"I always thought ballet would be a music box come to life. A dainty princess twirls in a stiff tutu while a prince solemnly assists, and the whole performance would serve up a tax-free inheritance in pointe shoes - polished, rarefied, and untouched by mortal concerns like gravity or sweat. In reality, one heroine fumbles every life decision and ends up in a swamp."
"Then comes Raymonda, a 19th-century prima ballerina in a world of men, but now she's holding all the cards: She can marry Harry, mess around with Ike, and be Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. At least, that's Creative Director Tamara Rojo's take for San Francisco Ballet. Our OG heroine is a noblewoman from 1898 and has perfect posture, but minimal personal agency; She twirls for the affection of two men, one a war hero, the other a bad boy."
Modern ballet productions often subvert traditional fairy-tale expectations, offering clumsy heroines, dystopian sequences, and violent, cinematic ensembles. Raymonda receives a feminist reworking that preserves the original love triangle while removing fatal outcomes and adding a nursing/career dimension reminiscent of Florence Nightingale. The protagonist gains agency and choices between marriage, romance, and professional purpose. The structural spine of Marius Petipa's choreography remains intact, paired with contemporary thematic reframing. Sasha De Sola's portrayal foregrounds heart and career conflict rather than battlefield nursing, producing a mix of historical posture and modern ambition within the San Francisco Ballet staging.
Read at Medium
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]