Morgan Beckwith: Southport, CT

“ So who is afraid of water?” This question was met with a combination of blank stares and quizzical faces. After Coco translated the question for the Japanese girls a few of them sheepishly raised their hands. Everyone was wondering what on earth Goran had up his sleeve this time.

Even with this apprehension all of Mystic Ballet could be found in the pool today, experimenting with underwater pictures for the website. Goran had the idea to display pictures of the dancers suspended in water next to the headshots, in order to show a unique view of these dancers in action. Everyone had to practice gracefully moving through the water with open eyes and a relaxed mouth, and after getting in the water myself it is certainly a lot more difficult than it looks.

For me it was extremely interesting to see how a dancer could still be a dancer in an extremely different environment. Of course I have lived this myself and seen whole groups of dancers in summer programs completely out of their usual studio element. But in this case it was for a particular purpose and it meant something throwing the unsuspecting group of bodies into the water. It will be intriguing to see what characteristics and personality traits show through in the pictures. What happens when these graceful creatures are pictured completely submerged and out of an ordinary studio setting? This was obviously part of Goran’s original intrigue, to draw out those individual qualities in a setting that would create a fascinating picture quality.

This is the perfect example of Goran working effectively to originate raw and original material to use for the good of Mystic Ballet outside of the performance venue. There is so much work behind creating and maintaining a company image that happens outside of the studio and performance hall. In this case it required the dancers to be creative while being open-minded to the will of the artistic director. This is the type of innovative experiment that can only succeed with both sides (artistic director and dancers) willing to carry out an idea while responding to challenges that arise. Sometimes the dancers just have to relinquish control and trust in the artistic director’s idea. We will see how everyone faired once we take a look at the photos. Regardless, it appeared as though the company had a nice afternoon around the pool enjoying each other’s company.