Controversial views: Modern dance

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The following poem is a reflection on a something that happened with a very good friend about 5 years ago. She had been offered tickets to the opening night of a new dance production. I was super keen until she revealed the dance company name. I knew it would be modern dance and I just simply couldn’t bring myself to sit through the show…despite the VIP pre-show canapés and drinks. At first she didn’t understand why I graciously declined the tickets and suggested the names of mutual friends who would like it.

A couple of months later I had the opportunity to buy some pre-release tickets to the ballet and I offered to take her – turns out classical ballet was not her thing. Variety is the spice of life!

Choreographed modernity 

Bodies move with disjointed unity 

Pulling, pushing 

Hard angles and sinews 

Forced ugliness 

Where there could be grace 

A discordant orchestration 

A view of control 

as bodies heave and leap 

to one man's vision 

of the human form- 

underfed and over-stretched 

Agility that denies fragility 

held up as the peak of success 

nothing more than a brutality 

against the watcher and the watched 

A hackneyed concept 

we'll see again next season. 
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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