(03-30-2023, 05:55 AM)a system is failing Wrote: Gynocratic societies naturally go the opposite way. A stronger demand to be tolerant, docile, to suppress intense negtive feelings, a focus on agreeability and cultural osmosis. Direct, immediate and threatening reactions replaced by lukewarm community acceptance and simulated equality. The difficulty art movements have when organizing through a clueless organic method is the estrogen they are swimming and breathing in deforms their artistic corpus that of a hermaphroditic frog.
Just a few weeks after the quote-unquote Russian invasion of Ukraine, a certain Ms. Laura Freeman felt compelled to share her thoughts on the situation by recalling an interview that she did with ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. Why?
Alright... again, why? It turns out that nowhere in this article does Ms. Freeman even include anything that Zakharova said to her during that interview that, as Ms. Freeman assures us, she has "thought often about". Actually, the more important part for Ms. Freeman's purposes here is that Zakharova apparently said nothing at all. This is because the point that she is trying to make is that famous ballerinas in Russia aren't allowed to say anything... sort of. She does qualify this by mentioning that "Natalia Osipova, a Russian principal with the Royal Ballet in London, has issued a statement beginning 'nothing can justify war'. She is careful not to mention either Ukraine or Russia. Wouldn’t you be?"
Yeah, if you were a Russian ballerina, wouldn't you be careful not to take sides in an extremely complicated geopolitical conflict that you obviously understand in enough depth to make confident public statements about? Wouldn't you be scared that Putin is going to KILL YOU?? As it turns out, Osipova has danced in both American and British ballet companies, unlike Zakharova. Maybe Osipova felt more comfortable making her profound "statement" from her flat in London, who knows.
Ms. Freeman goes on to assure us that she's not a Russian apologist, she's merely stressing that we, the civilised peoples more westward, can't even comprehend "the consequences of denouncing Putin" and his "propaganda machine". For good measure, she grants a quick paragraph to make the old trusty and totally accurate Putin-Hitler comparison. It turns out that Ms. Freeman actually disagreed with most of The West's decision to boycott performances of Russian works, though she says: "I understand why it is necessary". Well that's good, Ms. Freeman. As long as you understand...
Who is this Laura Freeman anyway?
Oh. She's the "Chief Art Critic" for The Times. And also a former anorexic! Phew, thank God she recovered from that -- now she can stuff her face with all the panettone that her little big perfect post-anorexic heart desires, and that's a good thing! This is what I look for in my Chief Art Critics. But when it comes to my ballerinas... they need to keep that chic ED physique. You can always be thinner, look better.
Do you want to know why Black Swan (2010) was a good film? It was because Natalie Portman's character also had an eating disorder. Nay, not just an eating disorder, but a total and complete psychotic intoxication caused by her all-consuming obsession with becoming perfect. Self-sacrifice, the will to go beyond. You didn't know that it was secretly a Nietzschean propaganda film, did you? Not many did.
"I felt it. Perfect. It was perfect." Dying at the height of her beauty and after achieving a state of perfection. A happy death, I'd say. Uh oh, it seems like the British and American ballerina communities didn't share my approval of the film:
What are these ladies on about? Too "extreme"? @Muskox, correctly in my opinion, echoed BAP in saying that "Great artists forge new paths." They are extreme. A "great artist" has two options: be perfect, or be extreme. See Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, respectively.
Just another word on the Russian ballerinas. Natalia Osipova, as I mentioned, left Russia and worked with American and British companies. I believe Svetlana Zakharova has primarily only ever danced with Ukrainian and Russian schools/companies. The same might be true for Ulyana Lopatkina. The latter two are both alumnae of the historical imperial Vaganova Academy.
Do you notice any differences between the interpretations here? How about their bodies? Look at Osipova from 6:25 to 6:45 and compare with Lopatkina and Zakharova. Do you think that looks good? I'm sure the girls over at The Royal Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre probably do. To reiterate system's words: "Gynocratic societies naturally go the opposite way." It seems that our critics are more concerned with famous ballerinas using their platforms to "take a stand" on this week's news and whether or not the ballet world is portrayed as "extreme".
Let me alone to recover a little, before I go whence I shall not return