Every year in early November, the level of cranky among NYCers increases as about 50,000 really, really, really skinny people descend on the city to run in the New York City Marathon. Thousands of the elite level professional runners make the MB Fashion Week models look like fatties. They make most of the city’s professional ballet dancers look like they could slim down. There’s nothing like a bunch of extra skinnies thrown into a general population already obsessed with weight to ratchet up appearance anxiety.
It’s gets worse, though. You see, these skinnies always seem to be eating. Eating eating eating. Not lettuce and protein shakes, but pasta – pasta heaped with pesto and tomato sauce and plates of potatoes. No "slim-down" diuretics for these folks – nosiree, each one is hydrated enough for five non-runners and has skin that is as clear as a Maldives lagoon.
Then they start running. Running like the average person can only dream about. Running at a high level of physical efficiency with a degree of commitment that is alien to the average person’s understanding.
Of late, the same ones almost always win. African runners with narrow frames, long legs, short torsos, and steely delicate musculature cross the finish line first. They’re usually from Kenya, sometimes Ethiopia.
Every year as Haglund watches the race from some street in Manhattan or Brooklyn, he ponders what it would be like if the Kenyan and Ethiopian ladies would have brought their narrow frames, long legs, short torsos, and steely delicate musculature into a ballet studio at an early age instead of opting to do what their cultures encourage everybody to do: long distance running.
Take a look at these ladies who are running in an Olympic marathon. They are so in tune with one another that they could be four cygnets in Swan Lake. Look at Edna Kiplagat’s legs and shoulders on the far left, and imagine that body in a tutu after a little tutoring in turn-out. If only ….
It’s easy to spot perfect African American ballet bodies on most any street in New York on any given day. You recognize them instantly: naturally lean with narrow frames, light bones, impossibly long legs supporting tiny hips, swan necks. They are mixed in with the ordinary bodies and the many overweight bodies, but they are there. In Haglund’s neighborhood, they may be hanging out on a 9th Avenue corner after school arguing about the latest Beyonce/Jay Z melodrama or trying to buy cigarettes at the 7 Brothers Deli along with their potato chips, pizza, and soda or hanging out around the basketball court on 47th Street. They’re doing what kids of every color everywhere in the city are doing, and they’re not doing ballet. But their black bodies are well-suited for it.
No ballet company in this city can truthfully claim that it has to settle for dumpy bodies just to diversify the culture. And no ballet company should sit on its hands while an ambitious, modestly talented dancer tries to advance her own career by falsely claiming that objections to her lack of classical aptitude are race-based and by distributing sexually provocative images of her bare tits to her minor-aged fan base over the internet.
In Russia, mothers recognize when their young daughters have bodies that might succeed in ballet and they seek out schools. The art form, its aesthetic, and the basic physical requirements are commonly understood within the culture where ballet, opera, and classical music are sources of great national pride. You may recall Veronika Part explaining to David Letterman that when she was born into a family that had no previous dancers, someone looked at her infant legs and pronounced her a future ballerina. There is an awareness within the general population of the aesthetic and an acceptance that children studying ballet is an honorable endeavor. And the preprofessional deselection process starts early with the application of requirements that few can meet.
Here is a chart that spells it out in black and while. (Click on the image to enlarge and clarify.) The Moscow State Academy of Choreography, also known as the Bolshoi Ballet’s official school, employs the following height/weight requirements for Russian students on its website – where this week, incidentally, the school's website is celebrating Montana native and third year student Julian Mackay's achievement at the Istanbul Ballet Festival.
A girl who is 160 cm ( 5’2-1/2”) should weigh 39.6 kilograms (87 lbs). A girl who is 174 cm (5’7”) must weigh 49.8 kilograms (109.79 lbs). There is a tolerance of +/- 1 kilogram. Any girl who weighs over 50 kilograms (110 lbs) is not permitted to participate in Pas de Deux class but is required to attend as an observer. The requirements for boys appear just below those for the girls.
