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| Firebird ballet, photo by Sipian |
The
word ‘Passion’ in a vacuum slips and slides. Say it to someone without context
and ask what comes to mind; most respond with something Romantic or 50 shades
of greyish[i].
In
the world of education passion plays a different role. Faculty earn top ratings
from students for burning intellectual fires in the classroom or now, via
MOOCs, on the web. Students who demonstrate academic passion often earn the
best grades and then the top recommendations from faculty: students who go beyond the assignments and grades.
While many students first flirt with a class,
the best soon start to see depth beyond just a well-dressed syllabus. They
engage in conversations, but not by mouthing sweet little nothings; instead,
they probe the depths—of themselves and the Other, (as the POMO crowd used to
say).
They
find because they seek. They open their eyes and their hearts. They change the
range of their vocabularies to include new moods, often as a result of reading
old words: Homer, Shakespeare, Frederick
Douglas, Adam Smith, Jane Austin, Einstein, David Foster Wallace, EO Wilson
etc., etc. The infinity of lists, of books, of words-- each contains the secret
and singular passionate syntax that make our minds move. They instruct us in
the art of what Ezra Pound called ‘the dance of the intellect’.
Sipian
is different.
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| Sipian |
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It was a random afternoon 20 years ago. I was
watching TV at home in China, and simply could not move my eyes off of a petite
ballerina. Dancing with girlish, somewhat timid charm, she would travel with
the Prince in a nutshell boat pulled by dolphins to the beautiful Land of
Sweets. Her dancing as Clara was gentle and sweet, light as a feather yet with
engaging and honest characterizations, and sheer purity.
I later learned that her name is Larissa Lezhnina. The performance was by the Kirov Ballet, founded in the 18th century and one of the world's leading ballet companies. Ballet, and dance in general, has since then become an indispensable part of my life.
Larissa Lezhnina
Little did I know, that 20 years later, I would leave my family in Shanghai, and travel (without a prince) overseas to the US to attend college in an idyllic southern college town; and a few years later, in the summer of 2011, move to New York with a job offer in the high stakes world of finance.
Occasionally when I look at my passion for ballet, I wonder if there isn't something self-defeating in my attraction to dance. Back in China, my academic studies have long been shaped by the attempts to navigate the conflicting aspirations of school and social life. As typical of other students from China, school/education was always the primary goal with other pursuits and social life expected to be pushed to the side. However, I found dance fits into my current life without being disruptive; instead it is fully supportive of who I am and how I find meaning in being. It is, to me, such a natural passion and keeps me going.
Little did I know, that 20 years later, I would leave my family in Shanghai, and travel (without a prince) overseas to the US to attend college in an idyllic southern college town; and a few years later, in the summer of 2011, move to New York with a job offer in the high stakes world of finance.
Occasionally when I look at my passion for ballet, I wonder if there isn't something self-defeating in my attraction to dance. Back in China, my academic studies have long been shaped by the attempts to navigate the conflicting aspirations of school and social life. As typical of other students from China, school/education was always the primary goal with other pursuits and social life expected to be pushed to the side. However, I found dance fits into my current life without being disruptive; instead it is fully supportive of who I am and how I find meaning in being. It is, to me, such a natural passion and keeps me going.
Maria Tallchief
Why dance? Dance is, in essence, self-expression. Even given the same choreography, the delicate variations in the way a dancer moves and carries him/herself reflects his/her life journey so far, the (often literal) ups and downs, and therefore changes the way a dancer moves over time. Maybe because it is free flowing or that the dance makes each performance a unique story, I have grown to appreciate dance as it reflects and perhaps even defines life.
When I first moved to New York, the center of ballet performance in the world,
dance made me easily fall in love with my new life in the City. Dance was my
mentor helping me, guiding me, despite the challenging transition from studying
at a major research university to working on Wall St. During the performance
seasons, the dancers I grew up idolizing would travel to New York and allow me
to see them dance in person.
During times when work gets busy, I am able to
continue to stay up to date on dance via various social mediums like Instagram.
Dancers and their followers post stories about their accomplishments as well as
setbacks on a daily basis. I yearn with joy as my favorite dancers deliver
emotional performances, but also grimace as soon as stories are posted about
dancers with serious injuries. These mediums have allowed me to continue to
follow my passion.
As my life moves among different stages, those of dance and work and life, it is reassuring to have something else that is more permanent, that doesn't fluctuate with the daily motions of life, even though paradoxically the something else consists of ephemeral moves in the passion of dance. For me my true partner in life so far has not been a person but instead, it has been and continues to be, dance. For me that was dance. One Parting plié of advice, find something that you can be passionate about, something that is both personal and timeless.
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Larissa Lezhnina
For
a short while, there were some pundits and experts who extolled the virtues of
multi-tasking. Brain science proved them wrong. The best students, artists and
business executives share the trait of focus. In many conversations with Sipian
I never perceived a moment when she lost hers.
I have no doubt she will continue to pursue her love of dance and
continue to move quickly up the corporate ladder at one of the best firms on
Wall Street. Sipian’s sentences prove the pleasures of dance in the art that is
also the life.
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[1] The au courante echo of
9 and 1/2 weeks, which echoes back to Roth’s Portnoy and Erica Jong’s zipless
trysts which echo anything by Henry Miller which echoes Lawrence’s Lady
Chatterley etc. until we finally regress in a very long zigzagging line back to
Sappho. Anne Carson’s “Eros the Bittersweet”
documents, poetically, Sappho’s songs of passion that still echo in our air.
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| Sipian dancing in the Hamptons |
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