Pas de Deux: Ballet and blooms, or what does TF share with the School of American Ballet?

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Pas de Deux: Ballet and blooms, or what does TF share with the School of American Ballet?

January 07, 2009

Teleflora teleflora.com and The School of American Ballet sab.org both mark their 75th birthday this year. And so they're pairing up as they both take a bow.

The School of American Ballet, the pre-eminent academy for classical dance in the U.S., is shaped by the artistic principles of founder George Balanchine, who developed a uniquely American way of dancing, emphasizing speed, musicality and expansiveness.

The School is doing much to celebrate, including a tribute performance on Jan. 14. Teleflora is providing flowers for the event and, for the month of January, we'll be featuring blog posts from various people affiliated with The School. Today's guest post is from Marjorie Van Dercook, executive director.

Just as ballet has the power to express abstract ideas and deep emotion, flowers too can communicate much more powerfully than words. Since both ballerinas and bouquets bring us beauty and inspiration, it's not surprising that the two have much in common.

Artists of all kinds have been enchanted with the mystery and magic of blooms. Poets, painters and composers have paid tribute to lilies, roses, irises, poppies, daisies, sunflowers and many more.

In the art of ballet, not only have flowers inspired and adorned costumes and sets, but they have been famously integral to the plots of some of the art form’s most-loved ballets. In the romantic masterpiece Giselle, the petals of a flower are plucked by the heroine in a game of he-loves-me-loves-me-not--with the game’s outcome portending her tragic end.

More happily, the young Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty receives roses from four suitor princes on her 16th birthday in one of the most famously difficult dances for a ballerina, known simply as “The Rose Adagio.” And flowers actually come to life in one of The Nutcracker’s most beautiful dances, “The Waltz of the Flowers.”

Flowers also have a more literal role to play. Given that red roses convey admiration, energy and strength, what better way to mark a first-rate performance than to shower a stage with these feminine flowers or to present a bouquet to an accomplished ballerina?

The origins of this tradition are unclear, but it's thought to have started in the 19th century. (Ballet as an art form began in Italy about 1450.) By the 1960s, when Dame Margot Fonteyn danced with Rudolf Nureyev, they became famous for curtain calls and countless bouquets tossed to the stage from the audience.

Upon retirement, it's customary to present dancers with floral bouquets to commemorate their stellar careers.

Fittingly, there is even a pale and dainty blossom called the ballerina flower, underscoring once again this subtle but significant bond between nature and art.

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