Expectation

I didn’t know what to expect with todays Skype call which ended up being a very interesting discussion over quite a range of subjects, notably expectations.

“Expect - regard (something) as likely to happen"

When going to the theatre, I try not to “expect” an outcome of a performance as I feel that having an exception sets a bar for the experience that if it doesn’t make it there, will be a disappointment.  You need to have that expectation exceeded in order to be amazed by the show, but if you already expect to have an experience that is amazing, you will just end up satisfied rather than being in awe of the art.

Jovita made an interesting point about “mistakes” on stage and how even if the performer knows that have gone wrong, how does that translate to the audience?  Is it even noticed?

Dancers are very hard on themselves and always aim for perfection.  It is these mistakes that make live theatre as exciting as it is.  She also mentioned a show she saw where a dancer “failed” to meet the expectation of 32 fouettés, but instead added some posé turns.  Was this a mistake?  Was this artistic choice?  Did she plan to do this to avoid an injury?

Some “mistakes” can be happy ones.  For example, when a dancer fell in rehearsal, Balanchine incorporated it into his choreography.  The same for a dancer who arrived late to rehearsal.  These moments in the legendary ballet, Serenade, have become key elements and iconic moments. 

Back to artistic choice, as this is a fascinating subject because it all depends on your own personal judgment (as a dancer) and how an audience perceives your artistic choices.  Maybe it was a mistake, in which case I would like to commend the dancer on her ability to “make it work” in the moment (which is another key element in being an ‘artist’).  Maybe the dancer wanted to change the choreography to change expectation and keep the audience engaged?  Had she added in some ‘accidental’ triple fouettés, would that have been a ‘mistake’.  

Helen said that she doesn’t like the word “mistake”, and she is quite right, as it conjures connotations of negative energy, yet a mistake is up to interpretation as it can be a positive outcome, like the discovery of penicillin… oops! and thank goodness!

There are so many differences artistically we can make.  Harry mentioned that he is looking into monism and dualism in training and staging.  The staging of a show can change very quickly, I have experienced this, where a reputur changes how the choreography is executed in order to showcase the dancer at their best.  But is this right?  To change original choreography?  In this case, I could argue that the original choreographer (who passed away some years previous) had the theory that the dancers should look beautiful and show them at their best, as this will in turn make the overall piece look good.

There are also many different schools in training methods.  So how do we judge what is right and what is wrong?  Jovanka's comment about artistic interpretation made me think of this; Anthony Tudor has a ballet called “Gala Performance”, in which three prestigious ballerinas from Russia, France and Italy perform in a Gala and how their styles and personalities differ.  'Battle of the Ballerinas', if you will.  But which one is correct?  That’s down to interpretation and your expectation of what is ‘correct’.

If you would like to see some moments from the ballet you can check out this link.

 'Gala Performance' by Anthony Tudor - Picture from Tudor Trust website by Frank Atura

See if you can spot me ;)