For students from foreign countries, the weight requirements are even more strict. The first chart is from the Academy’s website; the lower chart is the Google translation to English. (Click on each image to enlarge and clarify.) Note that according to the chart in the above illustration, the 5’7” Russian girl could weigh up to 109.79 pounds, but according to the chart below, a 5’7” foreign female student may not weigh more than 103.6 lbs (47 kilograms).
Foreign student requirements (Google translation to English)
There are also 15 pages that detail the medical conditions, congenital conditions, and acquired conditions that make any student unfit for the academy's preprofessional curriculum. Those standards are designed not just to get thin students, but to get students who are natural ectomorphs with narrow frames who are free of physical issues that might impede intense instruction and who may ultimately achieve the exquisite lines that are highly valued in the art form. Such people are present in every culture, and they are who the Bolshoi's feeder-school wants to train.
It’s a different story in America. A little girl is more likely to be enrolled in ballet class to stave off obesity or as a substitute for rigorous sports, to address deportment issues, or as a place to stash the kid after school. Not always but oftentimes, kids end up in their first ballet classes because of negative factors – factors that have nothing to do with the parents valuing the art form – not positive factors. And because schools rely on tuition and not government support, every body – no matter how unsuited to the profession – is welcomed into the ballet class, encouraged to come back, and told they are wonderful so that the flow of money continues.
The result is a vastly different pool of potential aspiring dancers for this country’s professional training programs. You see a wider range of bodies trying to enter classical ballet as a vocation with minds convinced at an early age that if they can whack their ears with a foot or do an inverted leg split, then it shouldn’t matter whether their bodies can achieve classical line. There is quick and easy denial that there exist traits that are bona fide qualifications for succeeding in the ballet profession just like there are traits required for succeeding in the NBA – most notably being tall. And as time passes, the NBA players get taller and taller. In ballet, the legs lengthen, the bodies become leaner and stronger, and the ability to approach classical perfection takes a step closer to reality.
In the past couple of decades, ballet has discovered a treasure trove of great ballet bodies in Japan, China, and Korea where the most common physiques in the cultures are ones that are lean without being attenuated, have necks like swans, excellent physical coordination, and high mental discipline. These dancers are joining American companies in large numbers and also routinely knocking off the white, black, and Latino dancers at competitions to take home the gold. Is it unfair?
The truth is that there are plenty of beautiful bodies of all colors who meet the current aesthetic of professional ballet. The effort by Misty Copeland to convince everyone that her inabilities to achieve that aesthetic and the expected technical level are a function of racism is a load of waste, and the willingness of American Ballet Theatre to let that story run debases the organization and the art form.
Ballet doesn’t need a role model who describes in her book in great detail ordering a muffin from her deli in the morning and then in later pages claims that she doesn’t eat flour and sugar. Ballet doesn’t need a role model who distributes sexually provocative photos to minors. Ballet doesn’t need a role model who makes false claims of racism. Ballet doesn’t need a role model who trashes her own mother in order to make her story more colorful and marketable.
In her book, Misty derided Swan Lake for having a so-called “white act” that she sought to twist into a for-white-people-only act. What will she claim about Act III, the Black Swan Act, when in a few weeks she adds her name to the few major black ballerinas who have already danced the role? That the 32 fouettes are a white thing; so she doesn’t need to do them? Maybe she and ABT are counting on the friendly Aussie audience not to notice and especially not to notice the more competent ballerinas who are not starring in Swan Lake in order to make room for Misty. What an embarrassment to this nation ABT has become.
