Interview with a Ballet Director

Edit: This is following my question about ballet in Tamriel.

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I arranged this interview on my way to Skingrad, after a chance encounter at the in the Imperial City. I was checking into the All Saints Inn and noticed a large group of Nords in the atrium. Through small talk I learned that they were dancers on tour, due to perform a new ballet "Talara" in the auditorium of the Imperial Palace. The director was too busy for an interview that day so we arranged to meet in the Arboretum the following morning. He wishes to remain anonymous along with his company.

First of all, I understand it was not easy to fit this interview into your hectic schedule. On behalf of my readers, thank you for your time. And apologies for the background noise. The city is otherwise treating you well, I hope?

Don’t thank me—you were the one to give me this opportunity, after all. As you said, my schedule is murderous, so we haven’t had the chance to look around. But the Temple District is hospitable enough so far. I am glad to be here.

That’s good to hear. Would you mind introducing yourself—who you are, where you are from, what you do?

Of course. I am Saering, Director of the Ballet Theater of Haafingar in Solitude.

I am unfamiliar with the positions of a ballet company. What does your job involve?

I oversee everything. I plan performances, run all rehearsals, determine the casting, and hire or fire if need be. You could say I’m the top of our hierarchy, but I technically answer to a Guild Steward. As per the Second Guild Act, all ballet companies are owned by the Actors Guild. But the Guild is almost never involved with inside decision making. The steward is most often uninvolved with ballet, and instead makes executive decisions that are all far above my head. I am the de facto owner of Haafingar Theater.

You mentioned a hierarchy. What are the other jobs—or lower ranks, as one would put it?

I guess I didn’t put that very well. The system does have strict tiers, certainly, but these are not linear. Mostly because not everyone works in the same field. That’s one difference between Nordic theater companies and, say, Nibenese or Breton. Ballet in Skyrim isn’t an isolated little family—we keep connections with all other art forms. Even crafts and trades. And Haafingar is best known for this. Our company has employed seamstresses for costumes, cobblers for ballet shoes, and bards for musical accompaniment. Unlike in other provinces where these people are sought out and hired as needed, they receive full-time contracts from us. We even have an Alteration mage. He creates the lights during performances.

My mistake. That is fascinating though, and something I never considered. As you can tell, I have much to learn about your line of work. What are the dancers’ jobs then?

Yes, that is the real hierarchy. To start, we call the new recruits Apprentices. The Apprentices are technically not company members, as they rarely ever perform and have no salary, but they train with us full time for two years. Think of it as a sort of initiation ritual where the weaker ones are scared off. Those who finish their apprenticeship become Adepts and receive minor roles along with a fair salary. Most dancers spend their whole career as an Adept. A select few become Experts—Haafingar Theater has six at the moment. They have the greatest responsibility and privilege of the dancers.

Then there are two Masters. Well, a Master and a Mistress, I should say. They are retired dancers like me. Their job is to lead the daily training sessions and give extra assistance with rehearsal and staging. More specifically, they are the ones who yell the loudest and push people around. That’s the spirit of Nordic companies, really. He pauses for a moment and chuckles. You know, you should be glad to interview me and not the Mistress. You would find her much less patient.

I hope this isn’t more than you wanted to hear. Feel free to shut me up whenever you want to move on to the next question.

Not at all. I am here to learn as much as I can. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your story? How did you become a ballet dancer and director?

I’ll try to keep it short, because my story starts when I was ten years old on a farm in the Pale, which was quite a while ago. I don’t even remember why I wanted to attend ballet school. Or maybe I didn’t, and my mother just wanted to get rid of me… Either way, the Solitude Choreographic School was having an audition tour, and it’s hard to describe how lucky I was to get invited. As is anyone who has the right type of legs. I left Dawnstar, toiled for seven years, became the best in my class, et cetera. Graduated with very high marks. Then the Great War got intense and we were all drafted. My knee was pierced by an arrow in the Battle of Red Ring and I haven’t been able to dance full-out since then. Besides, four years without ballet training is enough to end a career as it is.

But after all that I was still offered the position of Master in the Ballet Theater of Haafingar. The arts had suffered from lack of funds during the war, obviously, and the director didn’t know how to set things right. Long story short: after a few years the Mistress framed him for a big fraud scandal in the Actors Guild and got him fired—that’s one of the things the Guild can do by the way, fire a director. She got fired by him first though. That left me as the first candidate for director. Ballet dancers aren’t angels, you see. Sometimes you can’t be honest and get things done at the same time.

That is quite the tale. This might be an odd question, but you have attended the Solitude Choreographic School and fought in the Great War. Both require great discipline and competition—what are the main differences between them? Are there ways in which ballet is more difficult than war, even?

You’re right, that is quite an odd question. For someone who has never practiced ballet especially. But it’s funny you mention that; we actually have this expression in Skyrim: “The stage is a battlefield with no grass.” And it is true. As for the differences, war is difficult because a half-second of bad luck will get you killed. It’s also rather boring. But at least you are loyal to one another, and to your cause, and the only person you need worry about is the enemy.

