I watched Nutcracker with Pat tonight, to be exact, I was sleeping next to Pat when she was watching the ballet. Originally I wanted to write an review about Nutcracker, then I realize I didn’t watch much of the show. My eye lid already felt heavy after the opening dance. I struggled to keep myself awake, trying hard to appreciate the movement on the stage. The dance is all about meaningless ponite toe spins and random arm movement. I gave up soon after I failed to make any sense out of the dance.

Then I try stay awake by thinking whether ballet is an art using art theories I learn form my atheistic class. Tchaikovsky created the music, it’s definitely an art. The plot of Nutcracker is adapted from a children story, which is also an art. However are there any arts in the ballet dancers? Undoubtedly, there are strict technical skills a dancer has to master in ballet, but they are just the puppets of the director. The dancers did not create anything new in the process, they can be replaced by robots that can dance the same movement precisely without affecting the artistic value of the show. I was thinking and thinking, my mind wandered further and further away from the stage, eventually I doze off in the middle of the 2nd scene. I slept through the whole act II after the intermission, only briefly awake when I heard the familiar Nutcracker theme music.

After I came home, I did some research on the history of ballet in Wiki. It started in Renaissance Italian as performance and developed by the French King in 17th century to become today’s complex system. My hypothesis is ballet is not an art, it is merely an trade to serve the royals and the nobles. Since monarchy is obsoleted in modern society, as a symbol of the past, ballet should also be discouraged or even abolished. I am still formulating my arguments to support my hypothesis. One day I will able to justify why no one should go to watch a ballet ever.