28 responses to “The fat truth about the skinny in ballet”
Haglund, what an informed post this is. Though I can just imagine people thinking the Bolshoi weight-height charts promote eating disorders. Those people do not take into consideration the matters of bone structures and musculature. A very fine or small bone structure in a girl who is 5 feet 2 1/2 inches tall most likely will have small musculature. If she also has above-average long limbs proportionally speaking. then this is the type of body is what teachers look for in admissions. On the other hand if the girl has powerful build at same height, she’d be pre-selected for gymnastics rather than ballet. But all the beautiful proportions don’t mean jack if there is limited capacity for turnout or there is not enough flexibility in the ankles, or possess innate grace. I feel these are the things that American students get free passes on. As a result, serious students here self-selects, without those physical characteristics even the most dedicated, aspiring students would cease to progress to pre-professional level. An overweight girl with okay not great turnout would likely be saddled with ankle or foot injuries with increased pointe classes, for example, and soon enough she would lose interest in progressing.
I think in this country, there is such a manufactured sensitivity to weight in recent years, that we are encouraged to be politically correct towards the overweight women while derogatory towards thinner than average women. I can just picture so-called empowered women writers from influential blogs having a field day if they see that Bolshoi weight-height chart. Oh the outrage that would generate, I almost want to email it to them just to see their predictable outrage.
Outrage that is only reserved sympathetically for the overweight ladies. Because recently they were outraged that J Crew is starting to offer size 000 clothing. J Crew says it was in response to demands from Asian markets, but that didn’t stop people bashing J Crew for encouraging eating disorders. Hello? Have they been to certain Asian countries? I am Asian about 5 feet 3 and weigh about 100 pounds, when I shop for clothes in Japan sometimes I have to get size medium. There are overwhelming or stereotypical body types amongst certain races, geographical, or ethnic groups. There are variations within those subdivisions even, but like you said, ballet selects for very specific body types not racially, as Copeland is so bent on controlling her own, skewed narrative.
The J Crew example goes to illustrate how deranged an influential the media is in creating outrage against perceived weight discrimination where really there is none. What Copeland is doing is doubly ignorant because she drags racial component into the discussion. So now you got hypersensitivity to weight and race, all the while Copeland’s barely tolerable technique and artistry fly under the radar. Oh she’s sneaky, she is really controlling the narrative on why her career has stalled, she is sneaky good.
In Russia, many children of dancers go into professional schools like Bolshoi and Vaganova like their parents. Not all of them become principals or even soloists just as not all of their parents were themselves soloists. But over there the prevailing thought is that the ability to dance is in large part due to genetics, and that includes everything from physique to grace to musicality. So they choose those they think they can teach or pull out the most talents from, and it just happens that children of former dancers are a very good bet if you will. Recent cases include Altynai Asylmuratova’s daughter who recently became either a character dancer or corps dancer at Mariinsky after graduating last year. Over at the Bolshoi, Lantratov’s fsther was a former dancer, so was Obraztsova’s mother who like her daughter also graduated from Vaganova. This is the kind of tradition or lineage that American students do not have or are not privy to, where art is passed from one generation to the next.
Haglund, what an informed post this is. Though I can just imagine people thinking the Bolshoi weight-height charts promote eating disorders. Those people do not take into consideration the matters of bone structures and musculature. A very fine or small bone structure in a girl who is 5 feet 2 1/2 inches tall most likely will have small musculature. If she also has above-average long limbs proportionally speaking. then this is the type of body is what teachers look for in admissions. On the other hand if the girl has powerful build at same height, she’d be pre-selected for gymnastics rather than ballet. But all the beautiful proportions don’t mean jack if there is limited capacity for turnout or there is not enough flexibility in the ankles, or possess innate grace. I feel these are the things that American students get free passes on. As a result, serious students here self-selects, without those physical characteristics even the most dedicated, aspiring students would cease to progress to pre-professional level. An overweight girl with okay not great turnout would likely be saddled with ankle or foot injuries with increased pointe classes, for example, and soon enough she would lose interest in progressing.
I think in this country, there is such a manufactured sensitivity to weight in recent years, that we are encouraged to be politically correct towards the overweight women while derogatory towards thinner than average women. I can just picture so-called empowered women writers from influential blogs having a field day if they see that Bolshoi weight-height chart. Oh the outrage that would generate, I almost want to email it to them just to see their predictable outrage.
