芭蕾舞演員 涅槃於黑暗之中

Ballet is one of the world’s most graceful and glamorous art forms. But the new Starz series, Flesh and Bone, explores the ugly, brutal side of the industry.

芭蕾舞是世界上最優雅、最有魅力的藝術形式之一。不過Starz有線電視臺的新劇《骨肉之軀》卻深扒了芭蕾舞界醜陋、殘酷的一面。

The show, which premiered on Nov 8, centers on Claire Robbins (Sarah Hay), a gifted young ballerina who runs away from her abusive home in Pittsburgh and goes to New York to pursue a dancing career.

本劇於11月8日首播。主角克萊爾圠賓斯（薩拉眠伊飾）是一位極有天賦的年輕芭蕾舞演員。由於不堪忍受在家鄉匹茲堡受到的凌辱，她決定前往紐約追求她的舞蹈事業。

Her skills soon earn her a leading position at a renowned ballet company. But her swift rise also rankles her fellow dancers. Robbins struggles to succeed in this highly competitive new environment while dealing with the scars of sexual assault.

嫺熟的舞蹈技藝讓她很快成了著名芭蕾舞團的領舞。但她的平步青雲卻引來了其他舞蹈演員的不滿。羅賓斯不僅要在競爭激烈的新環境中拼搏奮鬥，還要一直忍受性騷擾留下的傷害。

“This is the first time we’ve really seen the underbelly of a ballet company,” the show’s writer, Moira Walley-Beckett, told Los Angeles Times. Walley-Beckett spent 20 years in ballet herself, and she said she drew on that experience to give the show its grit. “A lot of those movies have catered to the very glossy, ethereal, optical illusion that is ballet, and we ripped the Band-Aid off.”

編劇莫拉瓦利-貝基特告訴《洛杉磯時報》：“這是我們第一次親眼目睹芭蕾舞團的內幕。”瓦利-貝基特曾跳過二十年的芭蕾舞，這段經歷幫她更好地打磨了這部戲。“很多電影只是一味地迎合人們對芭蕾舞耀眼奪目和高貴優雅的幻想，但我們卻撕開了這塊遮羞布。”

To create a sense of authenticity, Walley-Beckett insisted that the show cast real-life ballet dancers. Hay, for instance, was formerly a soloist with the Semperoper Ballet in Dresden, Germany.

爲了讓劇集看起來更真實，瓦利-貝基特堅持讓真正的芭蕾舞演員參演。例如，本劇主演海伊曾是德國德累斯頓森帕歌劇院的芭蕾舞獨舞演員。

“The verisimilitude was really important to me. I didn’t want to fake it. I didn’t want to have body doubles. I wanted to watch [the dancers] sweat and bleed and suffer and sore,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

瓦利-貝基特告訴《悉尼先驅晨報》：“真實感對我來說十分重要，我不想僞造它。我也不想要替身。我要看到舞者們流汗、流血，看到他們的傷痛和憤怒。”

Thanks to the ballerinas’ talents, the show is able to stage dazzling dance scenes. But the show is not only appealing to dance lovers.

多虧芭蕾舞演員們的天賦，本劇才能展現絢爛的舞蹈場景。不過被這部劇吸引的不僅只有舞蹈愛好者。

“I’m not telling a story about ballet. I’m telling a story about the characters,” said Walley-Beckett.

瓦利-貝基特表示：“我並不是在講芭蕾舞的故事。我講的是人物的故事。”

Indeed, Flesh and Bone gets under the skin of its characters, who all have their own dark pasts. The show tackles incest, drugs, eating disorders, the dancers’ low wages and their psychological and physical pain.

事實上，《骨肉之軀》觸及了人物皮囊之下的內心世界，他們都有各自不堪回首的過往。該劇探究了亂倫，毒品，厭食症，舞蹈演員的低薪水和他們心理和生理上的雙重痛苦。

“Going deep into the intricate aspects and darker impulses of human nature has always been appealing to me,” said Walley-Beckett, who is also the writer and producer of the Emmy-winning TV series Breaking Bad (《絕命毒師》).

瓦利-貝基特還是艾美獎獲獎劇集《絕命毒師》的編劇及製片人，她表示：“探究人內心深處錯綜複雜的方面和天性中黑暗的衝動讓我着迷。”

The fascinating thing about darkness is that it sometimes empowers people. In Robbins’ case, her self-loathing and despair later turn out to be the source of her strength. Her darkness is also a gift. And this idea is the very “genesis” of Flesh and Bone, said Walley-Beckett.

黑暗最吸引人的地方就是它有時能賦予人力量。在羅賓斯的案例中，她的自我憎恨和絕望後來成了她力量的源泉。她的陰暗也是一種天賦。瓦利-貝基特說，這正是《骨肉之軀》的“起源”。