Jump to content
This Site Uses Cookies. If You Want to Disable Cookies, Please See Your Browser Documentation. ×

Ballet in music videos?


Recommended Posts

Hello!

I’m not sure if it has been done before but a German artist whose name is Herbert Grönemeyer shot a video with a ballerina dancing a piece which was exclusively created for his song “Demo (Letzter Tag)”. She is the only person that can be seen in the video and she dances in a beautiful theatre. The song itself is very touching because it deals with the death of the artist’s wife and what she meant to him; at first, the stage is very dark and the ballerina dances very slowly, but the more Herbert Grönemeyer sings about his wife’s beauty, the stage lightens up and the dance becomes more lively and energetic.

My question is: What do you think of people using ballet in their videos?

I think that it is great that ballet is shown to teenagers who may have prejudices towards performing arts and think that it is uncool or boring. But at the same time, it is not really appreciated as a lot of people on the artist’s message board wrote that the video is just trash and think that it is torture to watch it. Should this make the artists think of another concept for their video because ballet isn’t appreciated by the audience anyway and that it is better to keep it away from the people?

I’m interested in your opinion on this topic.

Svenia

p.s.: Here's the link to the new video. You can watch it online if you go to the little box on the right handsight of the article which says: multimedia. Then you can choose between high or low speed. Enjoy:

http://www.freenet.de/freenet/unterhaltung...eyer/index.html

Link to comment

As someone with teenage relatives in Germany (who visit yearly), I have become distressed over the infusion of American Trash Culture in that country. I think many Americans would be suprised at the hold Rap has on German youth right now.

Therefore I found the video a lovely heartfelt antidote to the Gangsta CRap that pervades the Teutonic airwaves and bandwidth. I would not take much notice of web message boards. This simple solo is what visually expressed this artist's musical feeling: what could be wrong with that? And who cares what anyone else thinks?

Link to comment

I saw a video once of a singer called Benjamin Diamond I think, and was surprised to see that it had Jeremie Belingard and Eleonora Abbagnato dancing in it, but not ballet though. I only saw it once and didn't find it again, but it seemed good to me (maybe because I was so excited to see two of the opera's dancers in a video!). I haven't had the time to see the whole of this one yet, because it keeps stopping, and it's a pity I can't understand everything he's saying too, because it would be interesting to see how it evolves. I'll try again later anyway.

Link to comment
Originally posted by su-lian

and it's a pity I can't understand everything he's saying too, because it would be interesting to see how it evolves. I'll try again later anyway.

Here are the lyrics. I tried to translate the song in the best way possible, but it sounds really strange because there are so many German metaphors and I had to translate the sentences as they are so you get the plot:

(DARK STAGE)

Who knows, how many times a heart can break

How many senses a man has got

If feelings are worthwhile

How many tears fit into a canal

Do we live again / twice

Why do we wake up

What does time heal?

(STAGE LIGHTENS UP)

I am your seventh sense

your false bottom

your second face

you are a smart prediction

the principle of hope

a shining light in the night

someday I’m going to find and love you

I am one of your colours

you can choose me

you can wear it (the colour)

you can bleach it

I am going to tell you all the secret numbers

paint the wildest dreams for you

I am going to explain to you what I don’t understand

I am your seventh sense

your false bottom

your second face

you are a smart prediction

the principle of hope

a shining light in the night

someday I’m going to find and love you

(BALLERINA DANCES ECHAPPÉS)

life is pulsing through our veins in a red colour

I am going to give it (life) to you on a golden plate

red shines from the grey valley of tears

makes all miracles happen at a time, that it takes my breath away (GRAND JETÉ)

I am your seventh sense

your false bottom

your second face (GIRL SIMILING INTO THE CAMERA)

your favourite colour

your sportiest car

your deepest dive

your glider flight

you are a smart prediction

the principle of hope

a shining light in the night

I am going to find you and love you more than myself

I love you more than myself

I am going to find you someday

I hope that helps to really understand the video :D

Link to comment

Thank you very much svemaus to have gone through all this trouble translating it! It does help a lot, because it's difficult to understand a song in a foreign language even if you know it a bit, because the words don't exactly sound the same. Thanks a lot again.I shall have another look at it now!

Link to comment

I've had another look at it, and from a dance point of view, I'd say it's quite good, the choreography goes well with the music, and to a certain extent with the words I suppose, and the dancer dances well, but from a commercial point of view maybe they could have found something which appealed to more people, I'm not saying they shouldn't have used ballet, but maybe for people who aren't particularly interested in ballet it just seems weird and stupid and therefore they won't particularly like this video and therefore maybe the song too (we know how much videos influence the preferences towards certain songs or artists nowadays, it's not just the music which counts anymore). In a more general way, I shouldn't see why artists shouldn't use ballet in their videos as long as they don't give an even worse view of ballet as people already have (many people don't consider ballet as interesting and sometimes also have a low opinion of it). As for the ones who can't stand seeing it, one can say that nothing can satisfy everyone, so if some dancers say it's not good from a dance point of view, no dancer can say they like all ballets and all styles of dance anyway, and for people who don't know ballet and can't stand watching it, well, what do they know about it to judge it like that? They're probably the ones who already have prejudices about ballet and don't want to be seen watching it as it would be for them as being seen as approving it and enjoying it.

Link to comment
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...