Talents by MOUV-Mauritian artistic side

The final of Talents by MOUV took place at the Backstage Lounge of the Henessy Park Hotel on Thursday 17^th of September and the winner was Anne-Sophie Paul. This competition was organized by Mouv production whose main aim is to give to amateurs of music in Mauritius the opportunity to follow their dreams and to promote their talent not only in Mauritius but the Indian Ocean also.

Directed by Roberto de Carthage, Damien Bathurst and Géraldine Secondis, Mouv production works in order to give an outburst to the artistic side of our society. They believe that those people participating in their competition want to make their passion their living also and Mauritius is not as involved in the artistic sector as it is in the tourism or economic sector for example. For many years art in Mauritius was considered as a way to live it be by dancing, singing, being a musician or painter. Although this has change a lot, it still remain difficult to be an artist in Mauritian.

The reality is that there is only one musical school in Mauritius which is the Conservatoire François Mitterrand which welcomes all musicians and singers. There is also two classical ballet teachers namely Shirley D’Espanay and Theresa David, a few for Indian one such as Katak and Bharat Natyam and one or two for modern dance. The fact is that the only work that remains in the artist’s world in Mauritius is being a teacher.  Although many competitions are organized, it still remains a fact that the future of artists in Mauritius remain inconsistent.

Many Mauritian artists found themselves not really benefitting from their work. With the internet and the fact that everything can be downloaded for free in Mauritius, the artists are struggling to live of their passion. They live of concerts but the reality is they can’t do concerts all year round and are in some ways begging the Mauritian society to buy their work instead of going on the internet where “free” has become a better option.

Mouv production want to change that perception of Mauritian artists. During the competition Talents by Mouv, Bruno Berberes, artistic and casting director for The Voice France, was invited to do a casting and chose which of the fifteen finalists was eligible to go to France and form part of this great adventure which is The Voice. The name of the one chosen will be revealed during the next season of The Voice. This was in fact a great opportunity for the participants as they were more motivated to share their talent and to continue to fight for their passion.

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BEHIND THE PERFECTION OF BALLET

Ballet has always been viewed as a graceful and disciplined dance that many of you see as boring or are not even interested in. What you don’t know is that it is considered as a sport. Yes it is!!!! It is physically straining just like any other sport and it is not that easy to be graceful and disciplined.

Why you should be interested as I am in this topic is because Ballet is actually the second more demanding sport after football but also because it will offer you opportunities to stop on the prejudices you have about ballet being perfect.

“The physical requirements for ballet are usually extraordinary. Beginning at an early age (four to eight years), female ballet students often exercise in class for five to seven hours per day”(http://www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0197007085800048).

Yes, dear all, EXERCISE.

Ballet is not just only putting one feet in front of the other and doing some impressive moves. It demands dedication, patience and strength to meet self and others expectations.Being in a class dancing for five to seven hours a day demands physical strength that is constantly asked for ballet dancers. Having overstrained muscles and feet that smells and bleed because of hours spent on pointes is not dancing. It is hell.

Not perfect but still shows how difficult ballet is

According to Kadel, the foot and the ankle are the most frequently injured areas in dancers, and 95% of dancers are injured at least once during one year study period with this rate being significantly higher among female ballet dancers (http://www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S1047965114000527). The numbers talks by itself showing that being a ballet dancer is much more dangerous than we think.  Moreover these same injuries could cause an end to a career.

Put some thoughts in that.

“Ballet represents unique stresses that may affect dietary practices and nutrition beliefs” (http://www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0197007085800048). In fact most ballet dancers think that they are too fat. They have been told since a young age that a good ballet dancer should be slim and this has caused a lot of them to develop anorexia. Another study proves that despite being below mean weight for height, the dancers described themselves as being “overweight” (http://www.sciencedirect.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0197007085800048). Besides this cause them to lower their self-esteem and have an inferior image of themselves.

To be a ballet dancer is difficult. Being constantly pushed to go beyond limits can be described as motivation but not when it includes ten hours of work every day, poor nutrition and lack of self-esteem.

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Why the “Behind the scenes” of Ballet?

“Dancing is like dreaming with your feet” Constanze Mozart (http://www.quotesbuddy.com/?s=Constanze+quotes). I have learnt that Constanze was right over the years I practiced Ballet. I believe that Ballet is one of the things that have made me what I am today. But I should probably start by how I was dragged in a Ballet class in the first place and explain how today its imperfection has become a subject of interest to me.

My mom always told my sisters and I that having good grades at school was important but that it was not the most important. So when I was four she brought us to our first Ballet class. My tomboy attitude dominates my wish to continue after the first class but my mom was my mom so I was forced to go to each and every class. It took me over two years to realize how fun I was having in those classes but above all how it has become part of my life to dance. From then I started to practice Ballet as a passion, and as I grew up into a young girl and an adolescent it became an obsession. As a dancer I learned dedication, self-discipline, to smile through the pain and to trust my Ballet teacher.

At eight with my elder sister and ballet teacher

My subject talks about the “behind the scenes” of Ballet. Behind these perfections, there is the pain and why my interest in this subject is that I have had these pains like each and every ballet dancer. Ballet had become an obsession for me. I wanted to be perfect and to do so, I spent hours practicing to the point of hurting myself physically and emotionally. At the age of fourteen I was asked to stop dancing because of an injury. The irony is that I didn’t even fell while I was dancing. But then my teacher told me her own experience. She stopped doing pointes because her vertebral column was overstrained by this amount of work.

That was when I took conscious that Ballet was not that perfect. I went through all the careers of ballerinas who had to stop because of injuries and made it a must to raise awareness on how this type of dance was difficult. Being a ballet dancer has really been like a dream to me and still is. But although I crave for those moments in a ballet class, I also tell myself that ballet is not perfection and that’s why I want to write on it today.

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