My Favorite Artistic Mediums: A Creative Piece
As the door of my room slowly squeaked open, I was awash with a comforting sense of familiarity. My favorite pencil, dulled from a recent story-writing session, sat on my desk with the dirtied yellow paint rubbed away where I gripped it for hours as I let my imagination overflow onto paper. Glancing up, a faint smile played on my lips as my eyes settled on a beaten up pair of pointe shoes, blackened from long hours of ballet practice, that hung from a nail above my desk. As I sank contentedly onto my bed, I marveled how I could be drawn to objects that, aside from their first letter, had little in common. Resting thoughtfully, however, I realized that the pencil and the pointe shoe share a unique, creative connection.
Surprisingly, the pencil plays a key role in the dance world that is often overlooked. From creating a ballet’s story line, recording its choreography, or composing the accompanying music, a pencil is the chief means of documenting this work, and its duty does not stop there. On the more worldly side of ballet, there are light cues to be configured, costume and set designs to be sketched, programs to be drafted, and checks to be written. However, only when a dancer dons a pair of pointe shoes is the outline formed by the pencil colored in and its toil brought to life. Although the seemingly effortless performance of the dancer in her pointe shoes causes audiences to overlook the effort behind the magic, the need for the pencil is not lost. Despite their brilliance, ballet performances are fleeting in nature and easily forgotten. The pencil’s unassuming yet powerful work enables the enchantment created by the pointe shoes to be passed down through the ages, remaining un-erased while being built upon by each generation.
Studious ballerinas sprawled out on the coarse carpeted floor, religiously scribbling down their corrections after every class is a common sight to see while navigating the halls of a ballet school. Just as the ballerinas’ pointe shoes leave swirling trails of streaks as they move across the floor, their pencils move to their own silent rhythms as they dance to the margins of the paper. Such is the secret to the ballerina’s apparent sublimity: their perfection is only attained through diligent correction. Although the pencil is seen as a more practical implement while the pointe shoe awakens one’s imagination through its performance, both are instruments of art and expression as well as symbols of hard work and ingenuity. Thus the pencil and the pointe shoe are complementary to one another, yet manage to leave their own marks. Though it is possible that these artistic tools may operate separately, they are nothing more than blocks of wood unless in the hands of an inventive individual. Accordingly, a person’s creativity allows both physical and intellectual communication with the world. Creativity not only links the pencil to the pointe shoe, it serves as another meaningful connection among all humanity.
Getting my pointe shoes signed by a famous former New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan after her first post-retirement return to the stage in “Restless Creature,” 2015.
