The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

The lights dimmed out, and darkness fell. The chatter in the room slowly faded, and silence filled the hall. Gently, the red drapes lifted from the stage as my eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness. The blue misty lights then exploded in the blackness revealing a group of dancers, all gracefully poised in their positions. The room filled up with the voice of a female, and the dancers began their movements, elegantly varying positions with each cue. I had never, in my life, seen anything so majestic, so thoroughly choreographed. The ballerinas pranced around in such perfection that for a second I forgot they were humans and not some extraterrestrial beings performing. Gradually, the group of dancers began to drift away and the focus shifted on the two main dancers. As they began their duet all I could think was how magnificently they danced; the way they moved, the way the leaped in the air, the way they touched each other, everything was just mesmerizing to look at and it was mind boggling how beautifully their movements synchronized with each other and how flawless the overall performance was. This was the first act, ‘The Curve”, and by the time it ended I was captivated by the whole concept of ballet

Sometimes in life you just come across something that may touch your heart and completely change your perspective about how you see things. I have never been an artistic person. Gazing at paintings, offering critique on artistic matters has never been something that I have been comfortable with. However, there was something extraordinary about contemporary ballet that truly spoke to me that night and I can now safely say that dance has become my favorite form of art. All semester long we talked about how artists make use of different forms of art such as graffiti or abstract expressionism to exhibit what they feel but I am starting to believe now that dance has the most power to exhibit what a person feels. All of the performances in the Joyce Theatre had one thing in common: the enthusiasm and passion with which the dancers danced. They twirled, swayed, and simply captivated the audience by portraying such emotions through their dancing that people otherwise might have found difficult to experience. When artists write or paint, they can never be sure of the perception with which people view their art. However, a dancer just pours out all of his or her emotions in front of the audience; the happiness, the anger, basically all the complexities of life are explicitly exhibited through the dance and hence the viewers are compelled to experience the exact kinds of emotions that the dancers want them to go through.

Also, it was quite fascinating to see how easily the dancers would just twist their bodies and come into these intricate positions that one cannot even think of. However, by the end of each performance, one could see the sweat visible on their almost flawless bodies and that’s when one would realize how exhausting and difficult the act must have been for the dancers. We, as audience, just sat there and thought about how absolutely perfect these dancers were but what we forgot was the amount of hard work they had put in to achieve this level of perfection.

Overall, it was truly an amazing experience that made me understand what dance is and what it depicts and I hope that I get the chance to go there again and see more ballet performances.