I wish I could say the same for ballet. In the company there are no friends, no loyalty. Instead of two sides of the conflict it’s you against everyone else. You have to be selfish to succeed. I know I am—as I said, I deserved my job well, but I still got it through deceit. People have bribed higher-ups, put glass in others’ shoes, hired the Thieves Guild, and once even the Dark Brotherhood to advance in the company ranks. You might have heard about the Dark Brotherhood incident. Though it was kept pretty quiet. That was not in my company of course—the one in Riften, Riftweald Ballet Theater. Anyways, the hardest part is that you have to hide it all. No matter what is happening around you in performance season, everyone must come together to create something beautiful. That’s what the audience wants.

I had no idea that life in a company was so dark. If you want to change the topic, would you mind giving me a short run-down of ballet’s history? How the art came to be, especially in Nordic culture?

Certainly. I’d rather not dwell on the bad things. Ballet’s history is obscure and accounts are often conflicted. No doubt the average person believes the art began in Colovia or the Gold Coast. But no, your province adopted it from the Summerset Isles, in a time when the Cyrodiils and Altmer weren’t killing each other. And ballet was based on Altmer folk dance no less. But the first men who learned it from the elves were wealthy diplomats, so it came to the mainland as an exclusive art. Soon ballet became a trend among the wealthy and privileged in Cyrodiil, High Rock, eastern Hammerfell, and of course Skyrim. We Nords were the first to make ballet accessible to the general public, and we established the first Choreographic School—the one I attended. The Bretons make similar claims. But they didn’t really have a school—more like a network of nobles and their tutors, without a real curriculum or logic. We were the ones to shape ballet into what it is now.

Before, you mentioned that the Choreographic School was very selective. What are the criteria? Are only Nords allowed to attend Nordic ballet schools and companies, or do you accept outsiders?

Ah yes, this is a controversial topic at the moment. When I was in school, we were all strictly Nords. But times have changed with the war and such. There are no longer rules forbidding outsiders from attending. Still, it is twice as difficult for an outsider to be accepted into the Nordic ballet world. The only ones in my company right now are two dark elves, one Apprentice and one Adept. They both attended the Solitude School as well. I am proud to have them, but many of my associates disagree. They think that outsiders disrupt the purity of the art form and its participants. They say other races are going to “steal ballet from us.” I think they are wrong simply because we stole ballet ourselves, whether we admit it or not. And from mer, no less.

The more practical reason that they give for keeping elves out is the merrish lifespan. Since the elves age so much more slowly than we do, their careers can last many decades, whereas humans have fifteen years at the very best. Since the dark elves in my company will each outlast about four Nords, the fear is that the elves will steal our jobs. There is no easy solution to that. But even that doesn’t account for shutting out Imperials, Bretons, and Redguards.

Just out of curiosity: is it incidental that your only dancers from abroad are Dunmer, or do you prefer certain non-Nord races over others? What physical attributes do you look for?

We look for naturally flexible joints, and long limbs relative to the torso. To an extreme extent. We’re quite selective. Oh, that’s another difference between ballet and combat that I forgot to mention. It doesn’t matter how you were born; if you work hard enough you will be able to kill. It’s good to have the muscles to swing an axe, but if you’re scrawnier then you might favor the shortsword or the bow. And if you’re not physical at all you can use war magic. But ballet has only one style, and if you’re not predisposed to it, you are wasting everyone’s time. It sounds unfair because it is. But it’s still true.

I suppose it’s not incidental that we have dark elves in our company. The dark elves are actually best suited for ballet—more flexible at the knees and ankles. So are the Bosmer, but they are usually too short, males especially. And the Altmer are tall. I suppose tall isn’t a bad thing. But if we hire an Altmer woman, we will need an equally tall man to be able to partner with her, and vice versa.

As for the other man races, we are wary to accept them because they have usually been trained in their own ballet techniques first. If you have been trained Breton for your whole education, it is impossible to adapt to the Nordic style. It’s fine for them to attend a Nordic school though, if they have no prior training. There are a few students at the Solitude school from High Rock, and a few from Hammerfell and Cyrodiil at the one in Riften. They are just as likely to match the desired physical proportions as any Nord.

This may be a dull question, but you have mentioned a few grim or difficult aspects of ballet. What has kept you participating in this art form for so many years? What are the positive aspects, from a dancer and director’s perspective?

Haha. that is a fair question. You know, it’s something that you can’t really understand until you’ve done it. Between struggle, the progress, and the result, there is a feeling that you are part of something big and you don’t know what you would do without it. Either way, when dancers are onstage they are happy. Even if there is corruption and competition everywhere. We still manage to enjoy what we do.

Well put. I have one more question for you. Where can I buy tickets for your performance this week?

He smiles. They're sold at the Green Emperor Way, near the entrance to the Imperial Palace. It would be very kind of you to come watch.

Of course I will. Well, that concludes our interview, so you have a good day—and thank you again for this knowledge.

Same to you my friend. Goodbye.