Ballet as an ontosemiotic operator: "Agon" by George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky between sign and flesh

In "Agon," Balanchine and Stravinsky's dance does not follow a narrative; it happens here and now. The gesture does not become a finished form; it changes the very perception, and through movement, something emerges that does not reduce to individual experience. Yet, the authors deliberately do not allow this gesture to conclude. In classical ballet, metastability is a temporary state, while in "Agon," it is constant. The dancer's body does not remain in a pose; it is always moving between them, and this is evident in specific sections. In the first pas de quatre, the men show arabesques but discard them with a sharp movement of the torso. In the sarabande-step, the attitude is given with a changed angle of the leg, while the arms in the port de bras exhibit a break. In the pas de deux, the woman performs an arabesque, but she is not supported, freezing in instability. Each time, it poses a question rather than providing an answer. Theoretically, we draw upon two seemingly distant traditions: Simondon's processual ontology and Lotman's semiotics of borders. Their conjunction, despite its tension, provides a tool for analyzing the operational logic of the choreographic text. The tension between the approaches does not hinder but rather stimulates research. In our work, we employ familiar humanities tools: the interpretation of primary sources, conceptual reconstruction, and comparative modeling. All these techniques operate in mutual complementarity. "Agon" is a recognized masterpiece, yet it should be viewed not only as something beautiful but as a structured mechanism of being. Simondon suggests that the tension here does not crystallize into a finished form and does not disappear; it simply continues infinitely. Moreover, if we add Lotman's perspective on boundaries, it becomes even more intriguing: the line between music and movement, between the correct gesture and its violation—this is no longer a line but the very matter of the performance. Thus, dance is not merely a bearer of meanings but an event where existence and significance coincide. And perhaps that is why this resonates so sharply today: we ourselves live in a torn, fragmented experience. And Balanchine's and Stravinsky's "ballet writing" is precisely about that.