Akim Volynsky on the prominence of the vertical in classical ballet

    What is the source of the Washington Monument’s greatness, which is the greatness of all obelisks? Why do churches have spires? Is it because obelisks and spires lead the eye up, higher and higher, heavenward? And not just with architecture but with ballet is the stress on the vertical. This is what Akim Volynsky says:

This is the ideological scale that classical ballet contains within itself - an art of the conscious spirit in its highest moral and individual soaring. It would seem at first glance that before us a spectacle unfolds that is not entirely comprehensible and is even artificial in its outer appearance. These dancers, running around on their toes, doing pirouettes on pointe with the help of their partners, cutting across the stage with floral patterns again on pointed toes, as their feet curve upward, these dancers seem to be the fanciful creations of fairy tales, when in reality we have here the expression of the highest vertical tendency that exists within us. Such a tendency is inherent in us from childhood and runs through our entire life: to rise on our toes whenever we feel profound emotion, uplift, or joy. If ballet, which is equipped with verticality as its most intrinsic instrument, is deprived of this singular quality, this exaggerated ascent upward, this dynamic and lively standing on one’s toes, all of its lofty magic would disappear, and with this, the essence of its classicalness would be undermined. (Quoted from page 85 of Ballet’s Magic Kingdom: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911 - 1925, by Akim Volynsky. Translated and edited by Stanley J. Rabinowitz. Yale University Press. 2008.)
    For a brief biography of Akim Volynsky and a review of the cited book, click here.

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[Michael Jablonski]

Today’s post by the Saunterer is backed up by a review in today’s New York Times (June 10, 2009).

Alastair Macaulay wrote about the Russian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili in the title role of “Giselle”, which is now showing at the Metropolitan Opera House.

He had this to say about Ms. Ananiashvili, “How easily she takes to the air; how beautifully energy flows down the ravishingly long limbs of her physique.” And, “… as a dancer she has the thing itself. Her limbs keep glowing and stretching in the air as if helium were entering into them; she becomes newly luminous.”