Breaking Pointe: 2020 Cultural Disorientation and the Relevé of the Ballet-Activist
Abstract:
This presentation, derived from an MA Dance Politics and Sociology Thesis, explores the impact of 2020 cultural disorientation on the ballet sphere and the subsequent relevé of the ballet-activist, marking an observable shift in the structure of the ballet community, towards one of autonomy, advocacy, and transparency. Drawing upon my embodied experience, socio-political theories, and activist-texts, I explore the traumatic impact of dual-disorientation, referencing the emergence of an “unprecedented” global pandemic, and simultaneous enchaînement of social injustices plaguing 2020, the ramifications of which can still be felt. In conceptualising ballet as an institutional sphere, I uncover the impact of ballet’s powerful institutional core, determining the varying ways in which ballet has held itself in a persistent and perpetual state of cultural lag; to do this, I employ Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, commenting on the indoctrination of ballet inhabitants via the authority systems and values ballet’s impenetrable core encases. I ultimately suggest that the aforementioned dual disorientation has resulted in a distancing of ballet inhabitants from the institutional core, calling upon the rule of proximity to articulate this postulation. Consequently, I propose the relevé of the ballet-activist, able to connect the issues of wider society to those prevalent within the ballet sphere; as a result, ballet is pulled from its state of cultural lag, with the ballet activist poised and already pushing ballet towards its breaking pointe.