Hello! This is my post from the 12th. It was the day that I moved into NY, but it didn't actually end up posting due to wifi problems, so I am posting it now.
LAX to JFK
Headphones in, World off.
- Airplane farewells
- Mint Gum
- Tchaikovsky
Honestly I really like having my time to think. I’ve always been this way. It coincides with being a ballerina. Whenever I am at peace with myself, I am at peace with my art. I am going to completely dedicate everything I have to ballet this year. I am always closest to understanding my true self, when I have ballet on my mind in every decision and every sacrifice that I need to make. I am cleansing for ten more days, and through this spiritual experience I am realizing that I am willing to put aside all momentary pleasures, and feel pain and discomfort, if it results in achieving my dream. Otherwise regret will hurt me more than anything. I have to dance.
I’m on the plane bored, so I’m watching one of my favorite documentaries, featuring Tamara Rojo, the artistic director of the English National Ballet, and a lead principal dancer with the Royal Ballet. The film is called, “Good Swan, Bad Swan.” It is a beautifully done, and the symbolism of Swan Lake that often is only comprehensible through the bodies movements, is explained well in her words. Her interpretation of Odile and Odette, is one of my favorites. I decided to take notes on what she says in the film. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.
Лебединое озеро
“Dancing Swan lake is every ballerina’s dream, and it’s the one ballet we all see ourselves doing. For me, it was one of the first ballet’s I started to know, and the solo I chose to do for my first major competition was the Black Swan variation. Since the beginning, I knew I would be dancing Swan Lake on a big stage somewhere in the world. I remember when I was a young student trying to study the movement of swans, so that I could incorporate it in my dancing. Years later, I realized that the ballet was not about swans but about two ideals. The idea of the white swan: innocence, purity, and honesty, contrary to the black swan: manipulation, and dishonesty.”
“It is no accident that when people think of ballet, they think of Swan Lake. It almost defines the genre. Yet it is extraordinary to think that nothing about it is defined. Tchaikovsky’s handwritten score is lost,no one knows who wrote the story, and even the choreography, passed through generations by word of mouth, remains unfixed. Yet the theme’s Swan Lake embodies are timeless. Deception, and tragic love, speak to us just as vividly as ever. What’s more, the lead role is the most unique in all of classical ballet. The ballet demands the lead ballerina to portray two different characters. Each, the polar opposite of one another. Odette the White Swan and Odile the Black Swan. It is also even reflected in the choreography. Odette the white swan and Odile the black swan do the same steps. We do pirouettes, chaines, and arabesques, but the way we do it: the intensity, and the attack is completely different. LIke in literature the words are the same. Romeo and Macbeth both say love, but they mean and intend something completely different. It demands extreme physical endurance and a faultless ballet technique. When you get somebody who emotionally understands the jewel characters, and has the technique to pull it off, it is extraordinarily rare, but wonderful.”
I wanted more Swan Lake, so I watched parts of Mariinsky’s Swan Lake, ABT’s Swan Lake, and Black Swan. They are all conveniently found on YouTube. (even Black Swan now)
On a more controversial note, Black Swan is often disregarded in the dance world. No ballet dancer that I have ever spoken with enjoys it. I do, however.
Natalie Portman could never become technically equipped to dance Odette, or Odile, or even be in the Corps de Ballet with a small company, but her acting was perfection. More credit should have been given to dance double, Sarah Lane, of American Ballet Theatre. I also believe that Clint Mansell was dishonest in taking credit for the soundtrack. It held far too much of Tchaikovsky’s original masterpiece, and to name it Mansell’s work is distasteful. Clint wrote some of the soundtrack’s pieces completely independently, but Tchaikovsky was the soundtrack’s mastermind, and deserved more credit.
The overall story is violent, and disturbing, but more importantly it also is simply beautiful, poetic, and a relatable version of a fairy tale in modern day life. I think that every ballerina can relate to Portman’s character in some way. I think that Natalie was fabulous in the acting of Nina, but I still feel the same way about giving credit where credit’s due. Either way, I love the film.
“We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom but only true love can break the spell. Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince, but before he can declare his love her lustful twin, the black swan, tricks and seduces him. Devastated the white swan leaps of a cliff killing herself and, in death, finds freedom,” Black Swan quote.
“It’s about a girl who gets turned into a swan and she needs love to break the spell, but her prince falls for the wrong girl so she kills herself,” Black Swan quote.
guys I am officially here
09.12.2015
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