The Meaning of Classical Dance
By Arnold Haskell
The two forms of dancing which have moved me the most are the classical ballet and the classical dance of India.The word ‘classical’ is important. It implies a set of rules that are rigid, that have developed over a long period, in the sense that languages have developed, and consequently a complex technique that must be mastered. Or the word means a lifelong subjection to a master or guru, such as is unknown to any other art.These forms of dance would therefore at first sight appear to be extremely artificial and highly stylized, allowing little freedom to the individual. In fact this is not the case.The craft is essential if we are to think of the dancer as an artist.When we go back into prehistory for the origins of the dance we find that it was at the service of magic and as such could not be a haphazard affair. Primitive man, for instance in New Guinea today, rehearses his dances for a far longer period than in any European Opera House. He must store up the power that is necessary to move his audience, to make them able to bear the pain of certain tribal rights, to excite them to war or to inspire them in the hunt. Classical ballet is the furthest removed of all dance forms from the primitive, or so it would seem, yet the same principles apply.The daily repetition of exercises, the surrender to a teacher, the mastery of the body—always monotonous and sometimes painful—not only serve to conquer technique; they prepare the mind.There is the same storing of power as with primitive man.The repetition of exercises, this mastery of the body, is something that the mystic and the dancer have in common. There comes a time when the body is mastered and the dancer is free to express himself and to move his public.
Essay by Arnold Haskell, Oxford Journal of Aesthetics, 1962back to Dance and Classicism