I Don’t Get Ballet

Now, before the toffs out there get their silver spoons in a twist, hear me out. I can appreciate ballet is an artform, and it takes a hell of a lot of skill to do it. but I just don’t get it. The only thing I like about it is the music.

All it seems to be is a load of leaping about with pointy feet and spinning around, standing on your tip toes (resulting in some rather horrible feet problems) and sticking one leg out at a time, with the occasional ungainly kick thrown in. I’ve got Swan Lake on at the moment, mainly for the music, but every now and again I’ll flick to the other tab to see what’s going on. And it’s jumping, spinning and pointing. Every time. Is this all ballet is? Ooh now I’m holding a woman so she can bend a bit more than she could under her own steam. This princey guy and one of the girls have just repeated the same five moves over and over for about five minutes. I kinda prefer variety.

If I didn’t know the story of Swan Lake as it is, even watching the whole thing closely, I’d likely have no idea what’s going on. People prancing about, one looks like a prince, the other’s a jester, now there’s a guy dressed up like a flamboyant black devil. What?

People say it’s beautiful… And I guess if you like generic pretty looking women who all look like they were gotten out of a box from the same shelf at Toys R Us then cool, I can dig that. Yeah it’s graceful in places, but raising and lowering your arms together and skipping about with feet that stick out in odd directions isn’t what I’d call grace.

Spinning at various speeds, pointing and bending a lot. Impressive, but it’s something you could see at a circus. I’d rather go to a circus actually, so long as they were nice to their animals.

2 responses to “I Don’t Get Ballet

  1. A good thing to do is to read a little bit on the story first and then watch some really good dancers to see how they bring their characters to life. It’s not just with the kicking legs or pointed feet, but with eyes and little movements in between as well.

    But of course its very well possible that it’s just not your thing anyway!

    • I know the story of Swan Lake, and it’s a bit tricky to see all the little movements and facial expressions when you’re in the audience. But, each to their own, I’m glad you enjoy it.

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