"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. Others create an existential dread music video about AI that's directed by Daft Punk."
"Structurally speaking, Raymonda hasn't strayed too far in Rojo's recent update, which puts a feminist perspective on choreographer Marius Petipa's original work. The love triangle remains, but no one dies now, and our protagonist swaps her noble title for some overlap to Florence Nightingale - who history remembers for turning war hospitals from death traps to functional clinics. I guess the Nightingale bit threw me a little when attending the opening on March 1st."
Ballet is often imagined as a delicate, gravity-defying spectacle, but contemporary productions subvert that image with surprising narratives. One heroine fumbles through life decisions and ends up in a swamp. Other pieces present an AI-themed existential dread music video and an army of ghostly women who form a Kill Bill–style squad to dance their ex-lovers to death. Tamara Rojo's update of Raymonda places a 19th-century prima ballerina in a world of men but gives her new agency: choices about marriage, affairs, and a nursing-career parallel to Florence Nightingale. The love triangle endures, deaths are removed, and the protagonist's conflict includes career ambition alongside romance.
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