Ballet in the Land of Football

 

 

I am in the business of teaching and promoting classical Ballet in the Heart of Dixie, difficult - maybe even impossible. I must admit I have considered throwing in the towel once or twice over the last eighteen months. Returning to my native Alabama in summer of 2018, after living in major European cities over 25 years, one of my first stops was at the University of Alabama’s Dance Department where I watched a great pointe class given by Rebecca Salzer, associate professor of dance at U of A. It was a lovely fall afternoon. The sunlight was streaming through the windows. Outside, tree branches were gently waving under the breeze. Listening to the music exquisitely played by the pianist I even fell into a reverie for a while. When this perfect moment ended, I walked across the dance studio to congratulate Ms. Salzer and to exchange a few words with her. During our conversation I inquired about the performances that the dance department had planned for the fall semester and if she could suggest some weekend dates for any particular production. She looked at me, smiled and then said, “we have a little thing called football here at the University of Alabama…we don’t plan fall shows on weekends during football season.”  Her comment was a wake-up call and my daydreaming was definitely over. I had just realized how long a journey I had embarked on. I had returned to the South hoping to promote the arts, more specifically ballet in my community, and I am clearly being told that toe pads and pink tights were no competition for shoulder pads and crimson jerseys. Well, too late! I am here now and I can’t let one conversation shatter my enthusiasm. Anyway, we all remember what happened to Goliath in the end!

I am not the only one who has had the audacity to promote ballet to a sports captivated population. Brazil is famous as the land of carnival, samba, football, and now... classical ballet! The Bolshoi Theater, one the world's greatest ballet companies, has only one ballet school outside Russia, and it's in the Brazilian city of Joinville. There, children are selected from all over the country to join a unique ballet program based on the best traditions of the famous Russian ballet school. At the start of the project in 2000, only five or six children applied for each spot. However, word soon spread throughout Brazil and today 220 dancers attend the school, with 49 candidates vying for each new vacant place in the rigorous eight-year program. So, of course, I am not the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, but still, I know that with patience and hard work, it can be done.

How do we bring more ballet to Alabama? Maybe we start by taking a page out of the football playbook. We must promote not only the study or the practice of dance, but also the performance of dance. Ballet performances need to be accessible, inclusive and most important they need to be enjoyable. Ballet in all its forms needs to be taken seriously, taught professionally of course and above all it must be fun! Ballet is no different from sports, except that the competition is pretty much with oneself and the gratification comes from winning over an audience. Ballet is also a team sport that you play with your company members. Perhaps blurring the line between sports and the arts would help some children feel more comfortable. Dancers are athletes and the opposite is true too. While in Europe, when watching Zinedine Zidane play football, I always saw a dancer in a crowd.  All children are different and some are more inclined towards sports activities than the arts, but one thing is certain, a child cannot be attracted to something he or she is not exposed to. Indeed, the problem is that in many rural communities, children do not have the opportunity to learn about the arts because there is a cultural vacuum. Our role as dance educators is to fill that vacuum.       

Children are curious and have an innate desire to learn. To a child there is no lowbrow or highbrow culture, there is only a need to be involved in activities that stimulate them physically and intellectually. Away from the big cities, the world of ballet is a shrinking one so our duty, as instructors and mentors living in rural areas, is to make our dance studios places of discovery where our new students who have had little or no exposure to ballet feel both challenged and comfortable. Ballet classes, workshops, and performances must be about learning a craft, but it must also be about opening windows into the vastness of the world. Using ballet as a vehicle, we can take our students on exciting journeys through time and space. Indeed, dance and music must be taught transversely and horizontally, for geography and history are part of all the ballets we study, rehearse and perform. The more our students learn, the more self-confidence and happiness they will demonstrate on and off stage.  These programs must play an educational role, instill confidence, encourage teamwork and applaud persistence. Ballet does not have to be confined to a classicist and elitist world. Teaching its technique must be akin to teaching a new language that allows students and teachers to explore new territories full of wonders. Let’s look at dance education as an adventure that will benefit our youth and our communities for a lifetime.

Lastly, it will take time – football legions were not made in a few years but rather over decades. Making ballet attractive and popular in smaller rural communities is a long term endeavor and neither time nor difficulties should deter us from sharing our passion and educating the next generation of dancers and ballet enthusiasts. 

 https://mrkantor.com/classical-ballet-vs-american-football-how-dance-is-just-like-any-other-sport/