Outrage that is only reserved sympathetically for the overweight ladies. Because recently they were outraged that J Crew is starting to offer size 000 clothing. J Crew says it was in response to demands from Asian markets, but that didn’t stop people bashing J Crew for encouraging eating disorders. Hello? Have they been to certain Asian countries? I am Asian about 5 feet 3 and weigh about 100 pounds, when I shop for clothes in Japan sometimes I have to get size medium. There are overwhelming or stereotypical body types amongst certain races, geographical, or ethnic groups. There are variations within those subdivisions even, but like you said, ballet selects for very specific body types not racially, as Copeland is so bent on controlling her own, skewed narrative.
The J Crew example goes to illustrate how deranged an influential the media is in creating outrage against perceived weight discrimination where really there is none. What Copeland is doing is doubly ignorant because she drags racial component into the discussion. So now you got hypersensitivity to weight and race, all the while Copeland’s barely tolerable technique and artistry fly under the radar. Oh she’s sneaky, she is really controlling the narrative on why her career has stalled, she is sneaky good.
In Russia, many children of dancers go into professional schools like Bolshoi and Vaganova like their parents. Not all of them become principals or even soloists just as not all of their parents were themselves soloists. But over there the prevailing thought is that the ability to dance is in large part due to genetics, and that includes everything from physique to grace to musicality. So they choose those they think they can teach or pull out the most talents from, and it just happens that children of former dancers are a very good bet if you will. Recent cases include Altynai Asylmuratova’s daughter who recently became either a character dancer or corps dancer at Mariinsky after graduating last year. Over at the Bolshoi, Lantratov’s fsther was a former dancer, so was Obraztsova’s mother who like her daughter also graduated from Vaganova. This is the kind of tradition or lineage that American students do not have or are not privy to, where art is passed from one generation to the next.
Thanks, Genna.
There may be a small degree of American lineage in ballet, but not much. Eglevsky, Brown(e), Christiansen, Borree, d’Amboise, Stowell, Rachel Rutherford (Englund), Houlton come to mind. There are a couple of young corps dancers just starting out whose mothers danced at ABT (Lippert @ Washington Ballet and Marshall @ ABT). It doesn’t speak highly of the art form in America when parents who were professionals don’t pass on their passion for ballet to their children along with their genes. It suggests that the difficult/bad/unpleasant aspects of their careers outweighed the positive. Probably more musicians’ children go into music than dancers’ children go into dance. It would make for an interesting study.
I agree with you about the culture’s hypersensitivity to overweight bodies. It has evolved into political correctness and acceptance that has more influence than the medical community’s influence to prevent obesity. Are eating disorders a widespread problem in ballet today? More than alcohol? More than drug abuse? More than any personality disorder? Hard to say, but probably not. Ballet requires a driven personality for success. Driven personalities can go off on the wrong track in many different ways.
Thanks, Genna.
There may be a small degree of American lineage in ballet, but not much. Eglevsky, Brown(e), Christiansen, Borree, d’Amboise, Stowell, Rachel Rutherford (Englund), Houlton come to mind. There are a couple of young corps dancers just starting out whose mothers danced at ABT (Lippert @ Washington Ballet and Marshall @ ABT). It doesn’t speak highly of the art form in America when parents who were professionals don’t pass on their passion for ballet to their children along with their genes. It suggests that the difficult/bad/unpleasant aspects of their careers outweighed the positive. Probably more musicians’ children go into music than dancers’ children go into dance. It would make for an interesting study.
I agree with you about the culture’s hypersensitivity to overweight bodies. It has evolved into political correctness and acceptance that has more influence than the medical community’s influence to prevent obesity. Are eating disorders a widespread problem in ballet today? More than alcohol? More than drug abuse? More than any personality disorder? Hard to say, but probably not. Ballet requires a driven personality for success. Driven personalities can go off on the wrong track in many different ways.
