Why Ballet Needs Artistry 

Hi everyone- I am so happy to see this conversation being started. In any conversation there will be things we can agree with and disagree with. But it’s good to let all views be presented so we can find the common thread that binds us as artists, dancers, and people. Thank you so much for your comments, and I look forward to seeing where the conversation goes. -Michael

"Ten pirouettes is just ten pirouettes." Exactly. After a while, it's just boring.

I think the obsessive focus on athleticism also has a tendency to make the ageism in dance worse as well. Artistry is developed over time, and often older, experienced performers are the most expressive. I'm still relatively young, not quite 30, but so many of my peers have retired solely due to injury preventing them from performing at the same level of sustained intensity as teenagers. Its a real shame to lose all their artistry and acting ability just because they aren't doing 8 pirouettes.

For me as a dancer, the ability to express, to make others feel your emotion with your movements, is more captivating than simply making cold and perfect steps. I think this is not only a ballet problem because in other disciplines the artistry has had a huge decrease over time (gymnastics, figure skating). Humans evolve and also techniques, but we don't have to forget the artistry because is part of the beauty of ballet.

Like Master Ballet Academy, absolutely no hate to them cuz they create great dancers, but it seems like all they focus on is how many turns and “tricks” they’re dancers can do and it almost feels lifeless sometimes. They’re dancers are INCREDIBLY talented technically but the artistry feels lost sometimes :(

Thank God you are addressing this essential point. Ballet is becoming a bit of acrobatics, circus, so many young dancers who have technique but zero emotion, they are boring...i miss someone like Natalia Makarova, Margot Fonteyn whose arabasque was absolutely a la second, but oh ....the magic, she could tell the stories, her Ondine, unforgettable, her partnership with Nureyev was pure emotion, art, love, nobody cared she was 50+, she was a 15 year as Juliet through her exquisite artistry and narrative.you are so right!

In Bolshoi theatre today I see no artistry work , only cold jumps and pirouettes. And I’m pretty sure that it works like that because of the wrong direction. And when I came to Stanislavkii theatre Stanmus I saw really convincing stories. And I fell in love. My heart was aching after I saw their giselle, the snow maiden, I cried a lot after Seeing esmeralda. It’s still alive somewhere!

"I explained it when I danced it." Margot Fonteyn ✨

Yes, we need a return to artistry. Funny, watching ballet videos a week or so ago before seeing this video I was thinking the same thing. Dancers more and more try and distinguish themselves by physical feats: most dramatic jumps, longest balances, most (or fastest, or most exotic turning) fouettees, diverging from historic choreography to add big jumps, lack of partnering skill/line, all do give a colder experience as you say. And many prominent dancers (even from back some years) represent this physical, showy style. Such dancing is spectacular, fills seats, and gets applause. But a great artist truly conveys a story.

For me the problem come from YAGP (and social medias), it's not about dance, it's not about technic, it's about how high you can, how turns you do, more more and more, everything but artistic. And about poor young children, OK they can dance Esmeralda or Kitri variation, but with no technic and it's too hard for their muscles.

Finally, someone is saying what I have been thinking and seeing. I was a dancer through the late 70’s. Technique today is incredibly precise and clean, but there is no personality. Beautiful and perfect technique, but often almost robotic. No personality or joy that we used to see, only precision. There needs to be a blend of precise technique, dancer personality, and artistry. All are necessary for the beauty and joy of the ballet to be seen, experienced, and enjoyed. Glad someone is finally noticing.

Can't stand the over splits and "hitch" to get higher developpe in second. Ugh. And penche beyond 180 in Swan Lake? Why, just why?! In something more modern, fine. But the classics? No.

To me the pointe of ballet is to master technique in order to go full out on the artistry, but I also do not have good turnout so I rely greatly on my artistic skills in class and on stage. I may be a bit biased 😂❤

You are completely right. I have noticed this trend. It is cold and calculated . Overly-arched feet and -extensions are the standard for young performers today,. Never thought I could say this but way too many fouette turns? By contrast Fonteyn and Nureyev's performances remain unforgettable. Fonteyn' was a graceful dancer. Her arms to the tips of her fingers, her head and facial expression worked to tell the story of the ballet. She and Nureyev were one and it was very moving. You felt something and you'd seen something truly captivating that happened only when they danced together. So much today is amazing but truly forgettable because the art is not there.

I do agree with you! Listening to you reminds me Maya Plissetskaya! Ulanova! Fonteyn! They had so much artistry and technique! Like you said, ten pirouettes is just that. I miss the emotion we used to feel when I watched those dansers on Swan Lake, Giselle. Thanks for your inspiring words! It's about time to listen about the lack of artistry that permeates today's ballet.

I think this video says what a lot of us have been thinking for a long time. I had RAD tuition and a lot of emphasis is put on musicality and performance - not to mention marks in the exams. One of my fellow students had a background in performance and she always got better marks than me, even though my technique was much better than hers. I was always trying to get higher extensions etc. but I'm tall and have long legs and couldn't keep in time with the music. My teacher always told me to work within my abilities and that it wasn't important how high my legs went but the technique utilised. She was absolutely right. You tell people that you do ballet and they want to see you wrap your legs around your head and do the splits etc. so they clearly see us as gymnasts too. When I go to see the ballet it's not just athletic performance - it's the music, the sets, the costumes, the artistry and of course the beautiful dancing. That's what we all fell in love with.

It’s about feeling the music once the technique is perfected to the point that the body and mind can relax and express what it feels. I’m amazed how many dancers are stiff and their movements are rigid. To have flawless technique is one thing but when you begin to look robotic all artistry is lost. Artistry comes more naturally to some than others. Too technical becomes boring!

I agree that today’s students and dancers are far cleaner, and that’s actually one of the reasons that ballet is not as interesting anymore. As a composer and pianist, I also regret the fact that instrumental and vocal performers are also pitch perfect and play very accurately. This perfection takes the human element away, it takes away the sense of challenge, and therefore, the sense of struggle and the emotions that come with it. Stravinsky regretted the fact that decades after he wrote the impossibly high and challenging opening bassoon solo of the Rite of Spring, even conservatory students could play it perfectly effortlessly taking away the rough, angular and “prehistoric” sound that he had originally intended by writing it so high. When people perform so perfectly, it simply looks like an Olympics competition and not art. In the past, even in circuses, sometimes acrobats faked a sense of struggle in order to get an emotional response from the audiences. In ballet (and all other arts), technique should be completely subservient to and in the service of artistry. While artistry without adequate technique is very difficult to achieve, displaying perfect technique without artistry is even more irrelevant. It would be like random words strung together pretending to be poetry.

