Royal Ballet Triple Bill
Royal Opera House
There was a time when dancers were very often given the means to gain a deep understanding of what they were supposed to be interpreting on stage — the well-known story of Ninette de Valois taking her artists to see William Hogarth’s paintings while creating The Rake’s Progress is but one of many examples. There was also a time — long before ballet-training turned into a money-churning business of marketable diplomas — when the rudiments of artistic interpretation were embedded in the blossoming dancers’ daily routine. Today, little or no significance seems to be bestowed upon the artistic side. Ballet teachers have little or no knowledge of the repertoire and/or its stylistic nuances, while many ‘reconstructors’ and dance ‘notators’ focus more on second-hand step-mongering than on an all-encompassing approach to theatre dance.
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