Has Black Swan Influenced Perceptions of Ballet?

In Black Swan, dancer Nina Sayers loses her mind as she prepares for both the movie's title role and the role of the white swan in a production of Swan Lake. The Black Swan character is evil and sensual, characteristics that Nina must find within herself to play the Black Swan well. Early on in the film it becomes clear that she has a history of mental health issues. She becomes increasingly paranoid as her preparation for the role consumes her, but it's always unclear what is really happening: is the blood real? The feathers? To Nina, they are real and so they are real to us.

But what consequences may such a dark film have on perceptions of ballet dancers? Several dancers have come out in an obvious PR move to try to dispel stereotypes of ballet dancers as being cold, masochistic, tightly wound and super competitive. In a December Los Angeles Times interview, two principal dancers in the New York's American Ballet Theatre answer questions about similarities between Nina's experiences in Black Swan and their own experiences preparing for and performing in shows.

While they explain that some aspects of the film are realistic, at points it is clear that Murphy and Hallberg, particularly Murphy, are trying to debunk notions of ballet that Black Swan has perpetuated:

GM: "Most of my colleagues have a great sense of humor... you have to embrace the role onstage and experience what that character is about — very repressed and angry. But does that mean I was a nightmare to live with? Absolutely not ... The mean-spiritedness portrayed in the movie was disturbing to me ... It (dance film The Red Shoes) asks the question of how can a dancer experience and portray greatness onstage and also have a full personal life — and as a woman, have kids and get married. In this day and age, people do it all the time."

This interview and other articles about the Black Swan film clearly show that some in the ballet world are afraid about the impact the film may have on people's perceptions of their craft. Will Black Swan hurt ballet? Apparently not. Tickets for The New York City Ballet and Russian National Ballet at Valley Performing Arts Center productions of Swan Lake have been selling wildly.





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Dream

Yesterday, I dreamed that I was an actor on the set of a movie. We were working on a scene in which we had to run or something. It was the last scene shot for the movie. We kept having to run up and down stairs for this scene and I kept hoping and waiting for the director to yell, "That's a wrap!" Finally, he did and I was so relieved. We went to a party in the same church where I took ballet from 1989-1997, only the church was much bigger than I remembered and all of the windows were made of glass. It took us ages to walk to the entrance because the building was so long!

Then we got inside for our wrap party. I don't remember much of this, only that I wanted to stay, but I really had to pee. I went to the basement to find a washroom, but all I could find was the studio I used to take lessons in, which is weird because the studio was upstairs in real life and the basement looked nothing like it did in real life. Anyway, while I was looking for a washroom, I bumped into two dancers in full costume and make up. I asked them if they were having a recital and they told me it was really a rehearsal. So I followed them to an auditorium in the church (the auditorium where I had my recitals was actually at my high school) to watch the performances.

It turned out that it wasn't just a dance recital -- there were musical performances too. The one I saw was really good. It featured kids of varying ages and adults. In the last section of the song, a bunch of little kids stepped up to a higher stage in the front and sang. They were adorable. A lady beside me started waving and laughing. She poked me, pointed to the cutest girl and said, "She's my daughter." It was sweet. Then I left to go pee, finally, and that's all I remember.

In this dream, I played an actor or extra. I've been interested in getting back into acting for some time (I played Puck and Bottom in two high school productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream), but as it did in the dream, it would exhaust me and I don't love it nearly enough to make that kind of commitment. I would always feel desperate to get the scene over with, as I was in my dream.

I feel like my growing desperation to hear "That's a wrap" kind of represents my attitudes about a lot of things because of my health problems and also my boredom with my life. This representation probably symbolizes my excitement about finishing this semester of school. I'm sick of having to ask for extensions and missing classes. The work itself has become tiresome because there's always a looming deadline for a project that isn't something I want to do as a career. It's helpful to learn, though. You never know when I might need whatever skill the assignments are preparing me for.

I went to a party last night. My night wasn't rowdy, but I was standing and walking a lot of the time, so I'm really tired even though I got nine hours of sleep. I woke up less than half an hour ago. It's almost 3 p.m. now. Don't get me wrong, parties are exhausting to everyone, I think, but before I got sick with that virus last summer, I had much better endurance than I do now. I could wake feel rested after six hours of sleep. For months now, I never really feel rested, so I'm glad that when school is over I can rest whenever and for however long as I need to.

I will go to Hawaii in five days! We will not playing tourists this trip. It's more of a relax-on-the-beach vacation. I can't imagine anything more restful! It is supposed to be hot, but not hotter than a typical summer in Toronto, where I live. For a while I was concerned about how I would handle the heat, but now I'm excited. I'm so used to being cold all of the time!

My mom gave me a generous amount of spending money for Hawaii. She wants me to buy pants and shoes, both of which I have difficulty finding that fit me because I'm so petite! Sometimes I feel very determined to gain weight. Like yesterday, I heated up a plate of chicken Parmesan with spaghetti. I cut the breast into a piece I felt I would be able to eat and didn't give myself too many noodles. I was convinced I would be able to eat it! No dice... Ha ha. I ate a lot of it, though. I just wasn't very hungry. I realize that in instances like these, I'm most driven to eat by my desire to gain weight. I'm 5'2 and I weigh less than 100 pounds (the most I've ever weighed is about 107) and I think I look kind of gross. My forearms are just skin and bones. Seriously.

For years, people have expressed concern about my weight. I've always been thin. Mostly been a light eater. Very few have asked me if I'm anorexic or something -- but still, "few" is too much. I think my thin frame makes me look weak and kind of sick. I don't want to look that way! I want a full figure because I think it looks healthy to have a bit of fat all over the body. I'm so glad that I don't look sick and I want to look even better. Lately I've been blow-drying my hair after every shower, wearing a bra whenever I go out, usually wearing jewellery, hats and my nice jackets and coats. I'm trying to compensate for feeling awful by looking great.

I've also become a bit vain. Ha ha. I often find myself looking in the mirror. Just yesterday I was playing with my hair and staring at my reflection in the window of the subway. Don't worry, I didn't miss my stop or anything. I was wearing good shoes too, mind you they're falling apart now. I enjoyed hearing the heels click on the floor. They were clicking quickly because I was walking quickly (Yay! Energy!) -- a sound you hear with business people, dressed up on their way to somewhere important. Dressing up makes me feel important.