Last weekend I attended our church’s annual Christmas extravaganza. There was a bit of everything, from Handel to jazz, Michael W. Smith to Wagner (if you can believe that!). There was even a bit of ballet-like interpretative dancing with a couple songs.
And it’s that last bit that I want to talk about.
As those talented, beautiful dancers leaped and pirouetted during several songs, my initial reaction was surprisingly harsh—and not because I have something intrinsically against sacred or interpretive dance. It went something like this: That’s nice, but I don’t want my daughters doing ballet.
I was actually surprised by the strength of that internal criticism, enough that I immediately wondered, Where did that thought come from? I didn’t have to ponder that question very long, though.
A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the dark psychological thriller Black Swan, which stars Natalie Portman as a young dancer determined to do whatever is necessary to win a role in a new production. Among other things, the film features multiple scenes of her tending to cracked toenails. Massaging feet that snap and pop like Rice Krispies. Working grueling hours. Not eating. And after all that, she has to fend off her manipulative, sexually predatory ballet director.
All in all, it felt like an anti-commercial for the art of ballet. It was the kind of movie that induced thoughts like, I don’t know why any parents in their right minds would let their daughters devote their lives to such a torturous, twisted endeavor. (And I thought this even though one of my co-workers has a daughter who’s involved in, and dearly loves, ballet.)
Now, I know the damning portrait of ballet that director Darren Aronofsky paints in Black Swan is self serving. The film essentially devolves from a psychological thriller into something much closer to a full-on horror movie. Thus, it’s no surprise that the lens he uses to show us what the ballet world is “really” like is increasingly horrific. In other words, it’s a film with a dramatic agenda, not a film devoted to anything like a fair-and-accurate portrayal of the ballet world.
Even knowing that, however, I realized that the movie’s condemning take on ballet had apparently sunk in more than I realized. And I didn’t even notice it consciously until I saw those dancers in my church’s Christmas program and initially responded so negatively.
It was a sobering reminder to me that even when we’re aware that something we’re seeing isn’t accurate or right or true, it can still mold our perspective and shape our thoughts in significant ways. And that, in turn, is a reminder of why vigilance and critical thinking are so important whenever decide to sit through two hours of a moviemaker’s depiction of reality as he or she sees it.
Recent Comments