American Ballet Company

I absolutely loved the ballet. It was my first time ever seeing one and I’m so grateful I got the chance to. Ballet has always seemed so boring to me. I always imagined it with little passion, just a show of specific moves. But now I get it. Now I understand that ballet is about pure beauty, the ideal human form.

It reminded me of classical Greek art. The Greeks, and the Romans after them, were in pursuit of the ideal human form. Polykeitos’ Spear Bearer, Da Vinci’s Vitruvius Man’ Michelangelo’s David: all were striving for that ideal human form. And that’s what ballet is about. These people sculpt their bodies and make them do impossible things in the most graceful way. The limited number of specific moves is for a very important reason: those moves are specifically designed to show the human body at its best.

When the dancers raised their arms like a contrappasto statue, they were gorgeous. Their form was absolutely stunning. during the first intermission Elizabeth asked me what I thought and without even thinking I replied it made me want to cry of beauty. It was like seeing a gorgeous Van Gogh (who, by the way, has made me cry on more than one occasion). The dancers were so beautiful. And through their hard work I could see the passion in it all. That even though it was so set in stone, even though there was no room for interpretation or change, it was beautiful And passionate.