Ballet Goes Viral: NYCB dancer Sara Mearns debuts video blog.
Sara Mearns is back with a vengeance. After an eight-month hiatus from the stage, sidelined with a back injury, one of New York City Ballet’s most brilliant stars is back in action, ricocheting through a flurry of her most prominent roles with her trademark poetic elegance. Over the past several weeks, Mearns has dazzled in Balanchine’s Serenade, Swan Lake, and most recently, celebrated her tenth anniversary of performing the role of Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, for which she received exceptional reviews. But Mearns has taken on yet another role, this one on a new stage, to a new audience: Tour guide. Ballet has gone viral, and Mearns has set the stage.
When she debuted her video blog (“vlog,” for short), “Barre None,” exclusively for The Huffington Post, Mearns ventured into uncharted territory. The purpose? To answer the question: What goes on in the life of a classical ballet dancer? It is a valid question, and one that undoubtedly needs addressing. Within the past few years, the media has seen an outpouring of ballet-related films, books, and television programs, but how accurate are these portrayals? When trying to further interest in an art form, does accuracy even matter?
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
For Mearns, the answer is a resounding “yes.” Filmed via her computer and iPhone, Mearns remarks on the ins and outs of the ballet world with candidness we haven’t previously seen. It’s somewhat of a confessional: Though Mearns touches on the glamorous sides of her career, such as stage makeup and wearing J. Mendel and Valentino gowns to galas, she also admits to bitter truths, like not wanting to get out of bed some days. It is the blend of good and bad, pretty and ugly, that makes ballet human. We forget that ballet is fundamentally a human expression; an art created by humans, performed by humans, who often have very human reactions to a rather inhumane world.
What Mearns is saying is that there is more to ballet than meets the eye; there is a person within the performer who lives outside the performances. Ballerinas are humans. In this respect, Mearns is fearless: She isn’t just documenting her comeback, she’s assisting ballet in its comeback. In this day and age, in the moment of iPhones, tweets, and constant info-sharing, ballet is set to rejuvenate itself once more. Instead of Black Swans and scripts, ballet is going off the record, and setting it straight.
Mearns is certainly a trailblazer, but does acknowledge that she is “only one dancer.” It would be interesting to see what would occur if others in her field followed her lead. Instead of scripted shows that use ballet as a soap opera element, we could venture backstage with the artists themselves, of all nationalities, of all companies, of all roles. Dance, especially ballet, is a universal language, and one the mainstream should learn to speak. Sara Mearns has once again pushed the limits, and this time, there is no going back: Ballet has taken center stage, and its time we kept it there.
Credit: Kyle Froman Photography
Keep up with Sara via her vlog, Barre None, by visiting: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-mearns/
