The article by Katherine Boland is an interview with ballet dancer Carolynn Rowland. Its main topics are the influence of dance or art education in general on people’s future careers that may be not related to the dance sphere. Carolynn stresses the importance of education as it helps expand the person’s views and becomes quite helpful in establishing and achieving career goals. The article is useful for ballet dancers because it enables them to assess their perspectives on dancing and understand how the skills that they gain may help in daily life.
The article seemed quite interesting to me because it made me look at ballet dancing differently. After reading it, I realized that many useful skills the dancers are taught might be applied in other spheres, including the business sphere. I also appreciated Carolynn’s personal experience of keeping up with professional trauma which may be helpful for other people with the same problem. A lot of ballet dancers face injuries, and Carolynn’s experience will help them understand how to reestablish their life without abandoning dancing.
Hence, I will use Carolynn’s story of dealing with the trauma and professional success that followed it to prove that dancers may become successful and happy after injuries. She says: “A time off from dancing (due to injury) truly prepared me for my long-term business goals.” (Boland, 2018). I hope that my colleagues will find Carolynn’s example and experience helpful and inspiring at the same time.
The article gives an explicit explanation of the saying that ballet is the base of all dances. It suggests the new vision of these words, explaining that ballet was not a foundation of all dancing forms, but rather its solid training structure is not typical of other dancing styles. Thus, ballet helps understand the body more profoundly and develops great dancing skills. At the same time, ballet has several disadvantages, and the main one is that those who do not fit into the ballet’s ideal forms may face numerous threats to personal well-being if they want to continue doing ballet.
I will use the article to demonstrate that the traditional understanding of ballet’s perception as a foundation of all dancing styles may be wrong. This source will help me show that one must conduct more profound research to ensure that his suggestions are correct. In addition, I consider the section about the ballet’s outcomes necessarily important for the audience to see that ballet dancers face many difficulties.
Specifically, I will address the understanding of the ballet not as of foundation of the dance forms but as a style with a solid training structure other dances do not possess. The article says: “ballet offers a regimen of exercises — one that educators and others in leadership positions can use to evaluate progress or lack thereof.” (Boland, 2021). Hence, the audience will understand that ballet should be seen as something more than a dancing style but rather an instrument to shape the dancers’ personalities.
The article provides information on the postural control every ballet dancer should possess. It presents the experiment results during which professional ballet dancers and volunteers of the same age performed coordination exercises. As a result, it was established that ballet dancers demonstrate greater postural sway than those who do not dance. Hence, it was proven that ballet training and exercises develop the postural balance that is good not only for the professional but also for daily life.
The study results will help me show the importance of ballet training and its effect on people’s bodies. Good coordination is necessary not only for professionals but also for ordinary people. Hence, the article may prove interesting even for those who do not do ballet. The source will also help me conduct deeper research on ballet since it enables me to look at this dancing form from the perspective of a scientist but not a dancer.
I can even try to conduct the same experience myself, asking for the help of those who do ballet and those who do not. It will explicitly demonstrate that ballet dancers have good coordination skills and “show greater postural sway than non-dancers.” (Costa de Mello et al., 2017, 155). In addition, understanding the final results, which are great coordination skills, will facilitate the training process, as the students will know why they perform particular exercises.
The book surveys the development of ballet throughout world history. It helps the audience see this form of dance from a new perspective. Since ballet was always perceived as something elite and something that not every person could perform, many people were skeptical about it. The author conducted research using different materials related to professional ballet dancers to establish the way it influences different aspects of children’s lives.
I will use this book to trace how ballet changed throughout history. It will also help me find out which factors influenced the development of American ballet and how they shaped it. The information on both old and modern ballet will enable me to understand how the ballet dancing sphere evolved in the US and in which aspects the most significant changes took place.
Specifically, I can use a part about today’s changes and innovations that are typical of ballet. Hence, I will explain how and why ballet evolved from an elite occupation to ordinary people’s activity. “This book helps ground an art form often perceived to be elite in the everyday experience of regular children and adults.” (Klapper, 2020, 18). Comparing old and new variations of ballet will help me understand the history of the dance and the current tendencies it is affected by.