One of the reasons I chose ballet was because I like being around beauty. I like beautiful things. Ballet is about beauty. Beautiful movement, beautiful music. But, Jerry, what about music that's atonal, or movements that aren't supposed to be beautiful, or evil characters?
Everything has beauty. It's your job as a ballet dancer to find that beauty.
Now, it's easy to find the beauty of the Sugar Plum Fairy, or Prince Siegfried. Even Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis, who is a stone cold killer, must be beautiful. Her beauty is part of what makes her so terrifying. Where is the beauty of a grotesque character like Carabosse in "Sleeping Beauty", or the frightening visage of Death in "The Green Table"? How do you take the Rat King and make him (or her) a thing of beauty?
In "The Lady and The Hooligan", a 1962 ballet by Konstantin Boyarsky to music by Shostakovich, the Lady is obviously beautiful. The Hooligan, a common street thug, is her complete opposite. Where she is refined, he is crude. Where she is gentle, he's a brute. Where she is graceful, he is ungainly. His opening variation has him stomping around the stage, spitting, flexing his muscles. Yet, he must also have his own beauty. Beneath his rough exterior, there is a loving heart. Beneath his bravado, there is a yearning to be known for his kind soul. His beauty is within. She brings it out.
In "The Green Table", Death is a towering, unstoppable force of Nature. He stalks the battlefield, taking victim after victim. Wearing a plumed helmet, skeletal costume and heavy boots, his face is a horrifying skull, striking terror into the hearts of all who see him. How do you make that beautiful? The power and majesticity of his movements can and should be beautiful, but there are moments of unexpected kindness, which give the dancer the opportunity to create beauty from horror. A Young Girl is forced into prostitution because of the war. She dances with an Old Soldier who takes pity on her, but she knows that there will be others who will not treat her as well... Death comes for her, violently, at first, dragging her around the stage. Then, suddenly, he embraces her gently. She finds escape from her horrible situation in his arms. He gives her the peace of the grave, carefully lowering her body to the stage. He becomes her savior. He is beautiful to her.
Sometimes the beauty is simply in the choreography. Our Rat King in Santa Clarita, is always played by one of our senior ladies, and en pointe. Carol Guidry, the choreographer, gives the dancer demanding classical steps that allow her to show off her pointe work, her extensions, jumps and turns. The costume is a stylized Victorian tunic and unitard, so the lady's legs can be seen, even though her face and head are hidden by a large rat's head. If the choreography gives you steps that are inherently beautiful, long lines, pleasant angles, good lighting, you're pretty much set, but if not, or the costume or makeup are at odds with that beauty, you have to find, or create the beauty. Maybe the character has an elegance that can shine through, or grace that becomes apparent in spite of the steps.
When you stand still on stage, or pause in a movement, you can say a lot. Your gaze, your focus, can say what's important to you. Maybe the beauty comes from what you see, instead of what the audience sees in you.
In the second act of "Giselle", Albrecht has a tough job. He must get the audience to like him. At the end of the first act, Giselle lies dead because his betrayal drove her mad and caused her weak heart to fail. He's pretty ugly at that point. How does he get his "beauty" back? He might get it, by seeing the beauty in Giselle. Maybe he never really looked at her; all he saw was a pretty little peasant girl. Now, he sees how much love there was, how much she loved him. He sees her begging Myrtha for mercy. The crack in Myrtha's armor shows her to be a woman who loved someone very deeply, once. The beauty there helps Albrecht get his back.
Always look for the beauty, especially where there seems to be none.
See you in class.
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