obsessivedancingdisorder

Alain Hanel - Photographies Image du Gala Russe - Roméo et Juliette - Olga Smirnova - Artem Ovcharenko

Oksana Skorik and Vladimir Shklyarov in Diamonds.

Ph. Paul Kolnik

©️ Svetlana Avvakum

Natalia Osipova in Swan Lake (Royal Ballet) 

Photo by Damir Yusupov

Misty Copeland or Yulia Stepanova? 

Yekaterina Krysanova as Juliet, and Egor Khromushin as Paris, in Romeo and Juliet (Bolshoi Ballet, 2017)

Jurgita Dronina in La Sylphide (English National Ballet)

📷 Daria Klimentova

So I’ve been seeing a lot of “you don’t come and tell me ballet is not a sport” thing on my dashboard. Well, this is me coming to all of you who say that and answering you: as far as my beliefs go, ballet is not a sport. And the fact that even ballet dancers believe that ballet should be on the freaking olympics makes me truly sad. Is that why we see so many videos where 9 year old girls do a thoushand pirouettes without any emotion on their faces? Is that why almost everyone these days has crazy extensions, but if you look closely, their dancing doesn’t touch anyone in any way? Is that why, for God’s sake, that some blogs on Tumblr who are blind enough to call themselves dance blogs show, countless times, endless pictures of contortionism and acrobacy? Well maybe those are sports, but ballet is not. And by saying this I don’t mean to underestimate other sports. I believe that anyone who loves something enough to sacrifice anything — social lives, bodies, minds, relationships — for the sake of it deserves everyone’s full respect. But differently from most of the olympic sports, ballet is to be felt, not evaluated and given numbers. Ballet is something to cry upon, to love upon, to dream upon, to feel the hairs on the back of your neck prickling with joy and sadness and fear and love. Not to cheer upon. Not to collect trophies. Not to compete upon. Ballet is an art. If you disagree, please look at the picture above. What do you first see? Do you see muscles and flexibility and stamina and strength? Great, cause so do I. But if those are the first and only things you see, that’s where you’re wrong. Because do you know what I first see? I see desire and pain and desperate love. I see feelings. And that’s what you should see too.

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Evgenia Obraztsova and Semyon Chudin

Latina beauty Majo Rodriguez with the Superior School of Music and Dance of Monterrey Photo © Paulo García Fotografía

Photo by Damir Yusupov

Photography by Rachel Neville