#also a piece i associate with val is the dance i choreographed for my senior solo a couple years ago

[3584-tropical-fish]

hello fish! what ballets do u associate w vallerina? (& if you have specific clips can u link them pls?)

Hi morgan!!! I love having excuses to talk about ballet, thank you so so much for asking :D

I think The Rite of Spring (original title: Le Sacre du Printemps) is definitely the most fitting. The music is by Igor Stravinsky and original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky, but his choreography has since been lost, so I'm going to link the Joffrey Ballet's recreation, with choreography by Millicent Hodson. It is set in prehistoric Russia, and is about the sacrifice of a young girl (referred to as The Chosen One) in order to bring about the spring. And well. I feel like that theme of being chosen for some sort of great honor that is actually incredibly horrifying is quite fitting for Val.

The whole ballet is only about 30 minutes, but the Chosen One is chosen at the 18:28 mark, and she begins to dance herself to death at about 24:20

I've noticed that a lot of people reference Swan Lake, when they do vallerina art, which I'd guess is probably because it's one of the tragic ballets that is firmly in the public conscious and there's that Black Swan movie, but you know what people are right for it! A person is forced into a shape that doesn't fit them, is made no longer human, and its full of drama and death. Odile has this charm to her that is so fitting for Val, and I think this variation works nicely to get that energy across:

Though I also need an Odette clip, so here's the finale where she turns into a swan:

However, even more fitting for Val, I think, is the The Dying Swan by Mikhail Fokine, set to Camille Saint-Saëns's Le Cygne from Le Carnaval des animaux. A swan song if ever there was one, a final bow for Val, trying to escape but not quite able to.

I think to close out my collection of ballet blancs I am legally obligated to also include Giselle (or, Les Wilis). A story about a girl who was wronged by her lover and dies, joining the ranks of all of the other undead women who were wronged by their lovers - the Wilis.

Paul Taylor's Esplanade I just think is fun, and the frantic vibes of it and the use of classical music are fitting for Val

Also for vibes I will share After the Rain by Christopher Wheeldon!

For the life of me I cannot find a video of Septet by Merce Cunningham, but that uses Trois morceaux en form de poire by Erik Satie, so I associate it with Val because the music that plays when she talks about wanting to be a ballerina is another Satie piece.

Anyways! That's a lot, hopefully you enjoy them, and thank you again for asking!!! If nothing else I hope more people can come to appreciate Rite of Spring as a Val ballet, because out of everything I do think that is the Most fitting

FUCK hang on im gonna throw this juliet variation in last minute this is fun too