Hommes Dans le Ballet

For some reason men in today’s world seem to have certain limitations that society likes to impose on them. These limitations may range from activities such as dancing to something as impersonal as to what they wear. If women have struggled to have equality and be on the same level as men, then I feel that we should also support men out there who may feel constricted by society. One way to be supportive can be by just being vocal to their cause, and stand up to others who may put these men down.

Male dancers, especially those in ballet, may have a hard time being taken seriously in what they do and may face a certain degree of teasing. A lot of the teasing may be focused on their sexuality. Ignorant people may jump to the conclusion that men who are involved in dance are either gay or bisexual. Although this may be the case for some male dancers, there are plenty who are not and yet must face the teasing.



One of the reasons why some people believe that males involved with dance are gay or bisexual is that some dances like ballet are seeing as being very feminine. If you were to ask someone to name the first three words that come to mind when hearing the word ballet, it wouldn't be shocking to find that they would mention tights, tutus, and twirling. Unfortunately all these three T's are associated with females, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't even attempt to extend the idea of ballet to the other gender. Basically the issue at hand seems to be that those criticizing male ballerinas, who are more than likely to be men, need to be more comfortable with their own sexuality. If you think about it, it doesn't even make sense that they would taunt their own gender.The truth is that ballet was actually dominated by males and it wasn't until 1961 when Mlle. Lafontaine became the first prima ballerina.

People have to realize that male dancers require a lot of stamina and strength, which are factors that are respected in other activities like football and wrestling, both of which are considered to be very masculine. If we overlook the fact that as of now the female to male ration in ballet is high, then we can focus on ways to help make those ratios become more equal, if that truly is the desire of men out there.

Princesse Tutu

Recently a friend of mine introduced me to an anime she thought I would like, called Princess Tutu. Basically it’s about a duck, which turns into a girl, who turns into a princess in order to save a prince. Although the storyline may seem a little odd, to say the least, a lot of its content is very interesting and relevant to ballet class.Although I have not finished both seasons of the anime, what I have watched so far does remind me of the ballet Swan Lake. In fact I think the plot of Princess Tutu might have been based of that ballet for several reasons.

Princess Tutu

The characters that share the most similarities are Ahiru, which is her name when she’s human, and princess Odette. The similarities begin with the magical characters, which in Swan Lake would be the evil sorcerer Von Rothbart. Princess Tutu has a similar character named Drosselmeyer whose stories he writes are able to become a reality. In Swan Lake Von Rothbart casts a spell on the maiden Odette so she turns into a swan whenever it becomes night. Quite the opposite occurs in Princess Tutu where Drosselmeyer turns a duck, who is fascinated by a Prince named Mytho, into a human girl with the use of a magical necklace. From here many similarities begin to stem.

The most obvious one would be the way Drosselmeyer portraits Ahiru, whose magical self is known as Princess Tutu, and Rue whose magical self is known as Princess Kraehe. In his stories he often shows Princess Tutu as a white swan while Princess Kraehe is a black one. In Swan Lake Odette wears white while Von Rothbart’s daughter wears black. The costumes of both Princesses in the anime also reflect this, with Tutu’s costume is nearly all white, while Kraehe’s is all black.

Princess Kraehe

Just like in the ballet where Odette and Odile want to be with Prince Siegfried, both of the female characters want to be with the Prince Mytho. Unfortunately for Ahiro, she cannot confess any feelings to him because she’ll end up disappearing. That is the curse that the anime has, while the curse of Swan Lake is princess Odette being a swan when nightfall arrives.

As one might guess just might the title alone Princess Tutu obviously involves ballet and they incorporate this in different ways. First off, Ahiru, Rue, and Mytho all attend a ballet academy and they are often shown in class practicing and dancing. Outside of class the characters are also seen dancing. This holds especially true for Princess Tutu who “battles” other characters by dancing with them, in order to get pieces of the Prince’s heart back. In these “battles” the anime exposes the viewer to many different songs such as:

Tchaikovsky
- The Nutcracker
- Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies
- Miniature overture
- March
- Waltz of the Flowers
- Swan Lake
- Waltz, act 1 no. 2
Mendelssohn
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Wedding March
Beethoven
- Overture to Coriolan
Mozart
- The Marriage of Figaro
- Overture
Prokofiev
- Romeo and Juliet
- Romeo and Juliet's Before Parting

Last but not least, Princess Tutu also has some lessons embedded in the episodes. One that comes to mind is Season 2 Episode 1-Part 2 where the ballet teacher tells his students a story about an encounter he had with a legendary ballet dancer named Nyadzinsky, who performed extraordinary choreography. When the teacher was himself a student he happened to see this legendary dancer practice, but instead of expecting him to practice his complex moves he instead “repeated the basic practices faithfully, over and over”[2:06s]. When he confronted the dancer and asked why he was practicing such basic exercises the legendary dancer responded with “Someone who has not mastered the basics cannot perform great acts or possess a supreme spirit”[2:47s]. In other words, just because a dancer has learned new material that is more complex than the basics doesn’t mean that the basics should be forgotten since other moves built up on them.

