The value of art has been a debated topic since the beginning of time. Often it is determined unessential to survival, but important simply to aesthetic views. In this world, and specifically in my own life, art contains much more meaning than just a pretty picture. Art is the tool that I have used to develop into the person I am today through evaluation and expression. Just as any building cannot be created without the proper tools, I would not be the human being I am today without these significant instruments. The art of literature is my tool for evaluation and the art of dance is my tool for expression.
A Raisin in the Sun’s Beneatha Younger found a passion that changed her life. The play begins with her struggle to fit into white American culture. During the play, she discovers that embracing her African heritage is more suited to her personal interests. She quickly developed a strong love for the African culture and therefore changed her ideas about her future to suit this passion. She began to dream of going back to Africa. I began my athletic endeavors by following in mother’s footsteps with roller skating. Several of my friends took ballet classes and they served as my introduction to ballet. Watching a ballet on television left me further intrigued. I began to dream of becoming of a ballerina and this shaped my ideas about my future and the following steps I took to get there.
Henry Higgins devoted his life to his passion for speech and dictation. He knew and studied his passion constantly, but neglected his relationships with those involved in it. Before the curtain closes on Pygmalion the audience witnesses a development and change in this great character as he learns the importance of relationships in his work and in his life. Ballet is my passion. Like the well-known professor, I tend to get involved in perfecting my steps and body lines in ballet and neglect my relationships with the other dancers. Not only does this affect our ability to work as a team, it is also influences the quality of the acting element in ballet. The better we understand each other, the better we will be able to relate to one another as dancers and as characters in a storyline or forces in an emotion.
The middle section of Jane Eyre covers Jane’s first stay at Thornfield Hall. During this time she falls in love with Mr. Rochester. While she acknowledges this developing passion inside of her, she does not discover how much of herself this passion becomes until she leaves him. By the end of the story, she discovers how pointless her life is without Mr. Rochester. She returns to find him traumatically changed, yet they both vow to spend the rest of their lives together. Throughout my life I have devoted many hours to the athletic art form of ballet. Yet even when I began to dedicate eighteen hours a week to ballet I didn’t comprehend the passion and emotion involved in my obsession until my junior year. With my transition to a classical, highly academic school and new obligations at home, balancing responsibilities became a heightened challenge. Being stretched in more directions than ever before also released an overload of emotions that I have not been used to expressing. Translated into my dancing, I began to understand the importance of the dancer’s connection with their role and the audience. While I had always known that literature was my tool for evaluation, I now learned that dance was my tool for expression. Like Jane, a new environment acted as a foil which intensified my understanding of the passion I have and continue to invest in ballet.
Positively developed and adapted literary characters inspire readers to do likewise. These particular characters are only a few of the many characters who encouraged me to evaluate my experiences. In the same way, ballerinas hope to inspire their audiences through the art they express. Beneatha Younger, Henry Higgins and Jane Eyre have helped me to grow as a person. I hope that others will grow through the stories I tell, on and off stage.
