Download pdf - The Last Ballet Class

TH E LA S T BA L L E T CL A S S

is in a green field under blooming supercell clouds,dancers arching, desperately sweeping against grassand warm pressureless air. Clouds blossom like poisonflowers. As the storm’s movements expand,dancers swirl in sky.


is underwater, dancers' limbs negotiatingdensity, legs pressing against the weightof water. Each jump suspends a moment longer,human mass encumbered by less gravity,waves rocking torsos, bodies succumbingto the ocean’s force.


is on ice, dancers spinning, muscles fightingfrigidity, bodies cloaked by layers of cloth and woolmuffling each movement. Inexorable rime, unbendingcompositions. Feet tread carefully, avoidingthe unforgiving ice, the crack.


is in space, Earth a haunting memory, arms and legswafting slowly, perpetually in air,no ground to curtail jumps. Slow dancinggoverns, allegro slackened by the absence of air.The emptiest black against bodies, a sunlights each movement.


is on WASP12b, the planet raining molten sapphires,each plié and tendu shimmering blue, bodiesglowing ecstatically in one last burst of life.


is in darkness, the sun a recollection, bodies movingwithout audience and from internal memory,each dancer blindly replicating plié and tendu,no mirror or teacher's eye for reflection.Dancers search for other dancerswith hands grasping hands, waists, and legs –bodies reading the space and respondingto each verberation.


is on Mars, leaps hanging in thin air filledwith carbon dioxide, landing in arid canyon,redness shading skin and sky. Suited limbslunge and dart, a moving piece of modern art,lungs sucking oxygen, racing against time.