Leçons

Although ballet is just a dance class I have found out that I can apply some of the same lessons to other various things. The most important thing I can apply it to is life itself. Some of the topics I can apply are discipline, posture,perseverance and having a fun time. Discipline because in order to learn a step the proper way, the dancer must be willing to pay attention to the instructor and control the urge to do anything that was not asked to do. This same lesson can be utilized in life because sometimes in order to learn new material you must allow a person with more experience to teach you. This cannot be done as easily if the student is unwilling to pay attention and control him or herself.


Posture and alignment in ballet is critical when speaking about the outcome of a certain move, such as balancing. If a ballerina is out of alignment then it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve the same greatness than if she had proper posture from the beginning. Even though in life a person is rarely asked to do any sort of balancing, posture is still very important. The reason for this is that certain posture project different levels of confidence, which then can affect the status and relationships in life. If a person stands straight and maintains a high head they will be seeing as having confidence and they can further their career. It is also important to keep your eyes high because it also increases the appearance of confidence.

Perseverance is both an important and useful lesson that should be learn and it can be applied to not just ballet, but life in general. Dancers can be seeing persevering when a certain move is difficult to do or a if they are having trouble memorizing a routine. When a dancer is faced with these problems he or she can either give up and tell themselves that there is just no way they can ever accomplish that or they can persevere and succeed. The path to success is not as easy or straightforward one, but the reward is well-worth it. The same thing can apply in non-dance related things in life because in life people are often faced with obstacle, and the result of that situation is up to that individual only. That person can decide whether to tackle the obstacle time and time again until they manage to accomplish what they wanted or just give up. Although the latter is obviously much easier, it won't help the individual much. That person will not try to improve themselves because they will just give up if something gets to be too difficult.


Last but not least, ballet also teaches you to have fun. Although this may not seem so apparent, it only takes a small amount of time before a dancer realizes this. Some may think doing ballet is an activity that requires the dancer to be extremely strict and serious, but in reality this is not always the case. One example that displays how much fun ballet can be is when a group of students are working on a dance recital. Although at first there are many mistakes and everything is chaotic, it is not always so frustrating and can be viewed as having a fun time. Sure it most definitely wouldn't be considered fun if there was that many mistakes and chaos during the learning process is not so harmful in the beginning, as long as things get done and eventually improve. Learning to have fun in life is a reminder that there's more to it than just being serious and completely productive. It's not always such a negative thing to digress from your main goal and relax a bit. In the end, relaxing might actually help you reach your goal in a more successful way.

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Mon Progrès

As the time has progressed there are several things that I have found interesting. The main observation I’ve made is realizing how much more attention I pay to my body. Before baler it had been a while since I’ve done gymnastics so it was harder to be so aware of my body. Now that I’m back to doing an activity that requires a lot of body movement. I can test the limits of my body and strive to surpass them. For example, I feel that I have improved my flexibility since being a part of ballet. I’ve known I’m flexible individual, but hadn’t found the time to work on that. Another benefit I’ve received from ballet is improving both my strength and durability. The first exercises that come to mind concerning that are when we do our three-part sit-ups or when we have to maintain our legs lifted up in our stretches.


Speaking about improvement, I feel some of the things I’ve improved on are knowing what the next move in a sequence is. I don’t learn the order of the steps immediately, but after class I try to learn them even better in order to improve the fluidity of the moves. This is especially true for the choreography of the piece we’ll be performing. When we are just learning a new addition to the performance, I don’t feel I do it well but I do see improvement the following class. What really helps me is going over the steps several times until I practically don’t even have to think about what’s coming up next. It’s actually pretty amazing!

Although there has been some improvement, there are still some areas where I still need more practice on. The most important one would be how to do a proper cou-de-pied position. I still find myself struggling with this move. I no longer do some of the things I used to do like cross over too much, but I have not yet reached the point where I can do a proper one. I think something that can offer some explanation is that when I attempt to do a cou-de-pied I am not relaxing my foot when I should. Also when I point I that position I think it may be causing my foot to turn a different way.

Going back to the subject about the dance recital, I am really excited about participating. I think my excitement is due to the fact that I’ve never been a part of a dance and had the chance to perform in front of an audience. It’s also for this exact same reason that I’m slightly nervous. My main concerns are either forgetting to do a certain move or doing a correct move at a wrong time. One way to combat this is to just practice the routine until I am comfortable performing it.