The Investigation Begins

Post number two! Hot dog!
This is actually a special kind of post today because it is the first of a whole vein of thoughts I plan to share on the subject of ballet. The things I mention here will apply to any kind of athletic, intellectual, or otherwise pursuit if you spin it right. However, I am writing purely from the context of straight up, undiluted, theatrical pink ballet. Don’t worry—I am definitely writing with non dancers in mind, if not for them especially. 

A terrific song poses this question: “Are we human? Or are we dancer?”

Let’s talk about it.

First: ballet is not for humans. In fact, everything about ballet is completely unnatural—paradoxical to the point where a ballerina's initial occupation is to disguise the unnatural practice as something leastwise not completely insane. Crazily enough, the goal is actually to make it appear easy, wonderful. A real ballerina, though her definition is lost in a fog of opinion and hierarchy, is one who has discovered how to make you believe that one of your own kind has slipped through the laws of reality and taken you somewhere else. In this new place, gravity shirks his charge, people breathe up music instead of oxygen, and movement is as communicative and poignant as poetry. Truly, there are only a few real ballerinas, and that place where they take you is a greater illusion than you may realize. The truth is, nothing about the way ballet works comes naturally to us humans. Muscles we rarely use must be engaged at every moment. Positions the body should never be subjected to must become second nature. And criticism, the sticky, cherry flavored medicine of life, must become as delicious and wholesome to us as fresh bread. To be a dancer, one must depart from the natural and be something that is not human.  

Now, the inhuman road to the place where real ballerinas go is paved with principles—basic laws.

The ironic, I'll go as far as to say surprising, part is that these principles, the bricks that build up a successful ballerina, are the exact same bricks and blocks that build a successful human. To name a few: patience, humility, trust, courage, honesty, integrity, obedience, risk, balance, etc. They certainly go on. As I investigate the technique and art of ballet, I become more and more convinced that an average hour and a half ballet class is nothing more than a neatly compacted metaphor for life.  

Regarding Brandon Flowers’ pretty choice of lyrics, whether we’re human or dancer, the laws that govern our performance run parallel. To quote a stupid bumper sticker I saw once, “ballet is life.”

I'm sure you're craving the actual song at this point, and just to tie it all in, here's The Killers singing Human live from Royal Albert Hall in London! Enjoy!

ps- 2:20 thru 2:29 or so is probably my favorite moment :)