Argumentative Essay: Ballet As A New Form Of Art

I don't think those are the only options -- although new media have been and presumably will continue to be created (film, video, digital) whether they have led or will lead to masterpieces that last for centuries or, what also may be the case, a different idea of art that isn't as oriented around the "masterpiece" per se; and older forms will continue to be imitated in fairly conservative ways. But art, and in particular an art form like ballet, lives by building on its past and transforming it. (And ballet as a medium is nothing I would ever want to lose....) That's what Balanchine did with Petipa; it's what Ratmansky is doing (in my opinion) with a broad spectrum of Russian/Soviet, Danish, and other influences. The word you used for that kind of process was "evolving"--I'm relatively comfortable with the word "tradition;" ballet lives as part of an ongoing tradition. Without arts that are very much in

That is one reason I was so fascinated by Ratmansky's interest in a recreated, but also revised Flames of Paris and notably in contrast to the version the Mikhailovsky is bringing which, as I understand, attempts to be more of a recreation only. Anyway, I'm happy to have Spartacus remain an arrow in the Bolshoi's quiver: there may come a time--maybe not so far in the future after all--when they no longer believe in it enough to pull it off and it will look dutiful, which is to say unwatchable because it's not a ballet that can live in the twilight of dutiful. Already, based on reports, it doesn't seem as if any of the NY casts were all that close to 100 percent successful...though they do sound to me as if they were plenty