The 54th BFI London Film Festival is well under way and I have my eye set firmly on ‘Black Swan’, a psychological thriller set in the world of professional ballet. I’m not sure what to expect but am hoping to be as mesmerised as I am watching the real thing on stage. To me ballet has always felt unreal and untouchable, the height of elegance and supreme beauty. It is the dance of love demonstrated through the body’s form. At times you can be sure you are witnessing something truly impossible.
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| Hong Kong Ballet |
They say ballet takes many many years to perfect, to get right. Relationships, also a sort of dance, can take a lifetime to master and make dancers out of all of us in the process. The beginning however, the opening act of a new relationship is the most thrilling and un-choreographed part of this emotional ballet. Just as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake glides closer to Odette the beautiful Swan Queen she in turn floats away from him hesitant and withholding yet hoping he will still pursue her, is this not the story of when two people new to each other meet and begin a to and fro routine of their own? With their movements’ tentative, hopeful but unsure, they dance the dance of anticipation always fearing that it can collapse at any moment. The fear of making the wrong move, a step here too soon, a step there too late.
In a ballet even the tiniest movement from a dancer is reacted to by another showing that nothing is taken for granted. Every nuance every gesture and every look is fully received and open to infinite interpretations. The dancers of a new relationship also over respond to each other, they are so finely attuned to the emotional mood of the other that it becomes their own and where one of them feels subdued so too does the other. Ballet and relationships are both reciprocal, no movement in either is ever made in isolation but always forms part of a dynamic. If you are feeling happy in the company of someone they too are feeling happy being with you. Our feelings tell us not only how we are but how others are. And again like ballet it can take years to become fluent in its language but I think that is how it’s meant to be, it is after all the process of learning to dance that is the most captivating, infuriating and exhilarating act of all. Are the beginnings of falling in love so very different....?
Sometimes the dancers are in perfect harmony with each other and every step taken between them has already been foreseen, but other times the dance is erratic and out of sync. One dancer longs to get closer to the other but the other is no longer in the same scene and has already moved to a different rhythm. This is very common in new relationships where each person unwittingly takes it in turn to risk revealing a little more of themselves and then suddenly in the same breath can all too quickly take it away again and put the lid firmly back on so that the unspoken dance continues as before. It is as though the joy of real connectedness, of two people at the same time showing each other how they really feel is almost too much to bear and must be followed up by a colder more withdrawn way of being. Ironically the more suitable the dance partner the more afraid of the dance we become. Perhaps because the stakes are much higher and because we know in our heart that this dance could be the one we practice for the rest of our lives.
It must also be said that dancing like any other exploration of form and emotion is abundant with potential pain and injury, it’s no wonder the moves at the start are kept to a minimum, small and measured. The dancers need to feel safe with each other knowing that they will be held and supported not only when the music is happy and easy but when it is also sad and deliberate.
The dance of relationships has more intricacies than the most sophisticated ballet, it is the unrehearsed version the one where the dancers fall down, hurt themselves and each other, forget the steps, focus too hard or too little and wear clothes that are thin in parts and thick in others. Maybe it is for all these reasons that we love going to the ballet so much because for two and half hours we are watching the perfect relationship dance being played out in front of our very eyes and there is not a single action that shouldn't be there. But the true beauty of a ballet only really hits us when the final act has been danced, a ballet must always end and real life to fill the room again.
For M.V.
It must also be said that dancing like any other exploration of form and emotion is abundant with potential pain and injury, it’s no wonder the moves at the start are kept to a minimum, small and measured. The dancers need to feel safe with each other knowing that they will be held and supported not only when the music is happy and easy but when it is also sad and deliberate.
The dance of relationships has more intricacies than the most sophisticated ballet, it is the unrehearsed version the one where the dancers fall down, hurt themselves and each other, forget the steps, focus too hard or too little and wear clothes that are thin in parts and thick in others. Maybe it is for all these reasons that we love going to the ballet so much because for two and half hours we are watching the perfect relationship dance being played out in front of our very eyes and there is not a single action that shouldn't be there. But the true beauty of a ballet only really hits us when the final act has been danced, a ballet must always end and real life to fill the room again.
For M.V.
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| Long Beach Ballet 2003 |
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