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The Balanchine Woman
Ann Daly
What happens in those three themes, for me, is that man's sup-
port is allowing this woman to be more powerful, more open,
and in my sense of looking at it more beautiful than she could
be by herself because she has this [. . .] human ballet barre-I
don't care what you call it. That man shows her in four ara-
besques that she couldn't do by herself, and each one is more
powerful than the next because of his assistance or whatever
you want to call it-manipulation.
chine called an instant love story, whose desire is being played out? Who
occupies the position of privilege?
Balanchine choreographed The Four Temperamentsto Paul Hindemith's
1940 Theme with Four Variations(Accordingto the Four Temperaments).The
ballet is not so much about the four humors as it is about the sometimes
sweet, sometimes plaintive music, featuring the comings and goings of
piano and strings. The score begins with three themes, each represented
by a pas de deux; the subsequent variations are "Melancholic," "San-
guinic," "Phlegmatic," and "Choleric." This was the first of Balanchine's
strain of so-called "modern ballets," which, though rooted in the classical
vocabulary, inverted it, stretching it beyond the boundaries of conven-
tional "good taste."
The third theme is adagio-a man and woman dancing together in a
slow tempo. Its gender system is the traditional one "in which girls per-
form, supported by male partners" (Kirstein I983:296). The couple enters
together, and, after a brief foray by the ballerina, the danseur puts her
through an extraordinary sequence of precarious moves and off-kilter po-
sitions that render her totally vulnerable to his control. It is as if the man
were experimenting with how far he could pull the ballerina off her own
balance and still be performing classical ballet. The extreme to which the
third theme exemplifies what a ballerina can look like with the support of
her partner makes it an archetypal pas de deux.
A recurring motif is the arabesque, created and used in quite unconven-
tional ways. The danseur lays the ballerina in arabesque against his
leaned-back body (plate I) or swings her around on the pivot of her sup-
porting foot. As soon as an arabesque is formed or even before it is fully
formed, the man pulls, lifts, or thrusts the ballerina into another phrase.
However innovative the arabesques are, they still serve the traditional
purpose of focusing on the ballerina's leg. The emphasis on the manipu-
lated weight of the ballerina-passive weight, counterweight, displaced
weight, the compression of balanced weight, no weight-forces a focus
onto the woman's support system: her legs. They are constantly drawn in
and then extended outward, further intensifying the visual impact of her
dynamic line. And as the couple exits, the man carrying the woman, she
reverently unfolds her legs forward, as if she's rolling out a red carpet for
her exquisitely arched feet. Displaying the line of her body, artificially
elongated by her toe shoes, is the goal of their joint venture.
It is usually assumed that because Balanchine created so many more
starring roles for women than men that the ballerina is therefore the
dominant figure. But it is not enough to observe that the ballerina is of
primary interest; it must be asked how the choreography positions her
within the interaction. In Temperaments'third theme, the ballerina is the
center of attention because she is the one being displayed. The "feminine"
passivity which marks this display is a low status activity in American
culture; action is valued as "masculine" for its strength and self-assertive-
ness. In paintings, in films, in beauty pageants, in advertisements, wom-
en are constructed as to-be-looked-at; the men are the lookers, the voy-
eurs . . . the possessors. Men, on the other hand, are constructed as the
doers in films, in television commercials, in sports, in politics, in busi-
ness. That's why men who model are often seen as being "effeminate."
As John Berger wrote, "men act and women appear" (I973:47).
The Romantic ballerina-an important forerunner of the Balanchine
ballerina-is similarly seen as dominant because of her legendary celebri-
ty. Both Erik Aschengreen and John Chapman have debunked this myth.
1. Lisa Hess and Kipling
Houston: emphasizingthe
in France
Only superficially, Aschengreen argues, did the Romantic ballet lines of the ballerina'slegs.
belong to the ballerinas; rather, Romantic ballet was the expression of a (Photo by Paul Kolnik;
masculine society's desires. "Both La Sylphide and Giselle are named for
courtesyof the New York
the leading female characters, but the heroes, James and Albert [Al-
bear the prob- City Ballet)
brecht], bear the problems of the ballets" (I974:30). They
lems, and they make the choices: they act, while the heroines are acted
is
upon. In La Sylphide, for example, James loves, and the Sylphide loved;
James rejects, and Effie is rejected.
