Ballet’s Strange Bird

Drawing by Lousine Hogtanian

DARREN ARONOFSKY’s film, the ballet psycho-thriller “Black Swan” starring Natalie Portman, has received a love/hate reaction, much like the feeling I have with ballet in general.

My head spins at the thought of the premise of the story: a ballet dancer, ostensibly with New York City Ballet (they are at Lincoln Center, though they never call it such) receives the prima ballerina role in “Swan Lake,” rising from the corps de ballet to solo status with all the fatal pressure it entails.

There is the egocentric artistic director played by Vincent Cassel, a scary overbearing mother played by Barbara Hershey, envious fellow dancers, and the demons in the ballerina’s head who are unleashed by her obsession with perfection. These elements are paired with a profession that holds the female in such fragile esteem that every little girl starts with a jewelry box with a twirling ballerina—an image of beauty and grace on one leg, never wavering, balanced in pristine delicacy.

So, when Portman’s character, Nina, receives the role of a lifetime—that of the White Swan who embodies all that is good, wholesome, and submissive, and who in the second act must also portray the Black Swan who is the dangerous seductress (you know, the usual dilemma)—things start to go a muck.

Natalie Portman

The ballet world, as faulty as it is, is easy to turn into a melodramatic spectacle, but would a dancer really go to the lengths that the beleaguered Nina does? Perhaps her sense of reality was skewed from the start, but within the pursuit of perfecting her new found role she goes stark raving mad. The horror-movie turns certainly cheapen the film, but I suppose that was the vehicle for Nina’s internal conflict.

The beauty of the film, though, is that we get carried along with her, and what is real and what is imagined is indeed a blurred line, as it is in the foundation of most ballet stories. For example, would a human man really fall in love with a swan in the first place?

Ms. Portman carries the film. Her fragile demeanor, her pale pink and fuzzy shrugs, and her legwarmers are the envy of any young girl—or old one for that matter.

As the Black Swan

The actress is said to have immersed herself in the ballet world and with a little ballet background was able to do a significant amount of the dancing, which is admirable. The camera is kind to her, but she is truly believable as she spirals to unbelievable places.

Let’s put it this way: the making of this movie will be a boost to the ballet world, and even if it is not accepted across the board it is valid enough to warrant a lot of discussion. The art world includes the stuff dreams are made of and, I suppose, nightmares too.

Tags: Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 9th, 2011 at 9:09 am and is filed under Dance, Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.