'Private view - <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000148269364269&rtmo=VDV383MK&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/12/9/btcoll09.html" TARGET=_blank><B>Ismene Brown</B></A> on when ballet loses sight of real drama.'<P>An interesting article as Ismene Brown takes a step back and surveys the lack of contemporary story telling in ballet. She makes the point that this does go on in the modern dance world.<P>Going back 20 years, MacMillan did address these issues in controversial works like 'The Judas Tree', but I agree with Ms Brown that in the UK this is much more an area that modern dance has explored. <P>Do you agree and if you do, why should it be so? Does the situation vary from country to country?

First one must ask what is "real drama"? Is not Shakespeare real drama? <P>I am not sure that ballet has ever dealt very much, or very successfully with contemporary drama. Ballet doesn't move as close to "real life" as modern dance does. The vocabulary of the ballet is a step further removed and so, in my opinion, it deals with drama that is a step removed - even if that step is in time rather than material. <P>If one was to take Romeo and Juliet, for instance, and instead of a family feud, it was a drug war between gangs, or a mob gang war headed by different families, would it be as successful? Perhaps - but why do that? The basic story is still a love between two young people that is killed by the society around it. <P>Is it necessary for ballet to look/dress modern? After all, in my opinion, the basic story lines no matter where placed in time, are pretty much the same throughout history.