A look at Frederick Ashton

Photo Taken From Barnes & Noble

Frederick Ashton was a dancer, choreographer in love with Ballet. He lived from 1904-1988, and while he was born in Ecuador, he is most famous for being the artistic director of the British Royal Ballet. I am currently reading “Reading Dance” edited by Robert Gottlieb, and it includes an excerpt from the famed choreographer as he describes what he believes a choreographer to be… “First of all, he is to the ballet what a playwright is to a play; but whereas the playwright writes his play and generally hands it on to a producer who animates it for him and puts it on the stage, a choreographer does all this himself. Usually he is his own librettist also, so that in a sense the whole fount of the creation comes from him.”

Now, it is my opinion, and I state this with the deepest respect for this man’s work… But what about the dancers, the musicians, the lighting specialists, the costume designers, the people who have affected the choreographer in some way shape or form?

I realize he is trying to raise awareness to the actions of choreographers in the production of a piece of art work, but I think he forgets about the world around him for a second in this statement. Choreographers are people who take the world and wrap it in dance. They can sometimes seem in full command in the fact that they give direction to the work that they do, but they have dancers with varying capabilities and talents. They have musicians and composers that they collaborate with to fill the stage with sound to draw in the audience even more. They have so many people behind the scenes who dedicate themselves to their art of lighting and staging magic. They have designers of set and costume who tie the movement to an even more visual theme. And they have life experiences from people that have entered or left their lives.