As a freshman in my second semester, I found that I was intrigued by the relationship between two techniques: classical ballet and contemporary. My background is primarily based in classical ballet, but I have found that I have grown immensely through The Ohio State University Department of Dance, which is a contemporary based program. For my Freshmen Research Forum project, I decided to focus on how classical ballet and contemporary relate to each other and how this relationship might be portrayed.

 

I asked three dancers to watch “The Sugar Plum Fairy Variation” from The Nutcracker and then translate the classical ballet solo to a contemporary version of the solo. Each of the dancers were given an hour to complete the study in a studio to themselves where they were allowed to watch the classical variation as many times as they wanted. After they completed the study, I interview them about their creative processes and how their background affected the decisions they made in the translation from classical ballet to contemporary.

 

While I was not sure that my ballet background affects the decisions I make the quality of my dancing in technique and composition courses, I found through my study that your background and training remain with you forever. The experiences you have and what you learn will always be tied to what we produce as artists.