho.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Tom Grey!
I forgot to say – in case anyone is wondering – what is this big gathering at which the Dance of the Little Swans was performed:
“A fragment of a gala evening dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the birth and 50th anniversary of the creative activity of the head of the State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble of the USSR Igor Moiseev.”
(Moiseev is a local Soviet greatness.)
Another – the near opposite of joy, rather calm, floating (Russian!)
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1759487218702221780