Perky Shae Lynn
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You are confusing a "story-line" with a story. They are not one and the same. Balanchine was indeed very specific about how his dancers expressed themselves. Key word "expressed." Zakharova is frosty and detached, but it is her style. Presence and artistry do not need to be overt. Joy is not a facial expression; it's the love of performing. Freedom is not the ability to improvise; it's the mind/body connection. Artistry in skating has nothing to do with being balletic, period. We are talking apples and oranges here.Balanchine made many iconic ballets with no storyline whatsoever and was very specific about how he liked his dancers to carry themselves and move. There was very little freedom as far as he was concerned. His dancers expressed themselves through the body not the face. Svetlana Zakharova and Ulyana Lopatkina have been called throughout their careers cold and emotionless and mere technical machines with pretty lines and body positions but they are both easily considered by the ballet world as two of the greatest ballerina's of the last half century.
I swear the online skating fandoms definition of artistry keeps getting smaller and smaller, more and more limited and narrower with with every passing season. The idea that you need to tell a story, make big facial expressions and express "joy" to connect with an audience or to even be considered artistic is ridiculous. You don't give the general audience enough credit then. Ballet and dance are far more then that.
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