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| Wednesday, 26 May 2004 |
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The visual beauty of a dream ballet by Gwen Herat At the closing session of many extended seasons of ballet performances in most of the countries, the highlight of such seasons close with a dream ballet. Not at all in a sense of a full-length ballet or excerpts but like a 'dream' for the climax so that the audience leave the theatre in a dream of visuals to the strains of soft romantic music.
We come across ballet in formations of spectacular steps and movements and in colours of different forces. Everything strains to fly off the stage and bounce with energy. The air is filled with the fragrances flowing from the audience as mass scenes emerge one after the other through ballets with youth dominating the dance in comparison and as well as in contrast. It is a world of natural sentiment, full of folk dance, classical dance as well as contemporary dance leading up to dreams of visuals. The message of ballet is brilliantly conveyed and demonstrated in style it is intended. Weaving together themes of variety to the scores of the masters, ballet comes alive in all its glory. It develops into dynamic splashes of dance sometimes over-riding the choreography where the dancers feel that mundane details can be discarded and steps substituted on impulse. Anachronism
Choreography is a marvel. The symbolic and artificial figures and characters that are brought to life by the choreographers, make the dancers immortal and perfect. Today we can wonder why ballet leapt to these heights as no other performing art. People all over the world are obsessed with ballet and every moment of it is deeply appreciated no matter where they are performed Russian accomplished the world's first socialist revolution for thirsting for new forms while in England and France, ballet just grew and grew. Poetry For this great art, new ideas were born through prose, drama, poetry, cinema and even in the stillness of paintings. As the contemporary world needed modern language, ballet began to be the anachronism with its passion for myth, fairy-tales and even sylphides, elves, princes and princesses.
Then the world's greatest writer came along and ballet embraced him with passion. It related to William Shakespeare in no uncertain terms. Brilliant images were from his dramas and romances as every leading dancer was determine to dance them. Ballet crept into literature the way it did to fairy tales and folk stories. Some poems inspired it while songs from the past had excerpts of ballet brought them to life. Every bit was turning to be a dream as far as ballet was concerned. Choreographers and composers became its captives as one tried to outdo the other for greater impact. Some composers found their music gain popularity when their scores were gathering dust on shelves while others found them highlighted. During the early years of ballet and from the limited world of art, the dancers found spontaneity in unexpected terms when they fought for freedom. Outside the walls of restriction, the dancers stirred within themselves to project their talents that lay within them. As they revelled in the taste of freedom with the passing of years, they reacted with lively curiosity. They became brilliant in their new roles as ballet debated in less fussy costumes and the magnificent scores of famous composers of ballet music. Though paradoxically their dancing blended and filled with latently eleagaic, tender and passionate movements from their inner souls, it was to take another century when they were to feel the impact of complete freedom. They stepped out of an unconventional genre but ballet triumphed at the end. The dreams of all dancers no matter to what era they belonged, found the answer to their quest. Came the full length ballet, solo episodes and the corpse de ballet. The dancers found themselves embodying the pathetically elevated beauty like sung in a hymn, taking shape under the clever directions of choreographers. They tried out the impossible virtuoso combinations and set the pace for incredible growth. There were absolute pureness in movement at any given moment. Little by little they cultivated and devoid of all bravado, the sculptured lines and whirlwind finish to their dancing. Episodes As the rest of the world marvelled at the growth of ballet, leading countries like France, Germany, England and Russia took the initiative to make ballet the strongest and classical of all dancing forms. They all agreed on a common syllabus which is the real reason that ballet flourished and multiplied to international acclaim. Today when a student dances in Sri Lanka to the syllabus, her counterparts around the world will be doing the same with absolutely no change. Ballet language (though mostly in French) is the same around the world making dreams grow glower and spectacular within that framework of discipline. The choreography is intriguing while music for ballet is highly classical. If I were to single out some of them, they would be Tchaikvosky, Bach, Prokoviev, Paganini, Stravinsky etc. The ballerinas are ethereal beauties while the male dancers dominate the centre stage equally. These circles of talent appear diverting while their movements cover the stage in glorious heights. Today, one cannot separate the dancer, choreographer and the composer because it is a combined effort and all three departments where everyone must rise to the occasion. They have to demonstrate in a manner so that every sphere of the dance reaches its climax. As orchestral overtures rang out to herald all events in ballet, the curtain was only beginning to rise but the dancers behind were ready to explode into action. Life itself was bubbling with bright movements not only from their limbs but also from their minds. They expanded their expressions and changed colours magically like in a kaleidoscope and the fragments of their actions were to lay the foundation to the future in dynamic rhythm and tantalizing opportunities. The spicy diversities in language and genre. And so the first scene of the ballet formed out a number of reprises, episodes in dance language and genre. No one knows when it happened but it laid the foundation to the dream ballet of the future. **** Back **** |
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Produced by Lake House |
Sometimes, they are symbolic but magnificent and reveal the sheer
artistry of dancers who are able to rise above the multi-level dance
actions. These are the dancers who eventually turn choreographers because
of their innate compulsion that promote them to dance on impulse and not
exactly the way choreography wants them to.