Well put. The only thing I would push back on a bit is that I don't think that a lack of a story in a ballet necessarily means a lack of emotion or artistry. Just as abstract art can convey emotion and move people, I think a story-less ballet can do the same, as long as it is actually danced with artistry. Unfortunately though, I agree that artistry has been under-emphasized in favor of photo-perfect poses, flawless lines (read: bodies), and impressive tricks. But it's hard to portray artistry in an instagram post, and that's what really matters (I'm sort of joking there, but it's kind of a laugh-or-I'll-cry kind of joking. Can they do 20 pirouettes? Sure! Are they beautiful dancers? We may never know!)

At first the thumbnail had me on the defence but when I listened, I fully agree with this point. Yes, technique is important, but I feel like it’s only a tool to reach the artistry in ballet. Technique shouldn’t be the sole focus of the style, it should be utilized to better convey emotions and personality through dance. This is why I place quite a lot of focus on self expression and improvisation in my own classes. I want my students to be able to express themselves through movement in class and on the stage. I’ve noticed that a lot of students are hesitant to improvise and create their own choreography, which just goes to show how important it is to make opportunities to learn to improvise freely. Because I think that improvisation is a key part in the artistry of a dancer.

This has been an argument in ballet since the art form started. Critics used to slam male dancers for performing excessive turns and jumps at the beginning of the 19th century.

Absobloominglutely!!! I discovered ballet at 15 when i saw a 12minute pdd on Ed Sullivan’s American variety show, Dame Margot and Nureyev , white act. It changed my life. Just like that. I became passionately interested, taking lessons, watching everything i could on TV, going to every performance i could, reading all i could, and when i was old enough, traveling to feed an obsession. I gloried in what those of us who lived through it call now “the Golden Age” of the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s when we had many great artists of ballet: Fonteyn, Nureyev, Bruhn, Fracci, Dowell, Sibley, makarova, Kirkland, Baryshikov, and many others, so many others! It is, these days, impossible to describe. You went to the ballet and returned home flying still with what you had experienced. Now ballet has become about how high the leg goes en arabesque. Younger folks complain that they don’t see why everyone says Fonteyn and Nureyev were such a big deal because neither ever lifted their leg over their head or did a backbend that ended way between their knees before the walkover. Shoot! back then, gymnastic floor exercises could even have and profit from some artistry. Watching Olga Korbut to music was fun and joy filled, far from being just a bunch of tricks strung together. Ice skating competitions were often full of artistry. Now only ice dancing retains any of that quality. Everything else is about how many quads a person can do and how many death defying lifts a couple can pull off. The Protopopovs, Peggy Fleming, John Curry would never be able to make it to world wide podiums today. I am sorry: except for the worry that someone might be badly injured, it is boring, even sometimes ugly. A person may be able to astonish by doing an arabesque at 180 degrees, but it is not even pretty, let alone artistry. I talk to my friends now who were balletomanes during the Golden Age, and they say the same. They are no longer lifted by going to the ballet, so, while they might still go on occasion, they don’t really CARE. The dancers who lifted us up to CARE were the ones who were able to fill the theaters for days and days. It was not a myth. Of COURSE they had the technique! But they were the ones who also let the music fill up and trail out of their bodies whether they were dancing story ballets or not, to go beyond technique into the realm of grace and beauty and BELIEVE in the story they were telling or the character they were creating. Dame Ninette de Valois told Dame Margot when she was trying to convince her to dance with Nureyev, a boy 20 years younger, “When he raises his arm, you can see swans flying.” Artistry is using ALL the tools at your disposal to lead someone to CARE about what you are doing, not only technique. The legends were legendary because they could do that over and over and over.

This same thing has happened in ice skating. It has become boring. A bunch of quads and as many "skills" stuffed into a time slot as they can. Beauty has been sidelined.

SO true Michael ! Some ballet has become athletic & mechanical. Let us bring back the feelings and musicality so that ballet is music in movement with nuance and true artistry. Well said Michael.!!

Ballet dancers are top athletes who are working as artists. I’m so bummed seeing social media turn it into athletic virtuosity. It’s what happened to figure skating! I’ve been …seeing a lot of social media representation of dance and it’s for an audience of non dancers who are just wow! So much spinning! Meanwhile…port de bras is just not being developed and 90% of the comments aren’t even sure what that means. They’re like oh lines and slay queen but they’ve never seen a ballet. It’s gotten so TECHNICAL, which sure, we need but start there and build your artistry, built the musicality. This is so well made, your video is amazing. Tag MBA in it. The Wozniaks single handedly erased artistic musicality from ballet on social ballet. And they’re so savvy, it’s about advertising, money and banking on the ignorance of the audience. On one hand dancers (young women) like Melanie Macintyre are social media juggernauts but she lacked artistry at the prix de Lausanne and she’s got it all…she’s got all the fundamentals but she hasn’t had any experience with other teachers who could help her embrace a more artistic evolution Watching her dance you see it’s all there but she needs a better finishing school.

Personally, I like movement & music & don't always need a theatrical story. But the overfocus on high extensions, acrobatic jumps & endless pirouettes (though I really envy spinning talents!!) has kind of ruined what dance is about. When I studied dance, one really old classic-instructor said something like, "it's not how far up your legs go, but HOW they go up! If you can't capture the house with a 45° arabesque, I'm not interested in a 180° arabesque!" She was the mean kind of old school, and of course also said we need to get our legs higher & called us all sorts of lazy, but sometimes what she said was spot on. And the most amazing dancers can just stand on stage, or reach one arm, or angle their head the weest bit, or stick one toe out & it's like they touch your soul & change the course of planets by that tiny move!

