Ballet Immemorial
In W.J.T. Mitchell’s essay “Metapictures,” Mitchell claims that Diego Velásquez’s painting Las Meninas is “a veritable whirlpool of interpretive ‘aspects,’ switching and alternating the places of painter, beholder, and model, the viewer and the viewed… The figure of the ‘whirlpool’ suggests a way o...
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Journal of Anime and Manga Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/article/view/1199 |
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| author | Katy Oliver |
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| author_sort | Katy Oliver |
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In W.J.T. Mitchell’s essay “Metapictures,” Mitchell claims that Diego Velásquez’s painting Las Meninas is “a veritable whirlpool of interpretive ‘aspects,’ switching and alternating the places of painter, beholder, and model, the viewer and the viewed… The figure of the ‘whirlpool’ suggests a way of specifying (or picturing) the multistability effect in a graphic form” (75). Mitchell’s “whirlpool of interactive ‘aspects’” provides an excellent means of grafting the concept of the metapicture onto different artistic discourses—here, ballet and its counterpart, meta-ballet (75). I contend that meta-ballet has two components: it comprises both the deliberate act of referencing the balletic canon and also the process of exploring the constituent parts of the balletic tradition (gesture and bodily movement, staging, performativity, and so on) in a way that mutates normative understandings of ballet. This paper’s aims are twofold: firstly, I develop the concept of meta-ballet and apply it to the show Princess Tutu. Secondly, I explore the uniquely meta-balletic nature of ballet pantomime and bodily motion as deployed by the show. Princess Tutu is quite self-consciously a meta-ballet, making constant references to real-world ballets, ballet techniques, and balletic pantomime. Its playful re-articulations and references to the canonical Western ballets of the nineteenth century illustrate the rich possibilities within ballet’s vast and variegated archive of bodies, texts, performances, and gestures.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-df60ba0c380e41fe96bd9fe90fdbe0e5 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 2689-2596 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Anime and Manga Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-df60ba0c380e41fe96bd9fe90fdbe0e52025-07-23T19:23:37ZengUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignJournal of Anime and Manga Studies2689-25962024-12-01510.21900/j.jams.v5.1199Ballet ImmemorialKaty Oliver0Pennsylvania State University In W.J.T. Mitchell’s essay “Metapictures,” Mitchell claims that Diego Velásquez’s painting Las Meninas is “a veritable whirlpool of interpretive ‘aspects,’ switching and alternating the places of painter, beholder, and model, the viewer and the viewed… The figure of the ‘whirlpool’ suggests a way of specifying (or picturing) the multistability effect in a graphic form” (75). Mitchell’s “whirlpool of interactive ‘aspects’” provides an excellent means of grafting the concept of the metapicture onto different artistic discourses—here, ballet and its counterpart, meta-ballet (75). I contend that meta-ballet has two components: it comprises both the deliberate act of referencing the balletic canon and also the process of exploring the constituent parts of the balletic tradition (gesture and bodily movement, staging, performativity, and so on) in a way that mutates normative understandings of ballet. This paper’s aims are twofold: firstly, I develop the concept of meta-ballet and apply it to the show Princess Tutu. Secondly, I explore the uniquely meta-balletic nature of ballet pantomime and bodily motion as deployed by the show. Princess Tutu is quite self-consciously a meta-ballet, making constant references to real-world ballets, ballet techniques, and balletic pantomime. Its playful re-articulations and references to the canonical Western ballets of the nineteenth century illustrate the rich possibilities within ballet’s vast and variegated archive of bodies, texts, performances, and gestures. https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/article/view/1199affectAnimeAnime and Manga StudiesAnime Studiesballetdance |
| spellingShingle | Katy Oliver Ballet Immemorial Journal of Anime and Manga Studies affect Anime Anime and Manga Studies Anime Studies ballet dance |
| title | Ballet Immemorial |
| title_full | Ballet Immemorial |
| title_fullStr | Ballet Immemorial |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ballet Immemorial |
| title_short | Ballet Immemorial |
| title_sort | ballet immemorial |
| topic | affect Anime Anime and Manga Studies Anime Studies ballet dance |
| url | https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/article/view/1199 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT katyoliver balletimmemorial |