Though it may seem to those who despise the notion that it is not the meek but the weirdos who shall inherit the earth that society has already surrendered much of its values and parlance over to this sect, there is still a very long to go in “different” being the new normal. To remind us of that fact, the Mykki Blanco-starring video for Madonna’s fifth single from Madame X, the Mirwais-produced “Dark Ballet,” wields the spirit and story of Joan of Arc in the form of Blanco.
Because Madonna is forever haunted by Catholicism (and is in a particularly reflective of her past mood), “Dark Ballet” showcases some of her most detailed imagery of the religion yet. To be sure, “Like A Prayer” now comes across as much vaguer of an impression of just how cruel and exacting the Church can be. As was the case when they decided to burn Joan of Arc at the stake despite how she helped the French win their precious battle in the Hundred Years’ War against the English. Even in the face of this betrayal by her own countrymen, the ones who called her crazy, lesbianic and a fraud, she still declared, “Our life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” This is the quote that opens the video as the unmistakable sound of a burning fire at the base of a stake pairs ominously with Blanco’s sobs. Panning up to see his shaved head, the title card “DARK BALLET” leads into the moments where Blanco as Joan was imprisoned, awaiting her inevitable death. The lyrics to the song, originally presumed to be a part of a track that would be called “Beautiful Game” (which Madonna performed last year at the Met Gala), are lip synced by a distraught but accepting Blanco. Madonna’s songwriting gets into the headspace of Joan as she bemoans, “It’s a beautiful plan, but I’m not concerned/It’s a beautiful game that I never learned/People tell me to shut my mouth/That I might get burned/Keep your beautiful lies, ’cause I’m not concerned.”
Naturally, Madonna’s intent is also to show that stake-burning never really went away, it just took up a new iteration–primarily the lynch mob mentality of “cancelling” someone. This is evident in the pained expressions of the onlookers and even the church officials who know in their hearts that it is wrong to judge and condemn someone for their beliefs, yet feel they still must do it so as to appear on the right side of groupthink. It is as the song splits into its Nutcracker-inspired portion that Blanco–a cross behind his back that poignantly makes him look like a wind-up toy–begins to perform his own dark ballet in the signature revamped cone bra bustier that Gaultier created and Madonna immortalized. And oh how he dances and laughs in the faces of his detractors, a patriarchy exemplified if ever there was one. Once more from the perspective of Joan, Madonna goadingly chants the vocally manipulated words, “I will not denounce the things that I have said/I will not renounce my faith in my sweet Lord/He has chosen me to fight against the English/I am not afraid at all to die ’cause God is on my side and I’ll be fine/I am not afraid ’cause I have faith in him/You can cut my hair and throw me in a jail cell/Say that I’m a witch and burn me at the stake/It’s all a big mistake/Don’t you know to doubt Him is a sin?/I won’t give in.”
One can’t help but find the double meaning in her words as she sees the parallel between herself and Joan–and what’s more, herself and God (so worshipped and idolized as she is by her devout fans who have never backed down from their reverence even in the most lashing of critical times for Madonna–the same, too, goes for her pop counterpart, Michael Jackson, less deservingly so). In fact, there are many similarities between “Dark Ballet” and “Human Nature” from a thematic standpoint, with Madonna broaching once more on the subject of being silenced and how she won’t stand for it no matter how many times she’s battered and bruised by public opinion–burned in perpetual effigy with every new incarnation. This time, however, Madonna cedes the stage of her visuals entirely to Blanco, appearing only shortly on camera as a black veiled mourner. Mourning not just the prejudice and short-sightedness of humanity but also how “your world is such a shame/’Cause your world’s obsessed with fame/’Cause your world’s in so much pain/’Cause your world is up in flames.”
Directed by Emmanuel Adjei, best known for his work on Sevdaliza’s music videos, the sumptuous aesthetic that goes hand in hand with the pageantry of Catholicism is contrasted with careful irony by the narrative. Yes, you can get into God’s Kingdom of Heaven if you act right. Yes, you can be accepted for who you are by a government stamp of approval if you keep your head down and don’t ask questions. If not, it’s time to burn, baby, burn. Considering Joan of Arc is one of Madonna’s longstanding dead heroines (sadly meaning that none of them can interview her to create a decent article profile), this is not her first homage to the fallen saint. She even has a song called “Joan of Arc” from 2015’s Rebel Heart.
And in keeping with her explorations of Joan’s life, the takeaway still remains: unfortunately, it is not just the persecuted that remain true to their convictions (therefore damnations), but also the persecutors, so assured that their way is the right way. The morally sound way. It is for this reason that the storm of war rages on in the air, even if it is, in truth, “inside of us.” Those who see the evil but do nothing about it are among the primary sources of contempt addressed by Madonna/Joan as she notes in the spirit of the lynch mob mind, “They think we are not aware of their crimes/We know, but we are just not ready to act.” Because acting would mean assigning oneself to a belief. And many people simply don’t have the character to do so. Least of all in a climate that makes it so easy to glom onto an au courant political breeze.
To bookend the video after Blanco is burned (yet still asserts, “It’s a beautiful life”), the quote to match Joan’s is from Blanco himself: “I have walked this earth Black, Queer and HIV positive, but no transgression against me has been as powerful as the hope I hold within.” So you see, it’s not all darkness in the dark ballet that is existence.