2. Balanchine'sWomanis
Chapman writes about the paradox in which the Romantic ballerina
fast, precise, impassive.Pic- was adored at the same time both she and her stage persona occupied a
turedare StephanieSaland
low status within the social order:
and Kipling Houston.
(Photo by Paul Kolnik; The owned woman, the slave girl, and the harem girl occurred
courtesyof the New York with great frequency in ballet and painting, reflecting the fe-
City Ballet) male's position in Parisian society. [. . .] Perhapsjust as erotic
as the harem girl was the supernaturalspirit [. . .] and she was as
free for the taking. [. . .] Yet the taking was not always so easy,
at least on the Opera stage, where wills lured men to their dooms
and sylphs eluded the most eager grasp. The challenge and dan-
ger of the seductive femme fatale only heightened the erotic stim-
ulation. Ballet was well suited to support this image of the fe-
male. On the stage real women, as slave girls, spirits or
adventuresses, revealed themselves to the hungry eyes of the
viewer. Off stage in the foyer de la danse, the wealthiest and
most influential could mingle with the dancers in highly elegant
surroundings. From this sophisticated market-place the rich buy-
ers selected their mistresses. [. . .] Thus the female who was
elevated to the position of a goddess was demeaned to the status
of a possession, a sexual object (I978:35).
is a blend of
The ballerina in the third theme of The Four Temperaments
the Romantic ballerina's enticing elusiveness and the contemporary
The BalanchineWoman 13
American woman. Arlene Croce writes that "in Balanchine the ballerina
is unattainable simply because she is woman, not because she's a super-
natural or enchanted being" (I979:I27).3 She is specifically a white, het-
erosexual American Woman: fast, precise, impassive. These qualities, ex-
emplified in her modern technical prowess, seduce the male gaze, but the
titillating danger-the threat-of her self-sufficient virtuosity is tamed by
her submissive role within the interaction. Much as the Romantic balleri-
na was a "beautiful danger" (Aschengren 1974) because of her narrative
association with the erotic and the demonic, the third theme ballerina is a
dualistic construction whose "danger" lies in the unattainable Otherness
of her "daredevil" technique. And if she is feisty, her surrender is all the
more delicious.
In the third theme, the ballerina does momentarily assert herself. After
the danseur whirls her posed body seven times on the balance of one
pointe, she bursts upward and turns triumphantly, in a split second. So
when she does surrender, it is all the more oppressive. For instance, after
a bit of typical Balanchine play with the presentation of hands and the
intertwining of arms, the ballerina's arms are crossed over her chest, and
her partner holds her hands from behind, like reins. Figuratively and liter-
ally, the man has the controlling hand. According to Schorer:
3. The thirdthemeballerina
The boy is lowering her arms so that she has to go to the floor, revealsherfeminine charms.
and she goes into a fetal position. It's like he's wrapped her up, Picturedare Lisa Hess and
and now by pulling her arms down she has to go into this teeny Kipling Houston. (Photo by
ball or form. [. . .About] the next step [in which she extricates
Steven Caras; courtesyof
the New York City Ballet)
14 Ann Daly
herself from this bind], Mr. B. always said, "It should look like
a struggle." From here she has to get her leg out, followed by
hips, arms, and the last thing is her head: to "get born," so to
speak. She should be a little bit lower and sort of almost awk-
ward, struggling-but in a graceful way.
Rather than glorifying women, chivalry has been linked to openly sub-
ordinating attitudes toward women (Nadler and Morrow I959). Mascu-
line deference such as Villella describes is false, Nadler and Morrow point
out, "because it is accorded to women only insofar as they subordinate
themselves to a narrow stereotype, and remain 'properly' submissive"
(I959:II9). Women are accorded superficial amenities and ritual etiquettes
provided that in important matters they "keep their place" (1959:114).
Positioning women as needy and "deserving" of male assistance, chivalry
casts her as "feminine" against the privileged patriarchal "masculine."
16 Ann Daly
Preventing women from venturing out on their own in the name of chiv-
alry precludes women from acquiring knowledge and capability and,
therefore, power (Fox I977). Power and prestige accrue to the men.
