Story ballets

[Old Fashioned]

The stories are always inane, pointless, and juvenile.  If I want a story that might make me think and might move me, I go to the theater, the movies, or read a book.  When I go to dance, I want to see movement to music.

I have never gone to the ballet or opera for the story alone. I go because of the beautiful dancing and beautiful music, and although you disagree, those elements can be found in story ballets (if they're done properly). It's not the death of Odette and her Prince or loss of a loved one that makes me cry, it's the way the music moves me and how well something is danced or sung that brings tears to my eyes.

[Mel Johnson]

Then there's the old quote: "People who look to professional sports for moral example are a lot like people who go to the opera for the acting."

[Hans]

/Points to title of thread: Story Ballets, A Thread For Those Who Like Them

There's another saying: "Going to the ballet for the plot is like going to the opera for the recitative." I agree, but the story adds something, makes it more human and (for me) interesting. Also, it helps give the movement a purpose and forces the choreographer to think about what he/she is trying to portray or express. Some "plotless" choreography today looks more arbitrary than abstract.

[carbro]

Hmm. Well, I really don't need a story. It is secondary to me. But if there is a story, I really prefer something Petipa-esque to, say, MacMillan, where the dancing becomes Acting with some steps thrown in.

I completely agree with Hans that the choreo for many plotless ballets looks arbitrary. To me, though, this points to the dearth of formal training for choreographers and the fact that so many take so long (if ever) to develop the craft necessary to make a ballet that holds together.

But in the end, there is a place for storyless ballets just as there is a place for storyless music. You don't have to have a reason to know that here, the composer is writing about loss, or here about agitation. If the composer can convey that, then the dancing should reflect it.

[Alexandra]

Just a gentle pull back to the topic -- we've had debates about whether story or storyless ballets are necessarily good and/or evil and we certainly can again, but, as Hans pointed out, this topic was specifically put up as a safe haven for those who do like/see a value in story ballets to discuss them without being told they're inane and juvenile, as happened a few posts up.

[BW]

I haven't looked into this thread in a while...but since I've been touting Lew Christensen's "Con Amore" on another thread, I thought I'd venture back in here.

djb, talked about Christensen's "Beauty and the Beast" on that other thread and I started to imagine how fascinating it must have been...thinking along the lines of Cocteau's film version... And the thought struck me that I did like story ballets but just got tired of the same ones season after season... Don't misunderstand, even though I've seen Swan Lake (albeit the ABT version) a number of times, I still do like it... I'd love to see Giselle and Les Sylphides again...but one can get burned out on the same stories, or at least I can.

So I cast my vote for some new stories - or revivals of some well done story ballets that haven't been seen in a while.

If only we could drop our suggestions into the big suggestion box in the sky. :nopity: :angelnot:

[Hans]

To me, though, this points to the dearth of formal training for choreographers and the fact that so many take so long (if ever) to develop the craft necessary to make a ballet that holds together.

I agree with that. And there are many plotless ballets that do NOT look arbitrary, particularly those of Balanchine. I also agree that the exact concept a choreographer has in mind doesn't have to be implicit in each particular step, but that the composition as a whole should convey something coherent--in other words, there has to be a point. But part of the point of an abstract ballet is that one can interpret it for oneself.

Just as bad as arbitrary plotless ballets are story ballets with meaningless extra movement and dances. There are plenty of charming divertissements in the classics, but these usually have at least a thin connection to the story. Some more recently choroegraphed story ballets seem to have "generic villager" dances thrown in to give the principals a chance to rest or to take up time/music, not because they're part of a larger scheme of composition.