Wednesday 11 September 2013

Individuality in Ballet

Ballet is a very traditional form of dance compare to other type of dance and
it is been taught in all over the world, and every country and methods have slightly different rules and priority
.As I explained before, ballet has strict rules, history and tradition, these factors make ballet as it is till today.

Then, I questioned my self why every countries have different style in ballet?

Eastern Europe has mixture of Russian and  European style of ballet.
Germany is mainly mix of American technique and traditional European style.
Meditterenuem focus on strong technique rather than style.
Russian technique is very physical and mixed of gymnastic in most of the country

I wondered why. Then, I have realised that every countries have own tradition, weather, and own back ground. These factors have effect on their style of ballet.
Especially eastern  Europe has a big in effluence from Russia as they used be united. Therefore it makes sense that their style became very similar to Russian style.
German style is mixed of all style, based on American fast style technique with twist of European upper body, as America had big influence after the war, it is understandable how the style has became.

These back ground of the history and difference of culture make every country very different from each other.
Like cooking, people cook same food all over the world, but they do not look and taste the same, even they have cooked similar way.

British omelet and Spanish Omelet tastes not the same as ingredients and the way of cooking is slightly different.


British take away Chinese and traditional Chinese food is again tastes very different.

I have discussed about this with my colleagues and we came down to a conclusion why; as we are all individuals, we all want and find interest in individually different things. The value of objects and information changes with time, place and depend on people.
Even same as teacher. My self as a teacher I have some priority in ballet rules which I ask students to archive. But, different teachers have different preference. Some teachers focus on clean technique, some on performance, etc...Learn from only one teacher is making one's self blind. We all know Carrots are good for us, but important fact is to eat a lot of different foods to maintain the health.
More I have learn about ballet as a practitioner, I understand the importantness of having a balance. Try not to believe a teacher blindly, listen to all the teachers and make our own best decision that we can make from all the information and experience we have and given in that time. And, later on again our decision changes by finding out more about ballet and our seves.