Ballet and opera are often grouped together. Their companies tend to share performance spaces as both commonly use grand theaters that can display palatial sets and large-scale dance numbers. Both ballet and opera are also artforms more associated with the educated upper classes. These members of society can more readily afford the often-expensive tickets to these performances and more often have been educated to understand the unique ways that ballet and opera tell their stories. Ballet relies solely on movement and musical score while opera uses stylized singing that can be difficult to understand even when it is sung in your own language. This stylized quality makes both ballet and opera cultural elements and status symbols within a society.
In my six years as a competitive ballroom dancer in the United States, I’ve been struck by the fact that most of my coaches, teachers, and judges are from former Soviet states. Even Ukrainian President Zelensky had a star turn as a dancer when he won a Dancing with the Stars competition in 2006. During […]