The Ballerina also READS

Coping with a feisty research assistant…

Antonio: I need a summary of Mali’s history by close of play today.
Olivia: I have a ballet class this afternoon.
Antonio: OK. Midday?
Olivia: I’ll try. Need new reading glasses, you know.
Antonio: Get me all you can about Mansa Musa. If it’s good, I’ll foot the bill for new reading glasses.
Olivia: And new ballet shoes?
Antonio: Give an inch, they take a mile.
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Voice-over
Ad for a position considered: “Rigorous reading assistant needed.” Not mentioned: “No drama queens or ballerinas.” But what fun is scholarship without a bit of riposte?

A Dream of Red Mansions

At the theater…

Harold: Are you, by any chance Professor White?

Professor White: I am.

Harold: I’m Harold, I took your Chinese Literature course in Melbourne.

Professor White: But that was, 1972? Fifty years ago?

Harold: You wrote me reference. It got me a job.

Professor White: Happy it worked. Are you in academia?

Harold: Not as illustriously as you. You’ve published more than a hundred books and papers.

Professor White: Well. It’s a niche subject. Not many Westerners care to persevere.

Harold: I remember you took us through Hong Lou Meng. 

Professor White: Ah, so that’s why you’re here.

Harold: I couldn’t pass on a ballet performance of it 50 years later. And to bump into my Chinese professor at the same performance. An incredible coincidence. Here of all places!

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Voice-over

Glorious production. Never thought when I was wrestling with Chinese Lit in 1972, that the story of Baoyu playing around as his family disintegrates, that I could chance on a ballet performance of it 50 years later. AND meet my Chinese professor there. It’s worth staying alive for the surprises history springs.

The Messiah as Ballet

Meeting the Messiah…

Audi: Great show.

Christian: Thanks.

Audi: I liked the joy you exuded. Dancing with the children. And the miracles you worked on the blind and the sick. Bearing the betrayal. And ending with the crucifixion.

Christian: We thought it would be good to contrast the charity and joy in the nature of Jesus with the greed and evil of the Pharisees and Judas.

Audi: Telling the story of Christ only through dance and Karl Jenkins music… even Jesus Christ Superstar included lyrics as verbal storytelling. Took the Bible into a new dimension.

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Voice-over

Another innovative production by the Austrian Ballet Company led by Rio Mitani and Christian Martinu: dancers, choreographers, teachers, and directors. Take this around the schools!

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Swan Lake Ending

No dying swan tonight...

Choreographer and ballerina discussion...

Denys: We have a choice of five endings: one happy through good defeating evil, one tragic self-sacrifice, and three tragic finales with evil defeating good.

Maya: I guess we do one of the tragic endings?

Denys: This audience likes happy endings. So we'll have Sergei pull the wing off Von Rothbart, who then dies. Odette doesn't die, and she and Sergei are united.

Maya: I don’t die? No dying swan?

Denys: The audience likes to see you go out victorious. Good triumphs over evil.

Maya: But life does not always have happy endings. Not in the Ukraine. Not anywhere.

Denys: But it’s what people expect in a story.

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Voice-over

Basic versions of the Swan Lake endings include:

The good live happily ever after…

Siegfried tears off Von Rothbart’s wing and he dies (as above). Odette and Siegfried are united.

The good triumph through self-sacrifice…

Odette commits suicide, Siegfried follows her, Von Rothbart’s power is destroyed.

The bad win triggering a tragic ending…

Odette is devastated by Siegfried’s betrayal, remains a swan, Siegfried grieves.

Odette forgives Siegfried, brief reconciliation, but Von Rothbart defeats Siegfried in a storm.

Rothbart kills Siegfried, then carries Odette off with him.

...

Sleeping Beauty Multiple Fairy Tale Ending

After Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty…

Teliqua: Great ballet. And a full orchestra with it. Good deal: two for the price of one. The ending had me a bit puzzled though. The wedding act having that parade of fairy tales. Cinderella. Red Riding Hood. Puss in Boots. What was that all about?

Tawanda: Wedding entertainment.

Teliqua: Having all those extra stories in at the end seemed a bit gratuitous. I mean, a ballet is usually a standalone story. Don Quixote, Peter Pan, Swan Lake. Why throw in that medley of Cinderella and Red Riding Hood?

Tawanda: Interesting question.

Teliqua: Why didn’t they throw in Mickey Mouse?

Tawanda: Silly. Mickey Mouse is a character with many stories. Those others are one-story characters.

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Voice-over

The narrative arc of Sleeping Beauty experiences a series of tremors at the end of the ballet version.

Problem: Evil fairy casts a spell on Princess Aurora.

Conflict: Lilac Fairy attempts a fix but the willful teenage princess, ignoring the cautions of parents, grabs the spindle and falls into a coma anyway.

Solution: Enter handsome princess who kisses Aurora awake; wedding celebrations include medley of other fairy tales; a singing, dancing, happy ending.

But then... we get...

And as for Mickey Mouse? He started out in 1928 as a bumbling suitor of Minnie Mouse but morphed into a fixit man with a bunch of interesting friends. Now his name is a pejorative epithet for dysfunctional machines or procedures such as “Mickey Mouse outfit.” This would be hard to fit in.

La Bayadère ending

Après la danse...

Natalia: Where did the last act go?

Svetlana: Yes. I expected the curtain to come down on the gods destroying the temple, trashing the wedding ceremony and all the guests fleeing, screaming.

Natalia: Instead of which, this distinctly Disney ending with the 32 dancers visiting Solor in his dream, and everyone is beaming and beatific as the bouquets are brought.

Svetlana: When in the original version, the gods' wrath completes the narrative. Final retribution. Tragic ending.

Natalia: You’re not happy?

Svetlana: Brilliant performance. But just for fun, why don’t we ask for a partial discount?

Natalia: Because it ends happily, before the tears? You'd pay more to be sad?

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Voice-over

The narrative arc of the original La Bayadère is traditional. Simply put, Nikiya, the temple dancer, and warrior Solor are lovers. Nikiya almost kills Gamzatti, a princess who is betrothed to Solor. At the ceremony Nikiya dances with a basket of flowers into which a snake has been put by Gamzatti. The snake bites Nikiya, she is offered an antidote, but refuses it since she cannot marry Solor. Nikiya dies. Solor becomes depressed, smokes opium, has a vision of Nikiya while spirits of other dancers appear in the fantastic Kingdom of the Shades dance. (CUT!) Solor awakes, his wedding to Gamzatti is underway, the gods unleash their wrath over the murder of Nikiya, destroying the temple and everyone in it.

Perhaps most performances of La Bayadère finish with the Kingdom of the Shades dance. At (CUT!). It is a spectacular dance. And the wrath of gods to come is not pretty to behold. And some audiences like a happy ending. But nevertheless, ending at the Shades dance, something feels unresolved. The narrative feels incomplete, ending in a dream.

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