AGREED. For me, The Royal Ballet dancers are the best in the world BECAUSE they FEEL …. And THEY MAKE ME FEEL. So many companies don’t make me feel. Sadly, even the one in my own city. (This was a very wise video.)

I love this conversation. I love America, though I think our modern, fast paced American culture has appreciated doing, accomplishing, superficial, quick disposable things, quantity, more than it appreciates feeling, being, depth, natural/real beauty, quality (technique is a big part of the quality, but the inside needs quality too). People prefer sports & competition over the arts, & people will watch the arts when made into a competitive show, so maybe dance was trying to become more relevant & “cool” in America & it has gotten out of hand. I don’t know how much artistry is being lost in other countries, but it could be because America has such a big media influence on the rest of the world? I don’t know. I do know that, though I love perfecting my own technique, I don’t love watching other dancers nowadays. When I was younger, it was the old West Side Story that gave me the passion to start dancing (specifically “Cool Boy”). Fred & Ginger got me into ballroom dancing, but that has become mostly technical & cookie cutter, probably because of the competition aspect. But like in old gymnastics & ice skating, you can still compete artistically. Other forms of dance are more tricks & acrobats & less dancing. People care more about being a tough “bad [donkey]” all the time. I do want a return to artistry, real beauty & depth, open hearts. I want to go to the theatre to feel & experience it, not just look at the surface & actions of it. Maybe starting this conversation will help the pendulum to go back a little more, so thank you for bringing it up. There is currently push back on our modern culture, with slow living, getting back to nature, rejecting “hustle culture” or having to be “tough” & competitive when you’re naturally sensitive, etc, so maybe that will help too. There is a movement on getting in touch with yin “feminine energy“. I feel like the technique & tricks of dance are the yang “masculine energy” & the feeling & being/the artistry are the “feminine energy”, & we need both. Yin & Yang. It’s not good for the pendulum to swing too far either way. It’s not good to separate them. This conversation makes me want to go watch Shen Yun, based on their philosophies on dancing from the inside out.

A high level of technique frees a dancer to focus more on artistic expression. But I disagree with your stating that abstract, contemporary ballet lacks artistry. And as much as I love story ballets, where emotion is about the character of the role being played and not about the dance being performed. In non-story ballet artistry is not stripped out because a character and its emotion are absent. The dancer's artistry then relates to the dance and there is-or can certainly be-emotion about the movement. Every dancer I know in the New York City ballet, whose repertory consists of mostly abstract ballets, will describe emotions connected to each of those ballets. Take Alexei Ratmansky's latest work, Solitude, which in the words of the NY Times critic "Unleashes the Pain of War." That is a contemporary ballet without a story but with an enormous amount of emotion pouring out.

Oh I do so agree - artistry means nothing to so many teachers and students. Raised hip to get leg higher in 2nd, twisted hips and shoulders in arabesque ditto. No-one is taught the exquisite arabesque line anymore - no-one can hold that line in grand jete en tournant 'cos it's essier to flick the back leg instead. I could go on. Maria Callas was not known for hitting notes for the sake of it - she moved audiences with her voice: no 'listen to me holding this high note for hours' for her! Artistry, passion, interpretation, and character mattered. She was superb.

When you see a grand jeté beyond 180 degrees it actually looks ugly. The best dancers use technique to tell the story.

Give me Carla Fracci any day. This new style...I believe ballet is following the trends of everything else of modern times: gritty and emotionless. Unfortunate, but there will always be a remnant upholding the classical standard.

BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO finally you SAY IT and gently too! Thank you !

I'm a competitive figure skater as well as ballerina. I skate with some extreamly technically skilled skaters but they have no artistry at all....its impressive the jumps and spins and footwork they do but it feels empty and cold. I am not as technically skilled right now but I've been told by many audience members and old school coaches that they enjoy watching me skate because I'm so expressive. I don't have an axel or 10 perfect revolutions on every spin... but I skate with meaning/feeling to give a performance.... I wish more skaters would skate with artistry and expression from their face to the tips of their fingers. Instead of it being so stiff and focused on perfect foot work.

I think that putting so many eggs in the Altheticism basket is what has gotten ballet into its current position where most regular folks just don't see the appeal. "It's just people prancing around, nothing happened in the story" is a sentiment I've often heard repeated. If the community had chosen to go harder on storytelling and emotion, I truly think more people would feel like they get it. If the way you get more butts in seats is reliant on higher jumps, more extreme backbends, and more hypertended knees than you can shake a stick at, then you will eventually crash into the hard boundaries of the human body. At a certain point, there will be no more we can ask of our bones and muscles, and folks who subscribe to that school of thought will have to throw up their hands and say "ballet is officially dead!" Because their ballet was based on chasing novelty. Also, that's why dancers get hurt so damn much. It's not sustainable, and it's making ballet less accessible to audiences. That's a solid game plan for killing an art form, in my opinion. Give me the artistry every time! Because emotions connect all of us.

The over emphasis on competitions being your motive for career advancement now over slowly working your way up through the company ranks has been the biggest detriment to ballet in its centuries long history as it evolved out of Opera in the Italian courts. Opera and its subsequent child Ballet grew out of storytelling in real time, full stop. Until the early 20th century and the ability to record and capture audio and images for playback, live was all there was. And, you grew up in these companies and went through a "system" of Advancement, hopefully. But in the 90's the ballet competition as a means of getting noticed by artistic directors really started taking off and then with the advent of social media it went gangbusters. Now you have ABT principal Dancers like Daniil Simpkin who never went to a school or worked their way up through a company. He privately trained with his retired pro parents and won a bunch of competitions while promoting it all on social media and boom, insta-star. Before 2000 this would have been absolutely unheard or. It is the confluence of many things culturally creating this sitiation. I do not know if we can go back honestly but I certainly hope we do. Gymnastics is gymnastics, ballet is supposed to be art.

I think Rambert (uk) manages this three legged balance. But many of the young dancers I see on instagram etc are technically incredible but I would agree they are more like athletes than artists and there is something a bit empty in how thin, supple and technically brilliant they are.

I have completely stopped watching ballet. Everything now is counting how many turns someone does, just like a sport, except without the regulations and additional work in most sports. I blame it to the war the competitions like Lausanne are held. It's lifeless, artless sport made mostly by kids. You can love it or hate it, it's just what's happening. I personally hate it.

