what does ballet mean?

[Campestral]

woo hoo i'm in performing arts! i feel so special! so tehbunny and brookie what do you think ballet is? is it acting or physical performance or something inbetween?

[endless psych]

Originally Posted by Campestral

Iis it acting or physical performance or something inbetween?

In what way is acting not physical performance?

[The_librarian]

To me ballet, like any form of dance is about physically conveying the mood, or idea that the music creates to the listener.

In the case of ballet it is the well choreographed moves, used to convey the the themes, actions and ideas trapped in the music.

the only problem is that music is a very subjective concept and not everyone gets the same reponse, or feelings from any given piece.

[Campestral]

acting is mental as well as physical. ballet just seems physical and relies on the music to keep the people entertained. actors don't need music and musicians don't need actors so where do ballet dancers fit in?

[dil_em_ma]

It's a form of dance. As there are many types of music and art, there are many types of dance as well. Ballet is simply one of them. It does tell a story, but it needs the music to do that as well. You couldn't just do a set dance to any music and then expect people to understand the story. I suppose you could also classify it as acting too, but a lot of acting tends to be facial expressions and whilst ballet dancers do use facial expressions to some extent, they're mostly using the shapes and positions of their bodies to show what's happening.

I suppose it could also be likened to gymnastics or a sport, because it's incredibly physical and ballet dancers have to train for years in order to perform to a high standard. However, sport for me is about demonstrating strength and physical abilities to the highest possible level, where as ballet is about the beauty you can create with the body and using that beauty to convey a message.

[russianfaerie]

when i go to watch ballet, it isn't the music that keeps me entertained, if it was i wouldn't go i'd just listen to the music in my own home, it isn't hard to find the music that is played at a certain ballet.

for me its watching all the moves, watching how they dance and how they show the story. some people don't get it, thats fine but i love to go watch them dance and be a little envious at how good they are. i could happily go and there be no music what so ever.

[dil_em_ma]

Originally Posted by Campestral

acting is mental as well as physical. ballet just seems physical and relies on the music to keep the people entertained. actors don't need music and musicians don't need actors so where do ballet dancers fit in?

It's not just the music that entertains people though. It's the shapes and positions that the dancers make and the emotions they convey through doing so. The same as all dancers, not just ballet dancers.

[Potatojunkie]

It's what people did before music videos.

[Campestral]

i think i understand what they are trying to do but it seems more physical than art. their movements are very restricted so they can only express very simple things so when you say you admire them are you actually admiring their prowess or do you understand a story they are conveying? the reason i think it's pretentious is because it seems like they are creating a kind of beauty that isn't understandable but makes us wish to understand it because of the high proficiency and pretentious people love to be highly proficient

Originally Posted by Potatojunkie

It's what people did before music videos.

that is a good comparison but video has much more scope than the body

[The_librarian]

Through the movement, costumes, scenery, and music, the aim is to convey a story, much in the same way that actors, try to convey the emotion of a scene through the dialogue, and action, facial expressions, and musicians use the use of note changes and tempo to do the same.

All can be infected by the pretentiousness.

[Campestral]

music can be pretentious but in it's truest form never. it connects to a base emotion so it can never lie. the same works with most art. i know art is supposed to expand the limits of thought and it normally does. i can see why modern art upsets a lot of people because it's hard to tell whether the artist is being pretentious or not. lots of modern art can be cool but lots is rubbish. the main thing about cosmetic art is everything is there to see but dance is neither audible nor permanently visual so what senses are dancers using? and what senses do they expect us to see? this is why i think it might be pretentious because they are just exploring the physical form and maybe we may as well be watching weight lifters dancing

[The_librarian]

The dancers are using the visual and the physical, to convey thre meaning of the art, and all art is subjective, as i said, things mean different things to each person, truly there is no truth to be found in any art, only a personal feeling, and to claim otherwise is to seem to be belittling the whole purpose of art, in my opinion. The true beuty of all art is that each person takes as much or as little from each type of art as they want, and each person finds somthing different in all things that they experience, be it music, dance, acting, sculpture, painting, writing, science, or religion, it os a personal thing, there is no right.

[Campestral]

to stand on a stage and just move, that is just too altruistic. if there is no subjective idea then there is no subject so the idea is left up to the perfomer which makes is pretentious because a performer must have a subject and ballet relies on the music which is already written for them and the movement of the body to the art is only an interpretation and the body has less limits than the scope of music so it's confined within those limits. this is why humans like music because it's beyond the realms of physics

[endless psych]

Originally Posted by Campestral

this is why humans like music because it's beyond the realms of physics

Its not really though now is it. Music is subject to limitations the same as anything else. Theres (an admitadly rather large, so large its probably more useful to think of it in terms of infinite mind but still) finite number of compositions that can be written. Music is also limited in that its waves detected by hairs in our ears. Waves being quite physics like. Music isn't beyond the realm of physics in actuality its subject to fairly mundance physics (none of the exciting stuff with lasers, quasars and black holes anyhow) emotionally its a different matter - but then again thats entirely subjective. Similar to ballet in that respect no?

[Campestral]

you said it yourself! music is beyond physics because emotions are. but the limitations of dance are more constricted than those of music so that is why music is a much more prevalant art form and why dance is still primitive 'cause dancers don't know how to portrey emtions like musicians do. i would like it if they did but i will only agree once you point me in the direction of a ballet that can compete with music