La Danse – So Whom Do You Depend On…?
Yesterday I saw the most recent Minnesota Film Arts offering -Frederick Wiseman’s documentary, La Danse. This film is a close-up portrayal of the Paris Opera Ballet from rehearsal to performance. There is no narration. Instead this is a cinema verite look at the ballet company. It is certainly worth seeing, although as the comments to the New York Times review note, it is badly in need of editing and the choice of the featured ballets was – well – bizarre.
There are two things that even those uninitiated to ballet will notice. First, the physical demands of this art form are brutal. You see the rehearsals and the attention to detail in putting together a dance that during performance looks effortless. And you also witness dancers with their feet taped and their legs wrapped in ace bandages repeating segments of a dance over and over even when totally fatigued. Then there is an extended discussion of about the life span of a ballet dancer and a provision in the pension laws of France that provides retirement funds to a dancer at the age of 40 because the demands of dancing professionally at this level prevent men and women from careers as dancers beyond that age.
Second, in a world of stars, what struck me after watching this documentary is that without a cast of thousands, the principals are nothing. You see everything from seamstresses meticulously sewing costumes, and janitors cleaning the performance hall after the audience has departed to the development staff trying to figure out how to pamper large scale donors to the company. And then you realize why a ticket to the Paris Opera Ballet is $475!
How many people do you count on in order for you to do what you do for a living?
Tags: commentary, individual contributor, works and plays well with others