"Art is an expression of emotion." I agree with Michael's perception, entirely! I'm 77 and have slowly sensed that dance has become preoccupied with technique, separate from human emotion. I agree with you completely, Michael...I need to feel something when I see a performance. That's what art is...an expression of some aspect of being human.

Madame Boitsov in Chicago has been teaching artistry for many decades. But the snob society of Chicago has never given her talent, which is from the Bolshoi, a chance to blossom. I can attest to this as the first graduate of the Boitsov Classical Ballet School of Chicago, back in the 1980's. Mrs Boitsov is a true gem, but the society and papers were owned by news critics. The Russian ballet school, teaching the Vaganova Technique, is the best in the world...hands down. A technical perfectionist is cold and boring, but true dramatic talent, stage personality and good solid technique becomes the true beauty of ballet.

My teacher used to have the same discussion with me. I understand what you say and I agree with you, it has become a bit more like a show rather than a tale or piece of art so to speak. We want to have all the technique but not compromise on the artistic.

You bring up a VERY important subject here. But I don't think the problem is limited to the ballet world. It's a wider cultural problem. It's not just ballet that is "dying." It's all of the arts (literature, drama, film, music etc.). And I don't think it's the teachers that are to blame...it's the culture as a whole. If you want to return to the days when artistry was just as important (if not more) than technique (which is something I agree with 100%), then I'm afraid the only way to do that is to return to a pre-Digital Age. Okay, I'm being semi-facetious because obviously that's not going to happen (though I would love it if we could dump all our phones and social media into some deep chasm for a time in order to "re-set" the culture, so to speak). Speaking of which, my own feeling as to why dancing is so technical, cold and "sport-like" now has less to do with the teaching than with dancers who post their 15 pirouettes for the millionth time on social media. I won't mention any names (it would be too long a list although some have a more addictive tendency to do this than others) but it's the single thing that fast-tracks this delicate art form into the realm of "arena sport" and technique-fandom. Not only does it mislead the greater public into thinking that "phenomenal technique" equals "greater artistry" but, because we can now witness all the "tricks" from the comfort of our homes, it discourages people to actually GO to the theater because they don't think there's anything extra waiting for them once they've been repeatedly beaten over the head with the 15 pirouettes and other virtuosic technical feats. As the saying goes, why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? And the uneducated public has good reason to believe that the "milk" is nothing greater than the "15 pirouettes." Story? What story? There are certain company directors guilty of turning ballet into a sport too by routinely featuring the technical wizardry of their notable dancers or trainees/competition headliners on RU-vid in the form of endless posted "shorts" for promotional purposes. Another problem is that if you say anything close to what I'm writing here, the response is usually an accusation of "elitism" or "pearl-clutching" (I suppose they mean the pearls swung before swine? Sorry, couldn't resist!). In all seriousness, this is a very crucial discussion you are bringing up and my fervent hope is that your video goes viral. We're in very hot water right now as a culture--as a species. I don't mean to sound alarmist but what's happening in ballet is merely a symptom of a greater infection that poses a far more disturbing threat. The arts have long been under assault. I agree that dancers are collectively more advanced in their technical capabilities than ever before. We have phenomenal athletes in the dance world at all levels. But we have very, VERY few who are truly great artists. I have a hard time thinking of any, to be honest, and those that spring to mind are on the verge of retirement or have already retired. There are some great teachers left but they can't compete with the forces that are disintegrating our culture. As a part-time reporter on dance, I've watched them teach and I've sensed their frustration. I also watch clips of them teaching or coaching well-known principals and I can see that they just aren't "getting through." The dancers often seem more preoccupied with "capturing" the moment for social media and sometimes I get the feeling they almost, subtly seem to be poking fun at these venerable coaches as if they are either being too "harsh" or "Old World" or maybe as a way of advertising how "hard" their chosen "sport" is (as someone else has commented here). So how are such teachers to get through to the dancers of the future when they are confronting the far more powerful and nefarious forces of a digital and tech-obsessed age? Namely: greater self-promotion, narcissism and self-obsession (which leads to weak artistry), more merging of art with politics (which only serves to keep art "small" since art seeks truth and cannot conform to ideology of any kind without corrupting that truth) and fierce obsession with all things science and tech-related (which obliterates the patience, sensitivity, isolation, reflection, inspiration and struggle it takes to even understand what a high benchmark in artistry looks like, never mind what it takes to attain it). Why bother doing all that when you can get easy applause for your amazing pyrotechnical feats or gushing adoration for your Tik Tok-inspired "pop" ballet choreography in a 10-second post? Why make it "hard" when you can just work until the technical stuff is "easy" and just..well... have all the glamour and praise come easy too? Your point about "telling stories" sums up exactly what's missing. But how can you even begin to "tell a story" if you beat out everything "original" about your personality and just talk and act and post like everyone else? Even the way dancers talk about their art form now, with irritating and jaded acronyms and jargon peppering their (usually vocal-frying) speech attests to how we're seriously in danger of losing our grip on the whole purpose of art---which is to help us continually evolve as a civilization--keep us from going extinct as a species---keep those AI monsters of the future from shutting us in a black hole and throwing away the key. Okay, I'm being a tad dramatic but at least I'm giving you a story, right? On a more sober note, what's interesting to think about is how a dancer like Suzanne Farrell manages to "tell a story" with every gesture even though she was the great muse for what were mostly the "plotless" ballets of George Balanchine. So she gave you a story even when there was "no story." She kindled the viewer's imagination at every turn. Hence it's not so much that choreography needs to contain an obvious narrative. It's the job of any artist in any medium to convey information that is ineffable---that opens the door to truth (even if all we get is a glimpse of it through a momentary feeling or epiphany). Farrell (and others of her generation) did this with sublime commitment and humility before the art form. It wasn't about showing off their technique, good looks, great lines, cool jargon, media "personality" (remember when ballet was a SILENT art form and you learned of the dancer's personality through their movement quality only?) or jaded, mediocre, blandly stylized humor. It was just endless searching and endless creation. We can easily "teach" this. The problem is, can people hear it through the noise of unrelenting media, tech, politics and self-promotion/campaigning in the hopes of achieving principal status by way of a huge "media following?" What is disturbing is that they often succeed in achieving that "next" rank. But the artistry fails as a result. Some technically very gifted dancers whom I'd hoped would develop into the next great artists are, indeed, principals at major companies today but, sadly, are thoroughly unwatchable. We already know they can do the 15 pirouettes without a hitch. But the artistry is abysmal. They don't even seem to understand the concept. The only concept they understand is the concept of "killing it" on stage. And "kill it" they do---in fact, they have no idea how thoroughly they are killing it.