In the third theme, immediately following the couple's entrance, the
woman ventures out on her own by carving out a big chunk of the stage
space as she makes a semicircular path toward a back corner. The balleri-
na reaches toward a place in the distance, only to be pulled back in by her
cavalier, who then restricts her to much smaller portions of floor space.
According to Schorer: "It really looks like the boy takes her to make her
stop." From then on, he succeeds in keeping her within arm's reach.
Pointe work often frames the ballerina as needy of her partner's help.
In the third theme, the danseur is the upright, steadying force for the
ballerina as he pulls her off-balance or positions her precariously on one
pointe. This movement motif starts with their very entrance. Self-assured
and impenetrable, the danseur moves sideways toward center stage with
his arms broadly extended in a "T," stepping quickly up on half pointe
and then descending squarely on his heels. When the ballerina follows
suit, she steps laterally on both pointes in front of him, but then she
gently lunges sideways off pointe, with her arms lilting. He is linear and
stable; she is curvaceous and inconstant.
The male door-opening ceremony to which Villella compares partner-
ing a ballerina is a notorious reinforcement of gender asymmetry. Laurel
Richardson Walum underlines the importance of this social ritual as a
means of perpetuating patriarchalorder:
The door ceremony, then, reaffirms for both sexes their sense
of gender-identity, of being a "masculine" or "feminine" person.
It is not accidentally structured. In a very profound way the
simple ceremony daily makes a reality of the moral perspectives
of their culture: the ideology of patriarchy. These virtues of
"masculinity" are precisely those which are the dominant values
of the culture: aggression, efficacy, authority, prowess, and in-
dependence. And these virtues are assigned to the dominant
group, the males (cf. Millet, 1970:23-58). Opening a door for a
woman, presumably only a simple, common courtesy, is also a
political act, an act which affirms a patriarchalideology (Wa-
lum 1974:510).
Ballet is one of our culture's most powerful models of patriarchalcere-
mony. In the third theme, Balanchine sharply demarcates "feminine" and
"masculine" behavior. Though the ballerina displays her beauty, power is
associated with the masculine values of authority, Strength, and indepen-
dence which her partner, the manipulator, demonstrates. And by her
compliance, she ratifies her subordination. The cultural model that Daniel
passed off at the DCA seminar as harmless, "pure metaphor" in fact per-
petuates male dominance, and the hegemenous result is women co-consti-
tuting their own oppression. As Daniel pointed out, Balanchine's balleri-
nas don't do anything they don't want to: they've bought into the
system. Suzanne Farrell, Balanchine's most perfect "creation," once said
that:
I'd kill myself for a man, but I ain't going to kill myself for a
woman. I think it works well that way also. It's not that a wom-
an couldn't . . . not that a woman couldn't be president, but I
think it works better if it's a man with a very powerful woman
behind him (Garske 1983:22).
The BalanchineWoman 17
arrival of the professional female dancer and even before, is based on 5. LisaJacksonand Afshin
dichotomized gender difference and, hence, dominance (Daly i987a). Mofid: an archetypalcourt-
Martha Graham's very early works created a radical vision of strength for ship. (Photo by Steven
women, but today's modern dance is just as gender-dichotomized as bal- Caras; courtesyof the New
let. A totally new way of dancing and choreographic form-if that is York City Ballet)
possible to imagine within the framework of patriarchy-is needed in
order to encode a gender-multiple dance. In his effort to verbalize this
dream of a future without gender asymmetry, Jacques Derrida talks about
"the desire [. . .] to invent incalculable choreographies":
Notes
I. My thanks to Kate Davy and Debra Sowell for helping me formulate my argu-
ment and to the Dance Critics Association for the loan of video and audio tapes
from its I985 seminar on The Four Temperaments.
2. The pivotal concept of the "male gaze" arises from an examination of the struc-
ture of representation, in which the position of the spectator (the gazer) is en-
coded. Kaplanwrote: "The gaze is not necessarilymale (literally),but to own
and activate the gaze, given our language and the structure of the unconscious,
is to be in the 'masculine' position" (I983:30). Thus, women, too, under patri-
archy partake in the acculturated male gaze.
3. and 4. Though I make use of Croce's observations for a feminist critique of
Balanchine's ballerina, Croce concludes that "for Balanchine it is the man who
sees and follows and it is the woman who acts and guides" (1979:126).
20 Ann Daly
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