Dearest reader,
A ballerina Maria Khoreva talked about ballet and beauty in her YouTube video "Ballet Dancer Answers Awkward Questions About Ballet Dancers". And ever since I have been unable to let these topics go off my mind. After all, I am too a ballet dancer (in some accord) and studied bodily knowledge in my final thesis, therefore, I felt it important to investigate these topics further.
Namely, according to Khoreva, ballet is beauty and even though, beauty associated with ballet can be confusing, even discouraging at times, she adds, that working with the beauty of ballet is mainly inspiring: You are constantly working towards this beauty. You are constantly trying to get more and more beautiful, trying to work together with this beautiful world of ballet. In addition to beauty, Khoreva talks about timelessness and transiency of ballet, of how in every performance each dancer and member of the audience have a possibility to belong to the fleeting moment of dance. And knowning ballet to be one of the youngest art froms – yet it feels incrediably old, almost ancient (Khoreva, 2023) – makes it fitting to discribe ballet as timeless which in some ways adds to the beauty of it.
So, inspired by Khoreva's thoughts I started to ponder on them as well, and as a result, I realised how wonderful it is to deal with things that seek and create beauty such as ballet: the fact that you strive for a beautiful expression and beautiful movement with your own body makes an impact. There is something deeply honorable and fragile yet powerful and striking in the endeavor of it. That someone in all her imperfectness decides to seek a more beautiful level of moving and being feels purifing because it takes work, sensibility and consicous study of self, other and the environment.
Even according to ancient Greek philosophy, beauty, especially the beauty of human bodies is connected to qualities of soul and personality (Eco, p. 41, 2010). Therefore, if beauty is goodness and goodness is beauty isn't becoming a beautiful mover comprehensively good for a human? And if ballet is beauty then surely by practising ballet you can create beauty in all areas of our human existence? With these thoughts I cannot help but think of my weekly ballet classes with a deepening admiration and congratulate myself for choosing an art form that exists in beauty.
In recent years, in fact, I have been trying to explain why I love ballet so much and I this might be one of the reasons why. At any rate, now that I have been made consciously aware of the fundamental beauty of ballet it is impossible not to see its benefits and possible perils.
Therefore, I am for the time being left with even more questions concerting ballet and beauty which I would like to study further in the future:
In what ways the endeavor of beauty in movement impacts us psychologically?
In what measures dancing ballet affects the experience of the beauty of self, others and the environment?
Can the beauty of ballet add to the human experience of beauty in life?
Can ballet change or adapt the experience of beauty?
How ballet has affected my own experience of beauty in this world, in myself and in others?
What is the definition of a beautiful mover?
Sources:
Khoreva, M. (2023). Ballet Dancer Answers Awkward Questions About Ballet Dancers. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckkCWVfa9Pc&t=1223s
Eco, U. (2010). On Beauty: a History of a Western Idea. MacLehose Press. https://www.adlibris.com/fi/kirja/on-beauty-9780857050205?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8OLe-pyD_QIVk4jVCh3U0gOEEAQYASABEgLVp_D_BwE
Do you agree that ballet is beauty?
Do you believe that by becoming a beautiful mover you can also become a beautiful person?
Yours truly,
Siiri
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