Saturday, March 12, 2011

From Yevgenii Zamyatin's "We":

Record Two
Keywords: Ballet. Quadratic Harmony. X.
[...]
And then I thought to myself: why? Is this beautiful? Why is this dance beautiful? The answer: because it is non-free movement, because the whole profound point of this dance lies precisely in its absolute, aesthetic subordination, its perfect non-freedom. If indeed our our ancestors were prone to dancing at the most inspired moments of their lives (religious mysteries, military parades), then all this can only mean one thing: the instinct for non-freedom.

(Natasha Randall translation)