Haglund it just got worse. I read this morning that Copeland’s book will be made into a biopic movie next year. New Line Cinema has just bought the options to her memoir.
Haglund it just got worse. I read this morning that Copeland’s book will be made into a biopic movie next year. New Line Cinema has just bought the options to her memoir.
Haglund, you make great arguments debunking the claims that non-white dancers have it harder because of certain innate bodily disadvantages compared to white dancers. Despite having produced some of the world best ballet dancers, Russians don’t have any congenital physical preferences over any other race. Many Russian females have quite a heavy frame and are big-boned with stocky legs. Very few are fortunate to be born with a body that with the rigorous training could become capable of those awe-inspiring, graceful movements.
Ballet is not a “I Will What I Want” world. It may seem unjust and unfair because it is not just about the determination, inner strength and ability to persevere. Specific physical requirements should play the central role in the selection process. And they do in many (especially government supported) Russian ballet schools. People over there understand and accept the fact that not everyone can become a ballerina.
Haglund, you make great arguments debunking the claims that non-white dancers have it harder because of certain innate bodily disadvantages compared to white dancers. Despite having produced some of the world best ballet dancers, Russians don’t have any congenital physical preferences over any other race. Many Russian females have quite a heavy frame and are big-boned with stocky legs. Very few are fortunate to be born with a body that with the rigorous training could become capable of those awe-inspiring, graceful movements.
Ballet is not a “I Will What I Want” world. It may seem unjust and unfair because it is not just about the determination, inner strength and ability to persevere. Specific physical requirements should play the central role in the selection process. And they do in many (especially government supported) Russian ballet schools. People over there understand and accept the fact that not everyone can become a ballerina.
Hi Dreamer.
True what you say about many Russian women having heavy frames. We see them in pictures all the time, including in pictures where they are toiling in hardhats to help build the beautiful new theaters in which the artists perform. http://haglundsheel.typepad.com/.a/6a0105359b23bb970c019104eec9bb970c-800wi We saw them honored at the opening of the renovated Bolshoi Theater as part of the construction team.
The “will” in Misty’s media campaign does not pertain to her effort to meet the classical art form’s requirements. The “will” pertains to her effort to bulldoze the requirements out of the way so that she can be a success as she is. Such a bad message for young people.
Hi Dreamer.
True what you say about many Russian women having heavy frames. We see them in pictures all the time, including in pictures where they are toiling in hardhats to help build the beautiful new theaters in which the artists perform. http://haglundsheel.typepad.com/.a/6a0105359b23bb970c019104eec9bb970c-800wi We saw them honored at the opening of the renovated Bolshoi Theater as part of the construction team.
The “will” in Misty’s media campaign does not pertain to her effort to meet the classical art form’s requirements. The “will” pertains to her effort to bulldoze the requirements out of the way so that she can be a success as she is. Such a bad message for young people.
Genna, thanks for the note on New Line Cinema picking up the option on Misty’s book. It’s nice to see her story sold; I just wish it was more of the truth.
Genna, thanks for the note on New Line Cinema picking up the option on Misty’s book. It’s nice to see her story sold; I just wish it was more of the truth.
It always seems to be such a world of extremes. On the one hand, the rather strict and “merciless” guidelines by numbers presented by those Russian schools. Not everything is reflected in numbers, even though there definitely are physical features desired in ballet that are somewhat related to these numbers. When it comes to the corps the ballet, it’s an amazing sight, but oftentimes, Russian trained dancers – as a matter of taste on my side for sure – seem to look too “standard” or “by the textbook” and without the special something, except for technical mastery of what is required. Always makes me think “and what about that girl that maybe was 3-4 pounds too heavy”?
