I’ve been to ballets with well known storylines, like The Nutcracker Suite, Peter Pan, and Swan Lake. However, I don’t think I would have understood through dance alone without already knowing, and it’s not like a musical where there’s a play and dialogue between dance numbers. I’ve also seen dance-offs that get heated, despite no rude gestures that would be obvious to the layman. How does one decipher the storyline of a ballet through its movements or any other way?
In: 6
For strict representative dance as you’re describing you either just get an idea–this guy loves the girl and is pretending to be someone else, other guy also loves the girl–or you read/learn about it. Like, you’re not going to know the guy’s name is Siegfried in Swan Lake without reading the cast.
There’s also sort of a “vocabulary” in classical and modern dance where certain hand-wavy motions represent casting spells, moving the hands near one’s face is like saying something is beautiful. One of my favorites from ballet is the male’s spreading-arms gesture–it can mean just about anything depending on context. These you pick up from experience watching and can look them up.
Latest Answers