In Defense of Ballet

It has recently come to my attention that some people think ballet is not cool.

When you mention that this week is “Oregon Ballet Theater Exposed,” a free event where the ballet company rehearses every day under a white tent in South Park Blocks, some people will scoff, “That’s boring. Wait, ‘exposed’ as in, ‘the ballet dancers are naked?’ No? Okay, yeah, that’s booooring.” That’s fine. I think World of Warcraft and The O.C. and church are boring.

But World of Warcraft has 16 million adherents. The O.C. has cute boys and gushy articles in Tiger Beat. All the Oregon Ballet Theater has to defend itself is a bland MySpace page and some posters around town.

So obviously there’s not enough people talking about how awesome ballet is. Here is a three point defense:

Point One – Ballerinas are incredibly physically and mentally strong people who dedicate their lives to making their bodies do really amazing things. Do you like the Olympics? Yeah, it’s like that, except with less fame and patriotism and it can be pretty intellectual.

Point Two – Doing ballet rehearsals which are free and open to the public is great because the audience gets to see the whole process behind making dance. When you pay to see the show, it’s just the final polished product and the dancers are so good they make incredibly difficult works look easy. It’s a thrill to see rehearsals because you get to see the dancers screw up, sweat and learn. It definitely gives you an understanding of why the end product is important because you understand all the work that went into it.

Point Three – OMG HAVE YOU SEEN THEIR CALVES? Ballet dancers have calf mountains. If they were wearing pants, I would think they were stuffing their calves to make them bigger than possible through normal means like steroids and exercise. But they’re for real. Here is photographic proof:

Bonus extra 4th point: Ballet isn’t just the Nutcracker, etc. Ballet can be so sexy it knocks me speechless. If you’re looking to be made uncomfortably aroused by the primal throbbing of muscular bodies, I suggest Bejart’s The Rite of Spring. In the meantime, go check out the not naked ballerinas in the South Park Blocks every work day of the week from 1-7PM.