A Collective

From its classical heritage there is a structure in companies. Some call it hierarchy. Eleve, aspirant, demi- soloist, 2nd Solist, 1st dancer, principal dancer. Many names and forms. Even in companies that don’t have a hierarchy on paper, there is one. Most dancers are educated with classical ballet as core value and many started with the dream of a pink tutu and a spotlight in the Mariinsky Theatre. So there is this structure in their DNA from child on. And maybe this is not a bad thing? Or is it? I might address this subject at a later blog. 

I would like to focus on the staff dancer hierarchy. About the power that both have. I find that especially in the bigger classical companies there is still this ‚staff against dancer‘ and the other way around policy. 

We all know the old Russian documentary where children are screamed at by teachers. Still now I think in Russia that happens. And maybe not only in Russia. There has been a lot of talk about how to treat dancers better. I totally agree with that. But not only dancers should be treated better though. Also the ballet masters and staff should be treated better. By the dancers. This is a tough dynamic that we all have going on right now. I am generalizing now of course, I am sure there are companies where it it all smells like roses and everyone says thank you ;)

Bare with me:

Let’s think about dance. Not ballet. Dance. Dance is what? Art. Art is what? Human. 

Long before Petipa, Louis XIV and all the others there were humans dancing in their caves, in the rain forests, in the deserted deserts. Dances were created all over the world a looong time ago. And yes, maybe there was a hierarchy in their tribes, and there was a boss who ‚choreographed‘ it. There might have even been a tribe ballet master:) They were dancing out of maybe religion, war, love, hope or celebration. They were dancing because they were human. And we are human, and that is why we dance. 

What I am trying to say I think is that we need to have a collective understanding that we are all trying to create something beautiful that belongs to all of us! Because we want to and because we choose to believe in it. 

And of course there is always going to be a ballet master that is not so nice sometimes (they can’t be always nice and have to be tough once in a while), to lazy dancers cause he or she drank a bit too much the day before (no dancer is always on top of their game) That’s just life. But in the big picture I think that one has to talk to each other. And then make the decision to trust each other to go on this road together to be able to create a fertile ground for the development of our human instinct called art. 

There is always going to be a ‚boss‘ dynamic between staff and dancers I think and that’s needed. There needs to be an authority. I think what I am trying to say is that this relationship needs to be built on trust. Trust that there is the same intention. Then we can see the big picture, even when there is a fallout :)