While cracking bones is the limit to my concerns about my body and the level of body flexibility I have to worry about on a day to day bases, the ballet performers I watched today perform Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Joliet are in another universe of mobility, throwing their bodies up and down, left and right, flying in the air and crashing to the ground (especially their death scenes, which were heavily exaggerated for dramatic effect). As a high school student I was often struck by the level of dialogue present in Shakespeare's plays, but apparently ballets can make perform those plays without any dialogue, just physical expression and body movements, oh and music of course from the accompanying orchestra. Or it could be everyone knows the Romeo and Juliet story well enough that no narration or conversation between characters is needed. Or is it? I found myself having a tough time recalling minor characters in the Capulet and Montague families, who was related to whom, the Friar/ apothecary's name, and who killed whom in the streets. Only halfway through Act II (2 intermissions does seem a little excessive, ballet company, and stretching it to 3 hours in the middle of the day- matinee showing does make it a little harder to keep me coming back) did I realize that Juliet's cousin Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo's friend, and then Romeo retaliates by killing Tybalt. And he later just kind of walks right over Paris, Juliet's other suitor. And Benvolio is involved somehow, although it's hard to tell in a ballet where everyone's just frolicking in the streets all the time it seems like. There were several instances that dancers executed moves of high difficulty, but I was too obtuse to notice until people in the audience started clapping. And I wouldn't want to be a ballet dancer; the tights they wear kind of accentuates their butts, for better or worse (mine would be worse) and after long dance routines on stage, the dancers representing Romeo and Juliet have to grab ahold of each other and hug deeply.....while visibly being doused in sweat. Not great. I hope they have showers in the back during intermissions.
Ballet, figure skating, and other graceful performance art seem to be losing out in America at least to......well, bigger bodies. The people I saw on screen were incredibly agile, nimble, and graceful, all of which is required for ballet dancers, but those skills seem increasingly lost on today's society, where fat shaming/body shaming is strictly taboo and it feels like from watching TV that people actually WANT a bigger butt. Dancing/skating is one of those last vestiges of an earlier world, maybe like the 1990's when I was growing up, where it was still generally accepted that there was an ideal body shape that most people should maintain, and that in some sports/activities you really CAN'T be fat, your body would weigh you down. Someone playing Juliet's role must be light enough/ small enough for Romeo to lift her up seemingly every 3 seconds while Juliet is also performing 360 spins with her arms in the area. So my point I guess is that even in today's body-positivity world, there are still good reasons under than just your mundane health reasons (you know, where good health is what keeps you alive) to get fit and maintain one's figure. Oh it definitely could help your neighbors when sitting in the theater watching too: the seats are cramped and share an armrest with your neighbor; it's best not to leak over the seat into other's territory, just like on an airplane.
No comments:
Post a Comment