Representing Ballet, Strength, and Identity in Pretty Lethal (2026)

Nova Indriani, M. Afifulloh


Abstract


Research on ballet has concentrated on the bodies and identities of real dancers, while studies using Stuart Hall’s theory of representation have not examined how a fiction film shifts the meaning of a cultural practice such as ballet..This study aims to analyse how the film Pretty Lethal (2026) represents the shift in the meaning of ballet from delicacy to strength and how that representation contributes to the construction of ballerina identity. The study uses a qualitative approach with textual analysis based on Stuart Hall’s constructionist approach. Six data units consisting of dialogue and events were purposively selected from the film as representative examples, using four criteria: relevance to the study’s themes, the presence of a verbal or visual sign, distinctiveness, and a traceable timestamp. Each unit was analysed through the same five stages, from sign, concept, cultural code and constructed meaning to representation, and the interpretations were checked against the scene context. The film does not remove the image of ballet’s beauty but constructs it together with strength, pain, endurance, discipline, teamwork and survival. The ballerina is built as an identity formed through bodily experience, loss and the commitment to keep dancing. By tracing how ballet as a practice, rather than as the experience of real dancers, acquires new meaning inside a fiction film, this study offers a Hall-based reading that is relevant to representation, film, cultural and dance studies.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.30743/jol.v8i2.14492

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