Alessandra Ferri, in Romeo & Juliet, is the epitome of artistry and technique!

Ballet can never be considered a sport despite it's progressing athleticism. 4 things to my mind define sport, Speed, strength, height and length. With these four you compete in your specialty event to win. Dance has four basic requirements - technique, musicality, artistry and performance. It is difficult to judge these four in competition as they are subjective and will always be at the whim (no matter how knowledgeable or professional) of the adjudicator. This then should negate any activity considered subjective in judging. Rhythmic gymnastics, ice skating, ballroom dancing, synchonized swimming etc but these are another topic. They are nice to watch, or not, but seriously are they sports? Ballet requires strength developed over years of training but not without the four basics. Yes we train like sports people but our goal is not to win it is to entertain using taught or inherent artistic abilities. Apologies for my long winded commentary but I hate the thought of ballet in the Olympics.

I do agree. Artistry is more important for me. I need to experience the story in my heart and body. Less gymnastics and technique and please more Artistry/Love/Emotion - softness please!

I agree with all points. And I think that artistry starts at school. I graduated from Riga choreography school in 1989 a long time ago. And we had regular acting classes and ballet acting classes where we studied the lives and emotions of the characters. I don't know if this still exists today, but it was extremely helpful. If you have emotions behind the movement, it changes everything. We need to bring emotions back so people who watch performances don't have to read libretto every second to understand what is happening on the stage. Technique is like the foundation of the house, but it's lifeless without anybody living there.

I agree with you. And also, I find very interesting what you said about contemporary dance, it might be the reason I never really appreciated this type of dance. I always preferred classical ballet and character dance because I believe it needs more artistry. Plus, I believe that social media might be a factor of why ballet has become like that. Showing 10 pirouettes and high extensions makes unfortunately people much more popular than artistry. If we publish a video of Giselle's mad scene and a video of the adage in the second act with the développé à la seconde, it will be the adage that will mostly be preferred because it seems impressive. I think its always about being impressive. Furthermore, I think it is sad when I see some people saying that a dancer is bad if he hasn't high extensions or a big turnout. People often only judge the technique and never the artistry. I am also angry when some says that dancers of the ONP are less good just because they haven't higher extensions like other compagnies (Sylvie Guillem is an exception). I thing it is justly what is making their charm because it is one of the rare compagnies that focuses more on the artistry. Sorry for the bad English.

it sadly is becoming sport, already Plisetskaja said 30 years ago that the Bolshoi is becoming so boring.

Im a ballet dancer and have been since I was a child and I have the advantage of having the background of being an actress on top of doing ballet and I feel like it helped not only in class but also on the stage during performances. Also I've always said that ballet is a sport because we train juat as much if not more than athletes and what we do isn't easy. We push our bodies in ways the body isn't meant to be pushed in and use muscles that the average person don't normally use.

Bravo 👏 👏 👏 ive been saying this for years. If you study the history of dance it started as a way of telling a story with dance. Ballet means to dance. Fonteyn was the last great dancer as far as im concerned. As you say, a lot of focus now is more toward athletics. The original idea of en pointe was to appear as if floating, personally id prefer less point, less pirouettes, less how high can i go, and have more passion. Just my opinion, im old so i guess im old fashioned x

Its odd that in your presentation you never use the word musicality. I think musicality is so important that you title should be changed to "Why Ballet Needs Musicality", instead musicality is just grouped into technique. If that's the case, then I strongly support the case for greater and greater technique. I fear that what you refer to as artistry in many cases is schmaltz. In my view, there is nothing as dreadfully boring as watching a story ballet, where everyone is standing stationary on the stage with the exception of the lead character, who is compensating for this imbalance with a clownish display of over emoting. In addition, these types of ballets typically have lavish sets and costumes, which is really beyond the economic scope of most financially strapped dance companies. Better the money should be spent on better salaries for these dancers then these overly expensive sets and costumes. I consider the entire concept of story length ballets to be really dated and something that needs to be retired as quickly as possible.

its like we call things sport in order that they wont be diminished by the creative title of art.

You need decent technique in order to allow the artistry free rein and prevent injuries. If your pirouettes, arabesques, etc. are sloppy, it will distract the audience from the story. The really great dancers can show their characters through the various steps of the choreography in part because of decent to excellent technique. Yes, we get focused on how many pirouettes can you do in a row, etc, but there's a place for that, too, because ballet tells so many types of stories. I think the problem is more with competitions because I see so many ballet RU-vidrs who dance beautifully who do give tips on better jumps, etc, but also emphasize artistry. However, I do disagree about some contemporary ballet pieces. Very often the pieces are expressing extremely complex emotions but they're using a movement vocabulary that's related to but not the same as that of classical ballet. I like that it gives a wider range of options for expression. I saw Hong Kong Ballet perform to Mozetich's "Affairs of the Heart" in a more contemporary style and they did an excellent job of portraying the range of human emotions inherent in the music.

Another thought:- Would a classical pianist be praised for playing Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto at a hundred miles an hour, despite the odd bum note? I doubt it, but dancers are lauded for more turns, higher leaps with lousy techniques, and sloppy finishes. If classical technique is not what makes classical ballet, what does?

For me it's interesting that you wanted to hear what others thought about this subject because I also have been observing how much classical ballet is becoming very athletic. I have been wondering if that was just due to the fact that I trained in the 60's and 70's. Yes, I do think that the beauty, the artistry and the simplicity of classical ballet as performed by Margot Fonteyn and Ana Pavlova and the great ballerinas of the 60"s and 70"s is disappearing very quickly. It's sad but true.

