Dark Idols of an Artist: James Kudelka's Swan Lake‪.‬

SUZANNE JAEGER teaches philosophy at Atkinson College, York University, after a career as a professional dancer. Like many of the finer forms of performance art, ballet is struggling to discern its future. It wrestles with the longstanding tension between tradition and innovation, the conflict of artistic visions and egos, and the mundane necessity of presenting a marketable "product." Many patrons have drifted away, uncomfortable with an art form that can seem so inherently incorrect. But the lure of all those fluttering waifs continues to work its magic on everyone from little girls to jaded dance critics. Classical dance still communicates in a way that other languages cannot - and often communicates more than its choreographers intend.