What is ballet really about?
Is it a series of steps, learned, and perfected over the years? A language of technique honed and shown off to the extreme? Is it expression, movement, or is it communication?
If it’s communication – with who? The audience, the dance partner, yourself?
Yet it must be more than just that, because there are many ways to express and communicate that don’t involve ballet. You can tell a story with words or pictures. But by the same token you can dance ballet steps over and over without communicating anything at all.
So what really is ballet? Is it something different to each and every one of us?
In this video, Royal Ballet Principal Artists Sarah Lamb and Steven McRae discuss the difficult repertoire (steps) of Sleeping Beauty, but also what they think ballet is.
What is ballet for you?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Q3OLE491U?rel=0&w=1280&h=720]