Thursday, August 19, 2010

The mirror and self-scrutiny

. . . this self-scrutiny is hardly narcissistic because it holds so little pleasure.  Yet one understands why dancers are so often considered hopeless narcissists, so absorbed in their own images that they do not connect, not even when they dance together.  One of the oddest experiences I've had was watching Natalia Makarova and Alexander Godunov rehearse a lyrical, romantic pas de deux to the strains of Tchaikovsky.  I imagined them melting into one another, yet for these two dancers merging was hardly the order of the afternoon.  Coupling to the music, they stared past each other, through each other, over each other, straining for a glimpse in the mirror, making this lyrical dance an almost comic parody.

Off balance: the real world of ballet by Suzanne Gordon. 1983. Page 26.

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