ABSTRACT
Ballet performances come about through the management of different perspectives and their frames by a number of agents occupying different positions in the ballet world. This chapter considers how the frames may be explored choreographically, and the fact that sometimes they need to be repaired, as well as maintained. The conventional framing of ballet performances enacted beyond the time and place of the theatre room can easily be disturbed by technical errors. There is a widespread belief in the ballet world that people come to watch ballet performance as a way to escape personal problems and the general drudgery of life. Neither do habitual balletomanes and ordinary theatre-goers register the same features of a particular performance. There are various kinds of last performances in the ballet world: of a tour, a season, or a production (for the foreseeable future), and a dancer’s last performance.