Like figure skating, where it's all jumps jumps jumps, and staying skinny to keep the jumps.

OMG, this almost made me want to cry. Someone, SOMEONE is actually saying what I have been feeling for so long! I have been teaching for over 50 years and now focus on teaching adult students. I am always telling them that yes, technique is vital and yes, adults can be taught good technique. (I am often called "pernickety") but the most important thing is artistry; that is what makes it ballet. It is an art and NOT a sport. Whether you are creating a character, telling a story or simply feeling the emotion that the music brings out it must have the person first and foremost. I only said to my students in class yesterday after they did an allegro where there was a spark in the eyes and feeling in their movements, that I must have seen countless millions of enchaînements like this in my life, but when I saw that one it was like I had seen it for the very first time. Because it was about the feeling. Sorry to rave, but I am so passionate about this. Thank you so much for speaking out. I hope things will start to change. I no longer feel like I'm trying to tackle this alone.

I totally agree..... excellent video

I do ballet by the RAD method and musicality is soooooo important! it's a big mark on our exams. our teacher is constantly telling us "what does it matter what you can do if you can't keep neither consistency nor musicality?". she had us repeating dances over and over again until we could understand what the music was telling us. i have a really good grand battement devant and à la seconde, but i can barely lift my leg from the floor on derriere, so my teacher started staying with me during barre and blocking my leg, so i couldnt go higher on devant and on la seconde because she told me "if you dont have a consistent work and you cant show the same grand battement on derriere that you show me in devant/second, you are not doing them in my class until you improve your derriere" i used to be really annoyed because i thought to myself "but i can get them so high! it's super unfair" but looking at videos where i do each at a different height makes me realize how important is the musicality and the consistency. ok i reached my head, but i'm a count behind, therefore im speeding to get on time, so what is the point? I believe the variation where we see the lack of musicality the most is in Esmeralda, with dancers trying to show off their balancés, although ballet is not a sport where you do the max you can to prove you are better than others, it's a form of art where you show you are better than others by acting, not just performing some tricks. ballet is gracious, beautiful and, as i said multiples time before, consistent. i would love to see all those talented dancers taking more to preserve the art that ballet is

Hi Michael, I'm so glad you brought this up. I have been noticing since I was a little girl watching Ballet from the 60's, till now... how the ballerinas of today are very athletic ! The days of "The Red Shoes" by Powell,and Pressburger are long gone. I'm not looking for a ballerina to wrap her legs behind her head,and spin 20 times in a row,although it's entertaining for the moment. I love the ballerinas that have something that we lack these days...."Grace". The gentle movements of the body, the facial expressions of pure Bliss,or Sorrow, the beautiful "Arms",where have these aesthetics gone ? I do notice that even the female figure skaters have become more athletic...gone are the days of the beautiful, graceful styles of Peggy Fleming. I miss the grace,and beauty of days gone by. Maybe the women or the choreographers of today feel they need to showcase strength over grace. I just don't get it ? Thank you for speaking to what so many of us are thinking. Cindy

Rudolf Nureyev described himself as a romantic dancer and the audience could be moved to tears when he and Margot Fontein danced, together or alone they both exuded artistry and joy which was why they were both loved so much. Romance seems to have largely disappeared from contemporary society, showing closeness and warmth towards each other is not "cool" and everything is seriously competitive. Maybe contemporary ballet is just reflecting contemporary attitudes.

Ballet is mirroring society. Unfortunately, the Establishment wants robots- in the larger world as well as the ballet world. Ballet choreography, through the years, has limited innovative movement; instead,it merely accentuates the basic movements with higher legs, more flexible feet, more turns, longer balances. If you consider the relatively unlimited number of difficult movements in the Cecchetti system, today’s ballet classes never even attempt those movements let alone incorporate them into contemporary ballet choreography. If you raise dancers to believe that high legs and multiple turns are what defines dancers, well then, there you have it. We need ballet instructors demanding more artistic development from our students.

I am also shocked to see how such young girls are on pointe. Their bones are still so soft. Surely there is some policy or oversight to control that?

I used to think that in order to dance "beautifully," I had to have extreme flexibility, but I learned that dancing is not about hitting extreme positions, its about *PATTERNWORK!* The MAJOR flaw with ballet is the one directional turns. All of the long turning is done in one dirwction , and this makes for UNBALANCED pattern-work. This is also the major flaw in figure skating, and so many of the sports: UNBALANCED abilieties. This is what sport does to art: it distorts things. The human body is a balanced thin

I believe that one reason we are losing artistry (true artistry not choreographed 'mugging") is because so few people actually study or even see art - they don't go to museums, they don't go to the symphony, there is no art education in school and it has once again become 'elitist" because to experience art you hav to pay SO much money. You used to be able to see art free on the telly (remember all the concerts that White House used to televise during the year - opera, ballet etc.?) So, the students today do not know what art is, the younger teachers really don't either...who will teach it, then? We need to take our students to the museums we need conversations and in depth exploration of what it means to develop and BECOME truly artistic....and it needs to be incorporated into the every day ballet classroom - from day one.

Margot Fonteyn and Galina Ulavona were artists not acrobats.

I worked all my professional life in opera, and I learned from great Italian maestros that you cannot just learn the notes and be able to get around the score. The expression, the meaning, has to be baked in from the first reading. Something like this has to be present in dance, too. Stravinsky said he was the conduit for the Rite of Spring: anyone who works through music has to be a conduit for the music, not just "able" to perform, surely? I would add that in ballet the horrible custom of applauding individual technical feats has accelerated the cross-over to a sporting model.

I'll write to you. Much to share.

IN 1975, I had Pauline Koner's one trimestre of ELEMENTS OF. PERFORMANCE. SHE CAME OUT OF RETIREMENT. To slow us down from overly ambitious goals. That will only be perceived as 'dilletante'. She didn't want us to be robotic. That perceived. She then commenced to show. How to transform using facials exspressions. Once we were all sitting down like a pow wow peace sit down on the floor in Studio A. Right before our very eyes. Pauline Koner guarded her still life form into elements of believability in the sense of a brief episode changing right before our very eyes her mood then another mood then another mood and then another mood.

