Neo-neocon, who describes herself as
a woman in my fifties, lifelong Democrat mugged by reality on 9/11
has a fascinating tangent on the ballet classes she used to take. She does a nice job describing the progression of a ballet class and how she felt about each part.
The first portion is boring but utterly necessary, the barre. It’s the equivalent of scales for the musician or singer…
Next we took our positions away from the barre for what was known as “center work.” First, a port de bras; mostly arm movements and slowly changing body positions, nothing too difficult. Then, an adagio, or series of slow unfolding movements, ordinarily very very difficult, but lyrical. Then, turns in place. Then some faster movements in place, then small jumps in place. Then bigger jumps in place. And then what was the payoff, the raison d’etre for the whole thing: moving combinations, usually across a diagonal from corner to corner.
We would usually end the big combinations with the largest of leaps on the diagonal, across the room. It was a totally ordered and controlled set of movements; every angle of each part of the body was dictated by tradition. But, within that structure, the utter sense of freedom and expansion–of soaring and flying and oneness with the music–was phenomenal. And, at the end, it was amazing that an hour and a half had passed with my hardly being aware of time at all.
There is nothing like it on earth. I miss it still.
The commenters continue with a grounded, sophisticated discussion of mind-body connections.
