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| {Photo Credit: Fred Greenslade} |
The way she danced is how she was destined to retire; gracefully. Karen Kain is quite possibly the best ballet dancer Canada ever produced. If one was lucky enough to have seen her perform they would know the strong technique, insightful musicality, and the audacious attack that characterised every step she took on stage. For any dancer retirement is a difficult transition. Dancers are highly prone to multiple injuries over the course of their career; thus making ballet a short lived and gruelling profession for most. When Karen Kain performed for her last time with the National Ballet of Canada in October 1997, at the age of 46, there was a distinct bittersweet flavour in the air and the whole nation of Canada could taste it. In the photograph A Graceful Exit, Fred Greenslade captures, with all the grace and elegance of a ballet, this bittersweet taste. The lighting of this particular photo emphasizes the unknown that Kain is to be entering. Darkness, in the bottom right corner creeping towards the middle gives the effect of looking through a half shut eye, knowing that when you blink the familiarity of the moment will be gone forever. The worn out curtains in the backdrop to the photo, being the same colour of faded pointe shoes highlights the exhausted threadbare feelings of a mature dancer. The focal point of the photo however is Kains teary eyed expression. The honest raw emotions wrapped up in her face appeal to the eyes and hearts of any spectator. Greenslade manages to artistically capture the feelings of both Karen Kain and Canadians at the time, without distorting the true grace and beauty of the vulnerable expression exhibited by Kain.