Totally agree … tricks abound ..I miss the strong personalities like Suzanne Farrell ,gelsey , merril …no one comes to mind like these

Amazing! My thoughts couldn't have been said better! You are absolutely right!

The reason why I come back to ballet because I look so stiff and awkward while dancing, and I want to learn the graceful movement

This is happening to all of the arts, sadly.

Definitely! You have touched on a subject that I have been saying for years (over 10 years and more). I have stopped buying tickets to see ballet live in London, because the big ballet company there has moved so much to choreography by non ballet artists who isn’t using beautiful music and is only interested in height of leg, turns and extreme moves showcasing technique and nothing else. I remember as a student being told by the teacher who choreographed an end of year piece, “..don’t show emotion, just dance it! “ and I could not ‘just dance it’s like she wanted, because the way I danced used emotion and artistry. Shortly after this, I gave up ballet because I was so disillusioned.

This is a fantastic presentation!!!

I hope with all my heart that ballet won' t follow the road of WAG and RG😣😔.

I ABSOLUTELY Agree!! The Artistry, MUST Be Present in BALLET, I too, have Lived in my Entire Life, be a Sport. Because without the Artistry, Dance means NOTHING, because We Are SPIRITUAL Beings, not, .. Technic Machines. It's Physical Art, like a Painting. I know what you are Saying, BIG TIME! Thars What I Think. There IS A PROBLEM, .. Robots, are NOT ARTIST'S. The are Robots. Being HUMAN, is Living ART! My Body, is Art, my Dance, is Art, and So is my Life and my SOUL! It's ALL, .. ART! Just our CREATOR Intended it to Be. I will Never accept the Machine as an Artist. Ever! And this is EXACTLY What I am Seeing in Classes, .. Technically Sound Dancers, who look board in Class, but when they See me Dance, they Stare. Sometime they even come up to me and sat, Thank You, it's such a Pleasure to Dance with Yuu in Class Surprise too, this was Saud to me Recently, and I'm, nearly 70 years old. But I can Kick Butt, because I am an OLD School PRO Trained Classical BALLET Dancer, Nothing else will due, I change the Choreography All the Time. My Body doesn't like New School. I've been Dancing All my Life, stopped early on Pro like because I didn't like what I was Seeing happening to Dance so I quit, but Never Stopped Dancing. Lot of Instructors don't like u when. I change the Choreography but that's to bad, I.do Anyway and they know Why, I tell them Why Open Adult BALLET Classes are FREE-ER to Dance in, thars my MO, .. Now. I'll do my Way, it feels good like that. The other way feel Fake, Shallow, Empty, and void oif Emotion. Not my "Cup of Tea" Ok, I'm done ranting I'm about this, it's just that I've Never Heard Anyone say it before, so, .. Thank you. ✨💞✨🙏

Nureyev should be the standard. And for modern dancers I think Marinella Nunez from the Royal Ballet is just amazeballs and awesome sauce she is so good but also has that artistry. Lets all list dancers who have both and who have great artistry even though their technique might not be perfect. My fave dancers: Margot Fonteyn Natalya Markarova Maya Pisetskaya Rudolf Nureyev El Donn Marinella Nunez Vadim can't remember his last name he has more technique than artistry though. There are more that I can't think of now but they are mostly Russian or European.

I think part of the issue is that emotion by its nature is personal and unquantifiable, and how society sees it and its expression changes with time. If we ignore the dancing and think about the acting, there's a whole spectrum from "ham" (stagey and overblown) to "so refined the emotions are invisible". And we can probably agree that both extremes are undesirable, but where the optimum place on that spectrum lies - well, that's subtly different for everyone. One person's perfect expression is someone else's overacting; one person's "mere flick of a finger epitomising flight and freedom" is another person's "robotic lack of emotion and personality". Similarly there are dancers we all agree make us feel the story, but others who fall on different sides of the line for different watchers. Likewise, choreography. There are plenty of sections of classical choreography where the steps themselves seem formulaic (to me) and the emotion is supplied purely by the dancers, while conversely some modern choreography has a wider vocabulary so that even without an overt story the audience (well, me again) is moved. And vice versa - neither classical nor modern has the monopoly on quality. I think there's a bit of a fashion towards minimalism recently which may come across as cold to some, and that's not bad per se, just a change in style. That said, there's definitely also a trend towards movement as plain gymnastic tricks. I've observed this particularly in competitions for young dancers in the "contemporary" genre - and for myself, I find it tedious. In fact, I think this is exactly the kind of thing this video speaks against, quite justifiably.

I stopped watching ballet when the social media started filling with 12 year olds, 10 year olds, 6 year olds doing (apparently) perfect ballet technique. All meaningless. I started with Maya Plisetskaya and stopped at Alessandra Ferri, and never intend to move forward again.

The purpose of art is to TOUCH YOUR EMOTIONS! Technique can impress you - but only art can TOUCH you!

SOOOOO TRUE!! Im a young dancer and it feels like i’ll never become a professional because I can’t do 10 turns or wack my leg up to my head. Can someone tell me it’s still possible? 😭😭

Same with music!!! Music can't be SEEN. So please, why are we expecting musicians to appear like actors.

