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I first fell in love with ballet when I was four years old. I saw a production of The Nutcracker on television and I was transported to a world of Sugar Plum Fairies, Rat Kings, and soaring snowflakes. I was overwhelmed by drama of Tchaikovsky’s score and inspired by seeing normal humans move their bodies like angels. I was hooked.
Even though my earliest dream was to be a ballerina, we didn’t have the money for lessons, and I was never allowed to study dance. And so, I always thought of ballet as being something too good for me. It belonged to wealthy girls with pliable bodies and families who could afford season tickets to the theater. Of course, ballet is an art, and art belongs to everybody — and that’s something that PBS’s programming and the American Ballet Theatre has always been about.
The American Ballet Theatre is celebrating its 75th anniversary this month, and to celebrate the company’s landmark contributions to dance and American culture, PBS’s American Masters series is featuring an exquisite new Ric Burns documentary about its history.
In many ways, American Masters: American Ballet Theatre: A History is exactly what it sounds like. You hear the stories about how the company was founded and how it evolved under the guidance of Lucia Chase. But Burns also lets ballet experts explain how ballet originated as a masculine art in the court of Louis XIV and why it evolved to be associates as a “girly” pursuit in the years following the French Revolution.
Important productions and groundbreaking choreographers also get their due in the special. Burns found a glorious way to weave archival footage of these original productions with footage of ABT’s contemporary company bringing the same routines to life. He used state-of-the-art cinematography that slows the dance down so you can marvel at the level of control that superstars like Misty Copeland put into every move.
Of course, what makes the special — and PBS programming in general — truly remarkable is that you can watch it for free. Ballet is an art, and art belongs to the people[Watch American Masters: American Ballet Theatre: A History]
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[Gifs: PBS]