And on the other hand, the American way of just eradicating any sort of standards and physical requirements, out of political correctness. Anyone can do, anyone will do, sort of. As classical ballet isn’t a sport where the direct result of certain physical features can clearly be seen by everyone and therefore everything is just “a matter of taste”, accusations easily are put forward and the existence of standards is strongly questioned. Then there’s that mentality of having to apologize for one’s “preferences” as preferences always discriminate one or the other.
In the case of the lack of black ballerinas, the fact is easily ascribed to racism. While racism does still exist, I think it is too easy to always link an existing fact with racism without seeing more first.
As you have mentioned in your post, distance-running is often culturally encouraged within African-American communities. If that kind of rival to our art form is one of the reasons why less black people with “ballet bodies” take up ballet, is it truly “fair” to fight it with the same vigour as one would fight blatant racism? Sometimes it seems that some people are very determined to do so.
It always seems to be such a world of extremes. On the one hand, the rather strict and “merciless” guidelines by numbers presented by those Russian schools. Not everything is reflected in numbers, even though there definitely are physical features desired in ballet that are somewhat related to these numbers. When it comes to the corps the ballet, it’s an amazing sight, but oftentimes, Russian trained dancers – as a matter of taste on my side for sure – seem to look too “standard” or “by the textbook” and without the special something, except for technical mastery of what is required. Always makes me think “and what about that girl that maybe was 3-4 pounds too heavy”?
And on the other hand, the American way of just eradicating any sort of standards and physical requirements, out of political correctness. Anyone can do, anyone will do, sort of. As classical ballet isn’t a sport where the direct result of certain physical features can clearly be seen by everyone and therefore everything is just “a matter of taste”, accusations easily are put forward and the existence of standards is strongly questioned. Then there’s that mentality of having to apologize for one’s “preferences” as preferences always discriminate one or the other.
In the case of the lack of black ballerinas, the fact is easily ascribed to racism. While racism does still exist, I think it is too easy to always link an existing fact with racism without seeing more first.
As you have mentioned in your post, distance-running is often culturally encouraged within African-American communities. If that kind of rival to our art form is one of the reasons why less black people with “ballet bodies” take up ballet, is it truly “fair” to fight it with the same vigour as one would fight blatant racism? Sometimes it seems that some people are very determined to do so.
Kallima, thanks much for your interesting observation about the extremes.
To respond to your last paragraph – it is commonly accepted in the U.S. that every organization will be stronger if it reflects the diversity of the culture. Thus, organizations actively assume a responsibility to build a diverse workplace – which is a different challenge from the obligation to fight racism. It is easy to presume incorrectly that if an organization is not racially diverse or diverse enough, it must be due to racism. It is easy to point an accusing finger without understanding the challenges involved in achieving diversity in a particular environment, such as competing with other cultural activities or building awareness of your own offerings or finding qualified & interested applicants. Building a diverse workplace may not be easy or quick, but one thing is for sure, the worst way to do it is by compromising professional standards.
Kallima, thanks much for your interesting observation about the extremes.
To respond to your last paragraph – it is commonly accepted in the U.S. that every organization will be stronger if it reflects the diversity of the culture. Thus, organizations actively assume a responsibility to build a diverse workplace – which is a different challenge from the obligation to fight racism. It is easy to presume incorrectly that if an organization is not racially diverse or diverse enough, it must be due to racism. It is easy to point an accusing finger without understanding the challenges involved in achieving diversity in a particular environment, such as competing with other cultural activities or building awareness of your own offerings or finding qualified & interested applicants. Building a diverse workplace may not be easy or quick, but one thing is for sure, the worst way to do it is by compromising professional standards.
Haglund – for me it boils down to this: If Misty were able to achieve great artistry with the body she has, I’d be happy to watch her in Swan Lake. However, the quality of movement, presence, dramatic abilities just aren’t there. Those incredibly muscular legs just don’t translate into being able to do the steps. It feels like a false triumph for her to appear in SL.
I’m willing to accept varied body types in ballet. Part and Mearns, for example, both have bodies that aren’t necessarily the norm, but it hardly matters because of their incredible dancing.
