Ballet?

So, I turn on the TV this morning and encounter something called 'Out TV', which is apparently a station designed for the gay folk among us. Who knew?  And guess what's on? A spectacular ice skating version of Swan Lake! Apparently made in 2009, but I don't know where - seems like it could be Russian because I really can't imagine the Americans going there.

If you knew me you would know that ballet is dear to my heart although I've never really examined why. From experience I know that it's excruciatingly painful and ridiculously exacting.  And of course it's notorious for anorexia and injury - can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to do it. But for some reason it's aesthetically pleasing and the romantic ballets are just so, well..... romantic. Sigh.

I had a long chat with my friend P about this just recently. He had just seen 'Black Swan' and was going on about the meaning of it all etc. And then I realized that he probably didn't know about the origins of the ballet or anything about the romantic era, being only in his thirties and an engineer and all. But he understood the underlying themes and it's the themes that make the romantic ballets so appealing..... life, death, love, good, evil, and of course mental stability. There's a lot of psychological dysfunction in those ballets. I realize now that I had the luxury of seeing all that madness and beauty when I was only a teenager and somehow it allowed me to learn about the extremes of human behaviour in a way that I could absorb it. So, long live the ballet....