In today’s fast-paced society–and especially in America–the general public has less and less of an attention span. People are constantly searching for something to hold their interest, and after a few minutes, usually get bored and move on to something different. Think of how often you see people starting one TV show and then flipping through a number of others during a 30 minute period. Even I am guilty of this; there are so many times that I will be listening to my iPod and I shuffle through tons of songs, quickly moving from one to the next before the first one is even halfway through. Along with the shorter attention spans comes the quickly changing tastes in style. Just looking at musical eras alone, the genres of music changed pretty quickly, which was fueled by both lack of interest and changing times.
It is for this reason that I pose the following question: Is ballet dying? I am aware that ballet is still present throughout the world, but it seems to be less prevalent than it once was. Is this because of a lack of interest? Dance critic for the Washington Post Sarah Kaufman feels that directors and choreographers are moving away from more traditional ballet because they need to sell tickets, and the public is not as interested in buying tickets for a ballet performance. She feels that the desire for dance is moving away from traditional ballet and more towards modern dance, which is why more choreographers are making up dances that they think will sell the best.
Perhaps ballet is on the decline due to the failing budget for classical ballet productions and theaters. Former New York City Ballet dancer Edward Villella feels that this is the case. He said that “…ballet isn’t dying in countries where there are state theaters with large national budgets.” Maybe if there was a larger fund for ballet, there would be more of an interest in said performances, and therefore more productions featuring traditional ballet.
You can read some more opinions on this topic here.
So, is ballet dying? What do you think?
I find it really odd that you and Alyssa wrote about the same thing with the same title. I guess you guys read the same article.
To answer your question, I don’t think ballet is dying. It is true that there are a lot more people who are interested in “modern” dance rather than ballet, but it is most definitely not dying. I think there will always be people who want to see ballet or want to be a ballerina, it’s such a timeless and classic thing that I just don’t think it would die. It is relatively less popular, but there is still a huge group of audience for ballet.
I agree with Sandra in that ballet, although not at the forefront of popularity right now in the world, could never truly die out. However, I do certainly agree that, much like classical music, it is not something that people today are running to go buy tickets for. This is very sad but at the same time, I think we can help. It is up to young people like us (who are being educated about the arts both modern and classic) to keep attending events such as the NYCB or Philharmonic and keep these beautiful traditions alive.
I refer you to the comments I made on Alyssa’s post. There continues to be a challenge to continue and maintain traditional art forms. I, for one, am glad that there is an effort to preserve the tradition as it provides a base line against which to compare new trends. But the room gets more and more crowded each year as new ideas do not replace the tradition, but are simply added to the long list of traditions old and new.