Have Kent and Seo been helped in their careers by their ideal stage faces and willowy physics? Certainly. Though Kent at least brought the technical goods in her prime.
Haglund – for me it boils down to this: If Misty were able to achieve great artistry with the body she has, I’d be happy to watch her in Swan Lake. However, the quality of movement, presence, dramatic abilities just aren’t there. Those incredibly muscular legs just don’t translate into being able to do the steps. It feels like a false triumph for her to appear in SL.
I’m willing to accept varied body types in ballet. Part and Mearns, for example, both have bodies that aren’t necessarily the norm, but it hardly matters because of their incredible dancing.
Have Kent and Seo been helped in their careers by their ideal stage faces and willowy physics? Certainly. Though Kent at least brought the technical goods in her prime.
Hi FoF. Agree with your summary and the sense of Misty’s Swan Lake being a false triumph.
All of the attention that she’s gotten for her muscle and attitude seems to have made her even more resistant to lengthening and softening her lines, and improving technically.
I’m starting to wonder whether these premature opportunities (Swan Lake, Coppelia) are related to some sort of EEOC complaint or threat of one. It would just take one well-placed lawsuit to forever change the landscape of professional dance. Companies would find themselves videoing every single class, every rehearsal, and every performance in order to amass documentation of every missed pirouette, every mistake of a finger, every musical foul-up so that they could protect themselves from nonsense claims like Misty’s. It would be a costly administrative nightmare that would probably kill the art form in this country. Then we would really have no choice but to rely on imported artistry of visiting companies.
Hi FoF. Agree with your summary and the sense of Misty’s Swan Lake being a false triumph.
All of the attention that she’s gotten for her muscle and attitude seems to have made her even more resistant to lengthening and softening her lines, and improving technically.
I’m starting to wonder whether these premature opportunities (Swan Lake, Coppelia) are related to some sort of EEOC complaint or threat of one. It would just take one well-placed lawsuit to forever change the landscape of professional dance. Companies would find themselves videoing every single class, every rehearsal, and every performance in order to amass documentation of every missed pirouette, every mistake of a finger, every musical foul-up so that they could protect themselves from nonsense claims like Misty’s. It would be a costly administrative nightmare that would probably kill the art form in this country. Then we would really have no choice but to rely on imported artistry of visiting companies.
Im from the carribean and we have loads of caribbean cultural dances from my perspective it seems to be overlooked that ballet is a cultural art form that that was born in Europe, developed by europe and spread across the globe via europe. isnt this the case? it seems in every cultural based art form the largest doers are of that culture. why is this a problem for ballet and why its considered racist makes no sense whatsoever from my perspective of my own experience with cultural based dances…. i dont believe anyone who truly embodies the art should be prohibited of course especailly in america that is so diverse it makes sense the companies would have diversity…but you do need to embody the art in the manner in line with the culture behind it..even more so when it has such a cultural history.. not have the art bend to allow entry. i hope im not off in thinking of ballet as a cultural artform…but that’s how its always been presented to me.
Im from the carribean and we have loads of caribbean cultural dances from my perspective it seems to be overlooked that ballet is a cultural art form that that was born in Europe, developed by europe and spread across the globe via europe. isnt this the case? it seems in every cultural based art form the largest doers are of that culture. why is this a problem for ballet and why its considered racist makes no sense whatsoever from my perspective of my own experience with cultural based dances…. i dont believe anyone who truly embodies the art should be prohibited of course especailly in america that is so diverse it makes sense the companies would have diversity…but you do need to embody the art in the manner in line with the culture behind it..even more so when it has such a cultural history.. not have the art bend to allow entry. i hope im not off in thinking of ballet as a cultural artform…but that’s how its always been presented to me.
Hi, Atrina. Thanks for stopping by H.H. and for your astute observation regarding Caribbean cultural dance.