Couple of things i think are also at the root cause of this " problem" . Technique and abundance of talent through the roof. - absolutely. Are dancers less expressive? nah, i don't really think so.......still plenty of dancers that give you a great dramatic Juliet / Manon / Giselle..... And a corps de ballet that moves nearly to a T, One of the first things that started to irritate me though was that with the impossible heigth of technique nowadays came a terrible unmusicality to the way leads and soloists treated their solo's and tricks. Also the higher the technical vrituosity and cleaner the execution the more sterile, antiseptic and less expressive the trick-steps became. 32 fouettes and endless balances and incredible turns and revolutions in jumps do not represent joy and exhilaration or even love anymore, they become stilted, separate horse jumping barriers eecuted by a mechanical horse. Musicality and phrasing is one of the biggest tools you have to be a dancer. another drop in musicality is the choreography......any god choreographers that can still make something musical let alone dance like ? Classical ballet in its purest form has also more or less gone the way of the dinosaur........Three/four act storyballets are either decidedly sanitized 19 th centurry warhorses or largely failed modernized pastiches ( by choreographers who by and large have no clue about -again musicality/ charm/ dramatic storytelling ).......Petipa, Bournonville, Fokine, Massine, Ashton, Balanchine - maybe a Cranko/ Mcmillan / Roland Petit here and there and then at least the waters become either very camp, outdated and -or murky. Never was very in favor of the artistic amusical posing of Bejart, the whack your legs stylings of some Forstyhe- in classical vein, the absurdly camp miming of Matthew Bourne , or lets do classical ballet and do a pastiche of Merce cunningham (cause hey Cunningham already did that and he did it better). Nor the lets put Prince Florimund in jeans or do Cinderella in Hollywood dramaturgical desperate updating..... Classical ballet as a style and a technique never grew with the times (yes, the technique grew to perfection, but the point shoe was still invented to portray fairies and sylphs basically and partnering to show off a woman balancing on one leg....) This hardly seems adequate to tell contemporary stories or subjects with......on top of that .....where are the great ballet composers of today ? Any new Tschaikovsky ?

I agree with you completely. I believe that the artistic directors do not take the time to tell the story to the dancers, who, in turn are not able to convey it in their interpretation. This is especially true in the US. The dancers have become robots with perfect movements. Ballet is an art. All dances must convey emotions because, if not, they become a sport.

this guy gets it. i think he’d be friends with my ballet teacher

I had a teacher once who said that technique was the cake, and artistry was the frosting on top. You can have a great cake, but if your frosting is ugly, you won't get very far. Do you have any tips for teaching artistry to young dancers?

As a dancer in the 80s I totally agree with your views now a teacher for many years seeing more and more posts on social media that are horrible bring back the artistry the telling of a story with beautiful lines and feelings for those positions ❤ballet is beautiful not s circus act all my teacher/dancer colleagues feel the same

I am unsure about this content. Perhaps it applies more to American ballet as against the international productions. There are a great many ballet companies today that marry all the components of theatre into their work. The Paris Opera Ballet, the Russian companies, Britain's Mathew Bourne and Birmingham Royal Ballet to name a few are pure magic on stage and bring real emotions into the audience itself. Yes there are contemporary dance companies, but even among them there is drama. Northern Ballet Theatre in the UK create some astounding storytelling. So yes I am unsure about the particular viewpoint in this video. Theatre as many facets like a well cut diamond. Sets, lighting, sound, music, costumes, atmospheric stage effects, choreography, expression, and when they all come together they sparkle and dazzle. Fitness and athleticism are essential to a dancer. The days are long and the work is hard but the magic still crosses the footlights. There is always the anticipation and buzz of excitement as the orchestra tunes up and the lights begin to fade. The story begins as the curtain rises.

Obviously when you have football coaches doing the dancers body conditioning exclusively and dancers more encouraged to lift weights than show the emotions of the role!

Some of the extreme positions dancers force their bodies into now are verging on ugly. The dancers look more like gymnasts..

Technique is only the bare bones of ballet. To become an artist of the ballet takes time, and the understanding of character building, finding the touches that flesh-out a performance. Over emoting is just a bad as too little.

We must have emotional content. Physics is everything, but dancers are not paint, just something to be pushrd around

Is there a possibility that what you are describing is mostly an American phenomenon ? I’ve noticed than younger generations of Americans (especially in large cities) tend to be a bit soulless, indifferent, almost zombie-like and certainly nothing like their elders who were original and adventurous. The rest of the world, though influenced by American TV, Instagram and Tik Tok, seems a little less formatted. On the other hand, ballet companies tend to be fairly multicultural these days, so I don’t know…

I am a ballet neophyte at 40, but I have fallen in love with it and have been watching everything that I can about it, and I do see what you are saying. I’m a theatre kid so I have noticed that the audience is focused on each fouetté, which is so exciting! But I do notice that one who can spin and spin seems to be more incentivized than the story of what is going on! It surprises me so much! I think that athleticism ranks higher in the USA than other countries that make sure that they are doing flawless technical and acting. As for as contemporary dancing goes, I don’t get it. It all looks the same to me and I am not moved. My choir director used to say that we could sing at our audience or we could touch someone’s heart with facial expression and intention. That is what performing in theaters should be if anyone were to ask me- and you did, so here you go.

Thanks so much for this discussion. I, like so many, have been enthralled by the perfect Balanchine babies & the amazing Russian legs, but I have realized that the story is not only missing, but may be, as with Balanchine intentionally avoided...leaving a brilliant show of athletics. I'm so happy to hear others noticing this shift. I hope young dancers & choreographers also notice and avoid this shift.

Oh, I thought the 3rd was Musicality! To me Artistry is ourselves!

Yes, ballet has evolved, and so it should. But I agree that artistry and technique need to be in balance. Although I think high leg extensions look beautiful , now the emphasis has gone on high extensions for practically every move. Where timing is an issue, I'd much prefer the emphasis to be on the beauty and flow of the movement, rather than the struggle to always having the highest extension possible. Another thing that I really hate is how incredibly ugly pointe shoes have become. I know balance is always an issue, but the overly wide platforms plus the over-darning at the toe spoil the line and make the foot look like a cut-off sausage. Look at pointe shoes from the past - I still have a pair where the platform is the size of a Euro coin, yet I never had any problems with turns or hops on pointe. Are dancers now relying more on the shoe than on technique?

I feel like this is what Gelsey Kirkland was trying to make a statement about when she created her school focused on training dancers for story ballets and artistry in ballet. I was disappointed that it didn't really take off very much. Agree with everything you said. Much more common to see reels, youtube clips, and tiktoks showing crazy extensions and millions of turns than to see a gorgeous character scene, and it's a sign of the times. There are good evolutions as well, such as ballet becoming slightly more diverse and that's a great trend to see. But I'm not sure this topic is likely to go in a direction we all want given that the US has not had a super strong support for the arts, doesn't really understand classical ballet, and only tends to connect with it as an athletic/gymnastic pursuit. Ultimately the western audiences and sponsors are the ones causing this trend IMO.

Thank you for discussing this. I always think ballet needs more artistry.^^