Balanchine's Neo-Classical Ballet

Born in New York in 1949, William Forsyth only started formal dance training in his late teens. His training includes formal ballet and modern dance training which allow him to have the opportunity to learn from renowned teachers like Nolan Dingman; who was taught by George Balancine.

As he was indirectly taught the Balancine technique, he is considered as a continuator of Balanchine’s work, because of his way of working with classical ballet from a contemporary aesthetical perspective. Therefore he is considered as a neo-classical choreographer as the foundation of his pieces are mainly from classical ballet. The movements created displays freedom of thought that seems to be interested in all aspects of contemporary culture and that is expressed with precision and elegance. In an interview he says,’ Dance does not have a sustain reading or object like visual arts; sulpture paintings.’ In dance we do not have anything that people could read or examine or neither can we publish ideas as everybody interprets

things differently. Choreographers have their different goals and interests and experiences. One can demonstrate a movement but is hard to write it down. For example, a grand allegro, one has to turnout from their hips and be light on their feet; but how? Like many contemporary choreographers, he too seems to admit that creation is determined both by the commercial, massive expectations and the imaginary, singular aesthetical ideas. In some of his pieces he seems to express more in terms of intensity and emotion. According to William Forsythe’s words, if we put together some dance, some participation and some sculpture, we create choreography. He noticed that to catch the audiences eyes and to mesmerise them, they have to be ‘part’ of the piece. He adds,’Choreography is not bound to dance, nor dance is bound to choreography and that there are many ways to think of choreographing.’ If all of us begin to publish ideas, we would then acquire more freedom to think. Neoclassical Ballet allows dancers movement to become the highlight of the night and not the large sets and tutus.

As Balanchine’s neoclassical style matured, he produced more plotless, musically driven ballets.

Large sets and traditional tutus gave way to clean stages and plain leotards. This simplified external style allowed for the dancers’ movement to become the main artistic medium, which is the hallmark of neoclassical ballet. In neoclassical ballet, there are more varieties to work with and the costumes too it will not be just a traditional tutu. In addition, neoclassical ballet is much more bias towards the contemporary dance side which means more freedom than structure. While in ballet, The vocabularies are very structured for instance a grand jeté has to have both legs straightened, pointed and turned-out. Although neoclassical requires some of these techniques too but the movement are not so restricted. Neo-classical makes the audience visualise different emotions and style unlike ballet, its either lively or dull. Which might be the reason why it stays

popular.