Towards a Culture of the Feminine: The Phenomenon of the Princess-Ballerina in Western Culture

Abstract

When asked, ‘What is a dancer?’ Maurice Béjart replied, ‘She is part nun, part boxer’ (Wiseman, La Danse ). Implicit to this response the ballerina is situated not in a pairing of opposites, but rather in a paradox of difference:1 a dancer shares feminine and masculine attributes, can be both chaste and fecund, and has a need for the public role of performance as well as a desire to return to the self for inner reflection and contemplation. The work of Luce Irigaray leads us towards virtues of wonder, creative imagination and the divine. Her work, then, becomes an excellent point of departure to investigate the phenomenon of the princess-ballerina in Western culture. In this chapter I will try to approach some of the understandings of the ballerina from two perspectives: that of an insider, designing for and dressing professional ballet dancers and dancers-in-training, and that of the poetic language Irigaray employs when expressing her unique understanding of feminine identity in a contemporary world.

The beginnings — the real foundations? — of a culture are poetic, or at least artistic. This is true also in the Western world. Whether we really are at the dawn of a new culture, or rather in an important cultural transition, art has a role to play in seeing us through this time. For Hegel, war is useful at such points. I prefer to have recourse to art as a way of initiating possible beginnings, having before interpreted myths from the past.

(Luce Irigaray, Everyday Prayers, p. 29)