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way through the writings of all the balletomanes, but it is especially
central to the thinking of Adrian Stokes. "Turning out," writes
Stokes in
Tonight the Ballet,
"means that the dancer, whatever the
convolutions of the dance, continually shows as much of himself as
possible to the spectator." Ballet for Stokes is the most "externalized
form of dance," and he contrasts it with other dance forms - especially
non-Western forms-"that symbolize an intensification of ... mys–
tery." By contrast, ballet connotes perfect clarity and intelligibility.
Rayner Heppenstall, in his
Apology for Dancing,
uses this argu–
ment as a strategy for turning the tables on the modern dancers, in
effect, challenging their claims of moral superiority. To Hep–
penstall, the modern dancer's emphasis on "inner" experience is im–
plicitly antisocial. He accuses Isadora Duncan, for example, of
having initiated a voyeuristic fascination with matters "private" and
"internal." Classical ballet by contrast "can have nothing to do with
anything that is private or internal."
The idea that classical ballet serves a public and explicitly
moral function is also a recurring theme in Lincoln Kirstein's
writings; indeed for Kirstein, aesthetic and ethical arguments are
often inseparable.
In
his essay, "Classic Ballet: Aria of the Aerial,"
he challenges conventional wisdom about the essential differences
between classical ballet and modern dance:
It was proclaimed that main differences between modern and
ballet were between principles and technique, as if one lacked
skill, the other, morality . . .. Rather, difference was and is be–
tween accidental idiosyncrasy against tradition, personalism ver–
sus collectivity, discontinuity as opposed to an unbroken line .
Modern Dance opted for self-expressive originality . . . . Self–
expression triumphed without providing either a cohesive
teaching method or a repertory past individual utterance.
Kirstein is here referring to the fact that very few modern dance
companies survive the passing of their founders.
In
other words,
modern dance is too closely tied to the self-expressive idiosyncrasies
of particular individuals. It's no coincidence that modern dance
companies are almost invariably named after their founders. Refer–
ring, by contrast, to The New York City Ballet, Kirstein notes,
"Balanchine would not have called the company the Balanchine
Ballet, which was suggested and which he always resisted. He knew
the classic dance was stronger than any individual."
