The Alchemical Opus of the Classical Ballet

It has recently occurred to me that there is a certain correspondence or resemblance between the alchemist of medieval times and the teacher of classical ballet.  A loose analogy that can be drawn between the alchemical opus (Latin for “work”) and the opus of training a ballet dancer to become an artist.  Like the magister[1] (master teacher alchemist) who works on the raw material in the vas (the crucible vessel or retort), the ballet teacher is responsible for directing the work in the ballet class.  Four components, the teacher, the dancer herself, the studio space in which the work occurs, and, most importantly, the teacher-dancer relationship make up the balletic retort. 

The ballet teacher (the magister of the balletic opus) and the student herself begin the work of disentangling, separating, uncoupling, and isolating the “elements”— the functions of the muscular and reflex systems of the student’s body — within this retort.  The comparable stage of this initial process in alchemy is referred to as the separatio.  At the beginning of the balletic opus, the distinctions between one muscle and its workings and another muscle and its functions must be drawn out, for students must discover which muscles work which parts of their physical mechanism. 

In the next stage of the alchemical process (the nigredo, meaning “blackness”), heat is applied resulting in a black substance at the bottom of the crucible formed from the incineration of the elements in the retort.  The nigredo stage of the alchemical process is equivalent in the ballet classroom to the considerable disorientation, humiliation and confusion that comes from trying to become aware of, reorganize, enliven, and engage the body’s muscular systems properly for the maximum efficiency and power that will be gained by achieving “the stance”.  However, the “heat” that is applied is not only the physical heat of the studio or the heat produced by working muscles.  This “heat” is the emotional “heat” and affective responses, the important give-and-take of a developing relationship of trust between the student and the teacher, during which the teacher also is affected and changes.  For a student will not learn, if the relationship is spoiled, and the considerable challenges for a student who is trying to make her muscles obey her can be a frustrating and emotional hurdle which the teacher must to help her overcome.  It can be a moment of “darkness” when the student wants to throw in the towel in despair.  Yet this period of disorientation is a prerequisite to personal development.  Courage and tenacity are required during this phase of the process.  If the balletic magister is doing his or her job correctly and well, things are going on at the physical, mental, emotional, and imaginal levels within the “retort". 

If one stays focused on the task, the nigredo will give way to the albedo (whiteness) stage in which there is an “A-ha!” moment and things begin to “work” for the student and teacher.  But of course, this dawning awareness and developing capacity, is not the end of the process.  In one sense, it is just the beginning of the greater work, for the student has a long way to go before things are consolidated and brought to fruition.  The opposing functions of the human being — the physical, mental, emotional, and imaginative faculties — must now each be honed and brought together by a function which transcends them all in a “union of opposites” or “quintessence” which produces the goal of the alchemical process:  the “Philosophers’ Stone” — which means, in our analogy to alchemy, that the student dancer over time becomes a maturing individual artist of the ballet and a magister in her own right, responsible for her own development. 
[1] All alchemical terms were in Latin.

Wilor Bluege

August 5, 2013