Why is ballet soooo hard to perfect?

It’s been around for hundreds of years, it’s kind of technical. Just keep practicing. You’ll get there.

Because you have to be incredibly flexible, and incredibly strong, and put your body into positions it was not meant to be in. All those things take a great deal of work to achieve.

Are you just complaining, or did you really want to know that? In general, everything worth doing is hard. It all requires years of practice before you’re any good. I don’t care if it’s being a researcher, a musician, a dancer, or a bicycle mechanic.

If you are indeed a dancer (as this question implies), then you should know why it’s hard. Ballet is one of the most unnatural dance forms out there. As daloon said, most bodies are not meant to be in those positions, and to match the very particular positions of your peers can be a tricky thing. It is honorable to work at it, but if your body is not cut out for it, then maybe something like modern dance is more up your alley.

@shadling21: I am happy that my daughter took one ballet class, and wisely decided to skip it. Otherwise, I would have had to talk her out of it. Besides the unnaturalness of it, it has a rather bad political history. It was the court dance way back a number of centuries ago in the French courts. The better you could dance, the higher up you’d go in the ranks of the courtiers.

Interesting way to decide who to promote to positions of power. Perhaps that’s why the French had their revolution. It’s also why, today, ballet is primarily the domain of rich people.

@daloon – Oh, really? I never knew that it was used to climb the ranks. That is a rather bad history, but I think it parallels many other art forms. Do you really take issue with the history of ballet? Most ballerinas are probably not even familiar with the origins of the dance form.

One thing I’ve noticed… Ballet isn’t just “the domain of the rich people”, but rather of rich, old people. The young folks couldn’t care less about classical dance. Unless, of course, they are dancers themselves. It’s going the same way as the orchestra and the opera. I think that if we popularize these art forms by giving them more exposure, we could solve this problem. However, if you find that ballet itself is the problem, then you may argue against promoting the art form at all. ;)

Ballet has really evolved since those court days. I mean, dancers now are ridiculously more athletic than a hundred years ago. It just makes it even harder to become a ballerina. With diminishing jobs and a reliance on government funding (here in Canada, anyhow), it seems that ballerinas need to be in top shape to get paid for their art.

I remember that you do improvisational dance. How does ballet relate to that, out of curiosity? I’ve never taken it.

It’s all in them Toes.
Damn!! that’s gotta hurt!!

I took dance as a kid, tap and ballet. And while I’ve lost interest as a performer…I still dig it. And I love opera, and theater. :’(

@asmonet – Rock on. You must be old and rich!
Kidding.

Theatre is another neglected art form… I intend to somehow change that.

Haha, it’s cool. Better to be old and rich at 22 than devoid of culture.

If you do, I’ll buy the tickets. :D

@shadling21: Yes, I do have my prejudices in favor of more modern forms of dance. Ballet gets millions of dollars in support. The same amount of support could fund countless modern dance groups. Even today, though, ballet is a sign of status, both for those who fund it, and for those who watch it.

Ballet relates to improvisational dance only in that they are both called dance, and they both require dancers to move in expressive ways. Improvisational dance is more open to ordinary people. It does not require dancers to contort themselves into unhealthy states. Although, they both help dancers get arthritis at an earlier age, I think balletic dancers get arthritis earlier. The stories they tell are also qualitatively different.

There are classical dances in ballet, and even contemporary dances seem to me to be more formalistic, if they don’t tell stories. Improvisational dance doesn’t have classics, unless you count a dance performed thirty years ago as classic (if you can even reproduce it). It can also get abstract more easily. It can be dance about movement or about a specific movement. I believe it, too, can be hard for audiences to understand.

I’m sure there are many other points of comparison, but I can’t think of them now.

I really don’t believe that ballet is a sign of status. Maybe a sign of taste? My 5 year old daughter is now in her second year of ballet. Her classes are held at the local park district, taught by college students. This is the most affordable program in our area (our income is very limited).

It would cost more money to see Justin Timberlake than it would to see the local ballet perform, but then we don’t live in New York or California. I would love to see some of this funding that you speak of daloon. The ballet classes have been downsized to make room for the hip hop classes that are becoming more and more popular.

I intend to post more here when I have more time. I’m glad to find other users on here interested in dance. =) Lurve

Im updating my status on ballet….Ive actually improved my alignment it is still not perfect but it is a transormation….it is late for me to pursue my major for dance but I just want to dance ballet for fun

It is hard and it is a joy too. The reason it is so hard to perfect, is because there is only one right way to do things (depending on the school of ballet discipline.) You must also have the right body and facility in order to perform the movements correctly.