What is American Ballet? (Preview)
What is American Ballet? A Conversation
There are many things in this world that clearly qualify themselves as quintessentially American in style. Levi’s denim jeans, for one, basically defined America’s working class for decades. Even if they are now made overseas…Levi’s always look good and last…no matter the cut or the wash. Ralph Lauren, who in 1967 started his brand with awkwardly widened mens’ striped ties, now embodies an always approachable, elegant, and tasteful presentation of Americana, no matter the occasion. I love it all, and as a Korean adoptee, maybe true “American” style means more to me than others. But, this is David’s brain, so David’s brain has been pondering how ballet fits into this scheme of Americana. David’s brain has been wondering, “What is American Ballet?”
Traditionally, Classical style ballet has tried to find an identity for itself by embedding into European culture. Each country, England, France, Italy, Russia, etc., claims their pedagogy or method to be the best. America has never really gone that route; instead, American ballet institutions have tried to borrow, embody, and personalize European ideals and pedagogies.
If you examine American history for a moment, this is very American of us! From the colonial times, America has always borrowed and restructured all sorts of admired concepts and practices. This adaptivity has allowed ballet immigrants to the United States from all over the foreign ballet world to distinguish themselves and enjoy considerable commercial success in America by using foreign ballet branding words like “Vaganova,” “Russian,” “Royal,” “Cuban,” and the like. Americans see those words and assume “Oooh, this is foreign, this must be good!” The European-branded ballet style has been so encouraged and rewarded by competition organizations run by said ballet immigrants, that this cohort within the ballet industry has been jokingly referred to as the “ballet mafia”…
But, what is American Ballet? Who is teaching it? Where is it being performed? How is it being anticipated and received? I am not here to provide discrete answers, but rather to recount how we arrived at this point, and to open the conversation.
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