The Urban Ballerina

Kanye West 

The Ballerina Project 

The Ballerina Project 

The Ballerina Project 

The Ballerina Project 

The Ballerina Project 

The Black Swan

I did ballet for a while when I was younger, the after-school practices in mirror-lined rooms, the leotards and leg warmers, the tutu-wearing recitals, all of it. But the truth is, I was always more into soccer and spent most of my ballet classes being too chatty in the corner until the bun-wearing instructor told me to keep quiet in that elegant ballet teacher way. I ended up quitting right before I got on point shoes, but despite my lack of ballerina focus and affinity for rowdier things, I still hold a soft spot for the graceful dance, and I am not the only one.

I am seeing ballerinas all over, but the ones as of late have been taken out of their usual settings and given an edge that makes them so much more intriguing. First there is Kanye West's "Runaway," which in all its (and his) splendor was stolen by those dancers in black. I may have been indifferent about the other 25 minutes, but the ten with the ballerinas were absolutely stunning. Honestly, I haven't seen anything so cool-ly beautiful in quite some time. I was completely transfixed by the colors, the contrast and the movement.

Then there is The Ballerina Project, a series of photos of beautiful dancers striking poses all throughout the urban environment of New York City. Subways, scaffolding and rooftops are certainly not what you usually think of as dance floors, but the contrast, like that of hip hop and ballet, once again works.

And lastly, the upcoming film The Black Swan, with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis (two extremely beautiful ballerinas who I have heard share some sort of onscreen kiss), directed by the same man who did Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler. Not exactly the kind of movies one would ever associate with something like ballet, but after watching the trailer, once again, the ballerina thriller seems like an interesting combo. What are your thoughts on the new urban ballerina?