All young ballerinas know this nightmare: performing in “Swan Lake” as part of the corps de ballet, and then – a wrong step. The aesthetic illusion is already gone, swarm-intelligent simultaneity and uniformity are gone with the devil. It is no different in formation dancing, where the judges penalize any imbalance with a point deduction, which catapults the entire team to the lower tournament places. Whether it’s hip-hop shows, can-cans or Olympic synchronized swimming, the number of dance and sporting disciplines in which uniform appearance counts more than anything else has been booming for decades. Strictly speaking, the mono look is always a derivative of the ballet that was once invented as a peace retreat for the courtiers of the French Sun King.
Ballet of (Dis)obedience at the Cologne Theater: Collective Powerwalking – Culture
