Abstract
Choreographer George Balanchine was known for rejecting the premise that his ballets were abstract. Yet, a closer look into his comments on abstraction reveals a greater degree of ambivalence toward the concept than previously noticed. His influential words found response in dance critical writing, where the term “abstract” continued to circulate, but was often applied in vague ways, such as “so-called abstraction.” This and other softened terminological variations formed an ambiguous collection of abstractive terms, like a vague word cloud around the dance concept. This article explores abstraction in Balanchine’s particular ballets, and makes a two-fold argument. On the one hand, by emphasizing the visual aspects of Balanchine’s compositions, we may uncover ways to untangle his dilemma about dance abstraction. Visual theories of “semantic abstraction” by Harold Osborne, and of “the gesture of abstraction” by Blake Stimson, may help us to understand the abstractive modes in several of Balanchine’s black-and-white ballets. On the other hand, whether discussed or not, Balanchine’s abstractive gestures have created powerful representational shifts in some cases. In particular, by examining the interracially cast duet from the ballet Agon (1957) as a visual case study, we may see how Balanchine’s rejections of the concept, amplified by critics’ vague terminological invocations of, or silence about, abstractive choreographic gestures, occluded the work’s participation in the discourse of abstraction. Simultaneously, unnoticed yet potent choreographic gestures of semantic abstraction may have promoted whiteness as a normative structure, one that relies on a hegemonic “bodily integrity” (as discussed by Saidiya Hartman). Such an analysis leads to a recognition that Balanchine’s abstraction could have been a subversive form of dissent similar to Kobena Mercer’s concept of “discrepant abstraction.” However, I posit that, as a result of the Balanchine dilemma and its influence, the interlinked gestures of an abstract nature that have not been recognized as such promoted the self-regulative structure identified by Bojana Cvejić as “white harmony.” Ultimately, a more specific and clear application of the term “abstract” in ballet is needed, as it can help to dismantle or disrupt the system of white supremacy operative in dominant ballet structures.
Highlights
I am so often told that my choreographic creations are “abstract.” Does abstract mean that there is no story, no literary image, at best a general idea which remains untranslated in terms of reality? Does it mean the presentation of sound and movement, of unrelated conceptions and symbols in a disembodied state? (Balanchine [1951] 1992, p. 39)
Croce wrote: “The so-called abstract ballet had been established by Massine and Nijinska, but Les Présages, Choreartium, Rouge et Noir, and Chopin Concerto haven’t survived, and for all practical purposes it is to Balanchine that we look to make an break the rules of the genre” (Croce [1980] 2003, pp. 331–32)
By applying Stimson’s concept of gestures of abstraction to dance, we can understand how both Balanchine’s choreography, and critics’ vague discussions of it, were based on selection and elimination rooted in their own subjective corporealities
Summary
I am so often told that my choreographic creations are “abstract.” Does abstract mean that there is no story, no literary image, at best a general idea which remains untranslated in terms of reality? Does it mean the presentation of sound and movement, of unrelated conceptions and symbols in a disembodied state? (Balanchine [1951] 1992, p. 39). Choreographer George Balanchine (1904–1983) often questioned whether abstraction was an appropriate aesthetic designation for his ballets Throughout his career, he mused about the term, and in his recorded comments often seemed to reject it explicitly.. This analysis further draws on Blake Stimson’s theory of abstraction in photographic reportage, which points out the artistic embodied subjectivity in “the gesture of abstraction” (Stimson 2008) In this case, as it will be seen, woven gestures of abstraction by Balanchine and influential writers as his interlocutors, have promoted an ostensibly detached discourse. As it will be seen, woven gestures of abstraction by Balanchine and influential writers as his interlocutors, have promoted an ostensibly detached discourse Such detachment was still based on selections (of topics for observation and discussion) that were deeply rooted in the authors’ subjective “process of corporeal induction” It is still crucial today to dedicate attention to Balanchine’s abstraction dilemma, as it leads us to ask what is extraneous and withdrawn, and what is the “essential” content retained in the work
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