“Is Ballet Over?” That’s the question that greeted readers of The New Republic in an article adapted from the epilogue of “Apollo’s Angels,” a history of classical ballet by Jennifer Homans that was published this month. Ms. Homans, the dance critic for The New Republic, a scholar at New York University and a former professional ballet dancer, is profiled in the Arts & Leisure section on Sunday.
In an interview, Ms. Homans acknowledged a few recent bright spots — extraordinary performances by the ballerinas Natalia Osipova and Diana Vishneva, for instance. Among contemporary choreographers, she said, she especially admired William Forsythe, and named Alexei Ratmansky and Christopher Wheeldon as talents — although she characterized their work as “uneven.”
But in her book, she argues that ballet companies have become “museums for the old,” that too many dancers have traded artistry for “unthinking athleticism,” that choreography “veers from unimaginative imitation to strident innovation.”
Do professional dance makers and observers agree? We asked a few for their reactions.
Sarah Kaufman, a dance critic for The Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism: She said the book’s argument does reflect “a general sense that there’s little revelation to be found on any given night at the ballet lately.” But she ascribed this less to artistic malaise and more to economic realities. “Artistic directors make uninspiring choices because they’re pressured by the boards to sell tickets, to be conservative and to hire dancers that fit a certain marketing demand,” she said.
Gelsey Kirkland and Michael Chernov, married former dancers who this year opened the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet in New York: They said they would not go so far as to say ballet was dying, though they did believe the general public’s interest was fading. But critics and artists should be cautious, they said, about the conclusions they draw and the solutions they envision. “One hundred years ago people were desperately trying to find a new form because they thought a new form would solve the problems with ballet,” Mr. Chernov said. “But it’s not form that’s the essence of art — it’s content. If the content is deep, then the form will find itself.”
Edward Villella, a former dancer with New York City Ballet and now artistic director of Miami City Ballet: He said the major challenges to American ballet were financial and educational. Ballet isn’t dying in countries where there are state theaters with large national budgets, Mr. Villella noted. In America, however, companies must raise money themselves, and “we’re all basically trying to educate our audiences and survive.” There was a day when public television helped to bridge a gap, Mr. Villella added. “All of that has become terrifically limited,” he said. “We have an awful lot of shows — ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ ‘Dancing With the Stars’ — but those avoid the major challenges that we in the classical world have to deal with.”
Readers, what do you think: Is ballet dying? What are its greatest challenges?
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