‘Swan Lake’ Is Exactly What It Is

Shall we cut to the chase? Classical ballet is an art form created by and large by covert homosexuals for the delectation of other covert homosexuals. Period.

The reason for this state of affairs is fairly obvious. The culture is loathe to allow that same-sex attraction is a perfectly ordinary aspect of human nature. The church called it “sin,” the psychiatrists “neurosis,” and now we have scientific “experts” claiming it’s some form of genetic mutation! Not waiting for the judgment of any learned body the culture has over the years placed all manner of social and legal prohibitions against the same-sex oriented that are just now beginning to be challenged. There’s still no job protection in 41 states, and the Bowers vs. Hardwick Supreme Court decision stands--validating sodomy statutes while claiming gays and lesbians have no right to privacy. Be that as it may, America still wants to have its hair done, its dresses made and pretty little ballets performed. As a result, those lucky same-sexers involved in the aforementioned arenas can find fame, fortune and life superior to that of the average gay ribbon clerk provided they keep quiet about their so-called “personal life.”

Thanks to the gay and lesbians civil rights movement, the lives of both ribbon clerks and balletomanes has changed over the last two decades. Consequently the coy symbolism that is classical ballet’s stock-in-trade has little resonance today. As a last-ditch effort to win back a once-dependable core audience, Bourne has revamped “Swan Lake.” But it’s not easy to fit the late 19th century into the late 20th--which was basically all that Farber was pointing out.

Still old habits die hard, and a supposedly intelligent readership is subjected to one article after another declaring that Bourne hasn’t “really” created “a gay ‘Swan Lake’ ” when it’s perfectly obvious that that’s exactly what he’s done. And that’s not to mention the nauseating interviews with the principal dancers, assuring us not only that they’re heterosexual but that--choreography be damned--they didn’t have a gay thought in their pure little heads while dancing.

Pull my other leg, it’s got bells on.

DAVID EHRENSTEIN

Los Angeles

Ehrenstein is a freelance writer who is writing “Open Secret,” a history of gays and lesbians in Hollywood (William Morrow).