Art Appreciation: Ballet

I wrote this article 3 years ago, but never posted it. Today was the Ritual of Muse Terpsichore, and for my presentation I selected a clip from a performance linked below. I decided to post this article in honor of this Muse ritual schedule, especially Terpsichore.

Humanity has created a lot of beauty throughout history. Venus and Neptune have been strong among various individuals, and as most people have at least some amount of Venus and refinement in their souls, they have appreciated what the artists have created.

Izfet on the other hand has tried to destroy what we create; or at least to pervert and twist it. Look at much of modern dance. No real connection, no real grace or elegance, no real trying to be better in any way.

Ballet, though! The unison of the dancers, and how one leads to the other in perfect harmony. The higher beauty of both sexes. How there is no chaos, but a love of beauty and harmony. Watching the beauty and harmony of superb performances can be healing for the mind, to see such details of it all executed in mastery.

Before I get into recommending performances, a few notes on Ballet and Neptune. Ballet is definitely ruled by Neptune, the higher octave of Venus. Neptune can be impractical, ballet can definitely be classified as such, as it goes very much into prettiness and celebration rather than having a pragmatic “there’s work to be done” attitude. Which is lovely, as we humans are about more than just war and survival. Look at all the planets in our solar system; they make us. They influence our souls and our lives. We humans on Earth are comprised of the planets in our specific solar system.

Neptune is home in Pisces. Pisces rules the feet; ballet dancers often develop problems with their feet from the unnatural movements and too much time spent practicing. Which leads to: Neptune rules sacrifice. Ballet dancers willingly sacrifice having perfect joint (ankle, knee, hip) health in older age, for the sake of creating such beauty for their audiences. Yes this is impractical, but such is Neptune.

Another thing Neptune rules, and this is important for when you watch ballet: Neptune rules celibacy and platonic love. Ballet in itself is not sexual, even though many costumes may seem so. The men’s tights do put them “on display”, as they are skin-tight and usually white to showcase leg muscle; and the women’s tutus often go straight out and showing underneath. This is to show the legs for the dance work, and celebrating the beauty of the human body when humans are toned and in shape. But because much of humanity is on a low level, the perverts will make comments and the prudish will complain. We all have bodies, it should not be a big deal. Moving on.

Ballet is not like the quick information dump people experience these days with “tik tok” and other quick platforms designed for quick fame. The ballet performance in its entirety is an experience, you can’t just skip through the youtube video to get the gist of it. It all leads up and flows from one movement and scene to the next, and it is delightful to watch it happen in its entirety, especially when things repeat in a pattern but in slightly different ways.

Ballet is not like movies, you’re not supposed to avoid spoilers. Ballet performances in-person come with a libretto, which is a small book detailing the storyline. You can reference it as you are watching the performance, or you can find it online and read it before, and see how the particular performance shows the storyline. Some ballets are over a century old and the new performances will stay true to the original. Some will vary a lot but keep the same music.

The music is just as important, as it is live music performed by a full orchestra. In some of the performances I link below, you can at times see the members of the orchestra and the conductor, and in some you might just see the conductor’s baton occasionally waving up from the bottom of the stage. Most ballets will start with the stage curtain closed and the music playing- listening to the music from the start will set the scene, and make it atmospheric. The conductor is always brought up on stage at the end of the performance and applauded in appreciation for the orchestra.

Recommended performances:

These include links to the versions I have seen. There are many more filmed performances, I will update these lists if I find others that should also be included. I write a very quick summary of the storyline, you can find the full story online if you want.

The Nutcracker, a Yuletime classic ever since 1892, set to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky who was commissioned to create this, and choreographed by Marius Petipa. I’ll start with this as top of the list as we are nearly in December now. The original book which this is based on has been turned into a movie which many of you may have seen as a child. At first I thought this was going to be a bit childish (the mouse king scene was rather strange), but overall it was magickal!

Plot summary: Yuletime, a family has a party. A toymaker brings toys, and makes them dance. The girl goes to sleep with one, a nutcracker (a toy resembling a human, you put nuts in the mouth and it takes off the shells). She dreams that he is a prince and she is a princess and they fight mice and go on an adventure in a Candyland realm. The colors of the clothing even at the beginning of the performance are based on candy: candy cane, gingerbread, etc.

I’m sure many of you have heard of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the famous accompanying music, it is from a scene in this. This performance is by Mariinsky Theater, with the incredibly talented Alina Somova as the Sugar Plum Fairy. I’m sure you have all heard this famous melody, by Tchaikovsky, 1892. Now you get to watch the dance with it!

Giselle, first performed in 1841. This is cited to be one of the most challenging ballets to perform. Music by Adolphe Adam, choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot.

Plot summary: A young peasant girl falls in love with a man who is pretending to be a peasant, he is actually a nobleman and engaged to a noblewoman. Upon learning of this by a rival for her affections, the girl goes insane then dies. Her soul is taken by the “Wilis”, ghosts of women who died of heartbreak before they were married who then take revenge by dancing the men to their death (this was a theme during the Romantic era of the early 1800’s). Giselle’s love for the man saves him from death, and saves her own soul as well.

[link deleted from youtube]

This was the second ballet performance I ever watched and I love this performance so much.

Update: Unfortunately the version I first watched and fell in love with, has been taken down by youtube. Here is an alternate, some parts are actually better, but overall it is not as good, and the camera quality is poor. Apologies but it’s the best substitution I can find.

It begins at 25:00, skip to there.

The Sleeping Beauty, also by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and also choreographed by Marius Petipa, premiered in 1890. You might recognize the name from the Walt Disney classic animated movie, both the movie and the ballet were based on a folklore or fairy-tale (which was in turn based on Ancient mythology). The earliest known version of the folklore was Perceforest, written between 1330 and 1344; the ballet and the Disney movie were based on the Brothers Grimm's version in 1812 of Charles Perrault's version from 1697.

Plot summary: If you’ve watched the Disney movie then you know it already. A king and queen introduce their baby daughter. An evil fairy casts a curse to cause her death when she pricks her finger on a spindle, so all spindles and knitting needles are banned from the kingdom. A good Blue Fairy blesses the baby so she will sleep instead of dying. The princess when she becomes a young woman is given a spindle by the evil fairy who is in disguise, pricks her finger, and falls asleep. A prince finds her, kisses her, and breaks the spell.

The ending has short dances by other fairy-tale characters you may also recognize.

Swan Lake, perhaps the most famous ballet of all, despite its initial failure. Premiering in 1877, music also by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreography was originally by Julius Reisinger, but it was revived in 1895 by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, which all later performances are based on.

Plot summary: A prince must decide to marry, but is upset he cannot marry for love. His friends suggest they go on a hunt before he must decide, and they follow swans. One swan (Odette) turns into a beautiful woman, she tells the prince all the swans are women who were cursed by an evil sorcerer to turn into swans every day (they are able to turn back to women at night near the pond which was made by the tears of Odette’s mother). The curse can only be broken if a man falls in love with Odette.

The evil sorcerer transforms another woman to look like Odette to trick the prince to marry her (Odile) instead, thus disabling him from breaking the curse. When the prince realizes this, he rushes to Odette; distraught, they jump into the lake, dying, which then kills the evil sorcerer and frees the other women from the curse. (There are alternate endings by different performances, some have happier endings.)

In closing, I look forward to seeing how ballet evolves as the world grows with a higher knowledge of spirituality :)

[This will be updated in time. There are more ballets which I have not yet seen; if any of you have recommendations, please comment!]