I don’t think that there exists a general consensus that ballet in this country functions using racist tactics. What we have is one dancer who is dissatisfied with her career path and is trying to exploit a cultural hot button to help her compete against better dancers for opportunities and promotion.
Hi, Atrina. Thanks for stopping by H.H. and for your astute observation regarding Caribbean cultural dance.
I don’t think that there exists a general consensus that ballet in this country functions using racist tactics. What we have is one dancer who is dissatisfied with her career path and is trying to exploit a cultural hot button to help her compete against better dancers for opportunities and promotion.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/…/review/…swan-lake…/story-fn9n8gph- 1227017793784
This is an interesting article on this subject.
I have not read Misty’s book, Generally I don’t like auto-biographies, and I think it slightly ridiculous that someone who is still in their 20’s and at the hight of their career should write one.
Auto-biographies are stories, facts are embellished and tailored to suit, I’m sure that Misty’s is no exception. Some Hollywood Mogal once said ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, it’s a truism that hasn’t done any harm at all to Hollywood or show business, and I’m sure this book won’t do Misty any harm either particularly when her dancing career is over.
My connection to the world of ballet is as a parent. I have seen my son’s career ebb and flow from when he was just a small boy to the present day, and I have to say that it is an extremly cruel business, looking at those Russian charts just confirms it for me. Every year some child was weeded out of my sons ballet school and unceremonously discarded. I dont know what effect the experience had on the child but cant forget the looks on the faces of all us parents. I’m sure that it could lead to a kind of ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ for ballet parents.
So much is demanded, yet their careers are short and they endure cripelling physical regimes, worst of all is that they are expected to produce perfection. Still, it is what it is, and it is mesmerising. I have come to realise that they really do need to be cruel to be kind.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/…/review/…swan-lake…/story-fn9n8gph- 1227017793784
This is an interesting article on this subject.
I have not read Misty’s book, Generally I don’t like auto-biographies, and I think it slightly ridiculous that someone who is still in their 20’s and at the hight of their career should write one.
Auto-biographies are stories, facts are embellished and tailored to suit, I’m sure that Misty’s is no exception. Some Hollywood Mogal once said ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’, it’s a truism that hasn’t done any harm at all to Hollywood or show business, and I’m sure this book won’t do Misty any harm either particularly when her dancing career is over.
My connection to the world of ballet is as a parent. I have seen my son’s career ebb and flow from when he was just a small boy to the present day, and I have to say that it is an extremly cruel business, looking at those Russian charts just confirms it for me. Every year some child was weeded out of my sons ballet school and unceremonously discarded. I dont know what effect the experience had on the child but cant forget the looks on the faces of all us parents. I’m sure that it could lead to a kind of ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ for ballet parents.
So much is demanded, yet their careers are short and they endure cripelling physical regimes, worst of all is that they are expected to produce perfection. Still, it is what it is, and it is mesmerising. I have come to realise that they really do need to be cruel to be kind.
Hi, Frank.
Ballet might be better off if it instituted a form of blind screen audition the way some orchestras do for their first-round auditions. Put the dancer behind a lighted screen to assess an arabesque line and to weed out bulky upper bodies, uneducated port de bras, etc. The basic shapes of pirouettes, tours, and beats might even be more clear if assessed while performed behind a lighted screen. The quality of simple movements (balance, pique turns, etc.) might appear more clearly without interference from other things such as face makeup, hair color, brand of leotard. I have no doubt that the technology exists so that ballet companies could do this for early-round auditions.
In the U.S., first-round job applications in businesses are often submitted via computer and include a request for the applicant to self-report race, ethnicity, age, and veteran & disability statuses. However, such information is separated from the applicant’s submission of his/her qualifications before the application gets to the Human Resources professional for assessment. Ballet has to figure out how to separate such information in its application process, too.
While Misty is very much advocating for ballet companies to incorporate (her) race more favorably into the selection process, she is also trying to advance a specious argument that the bulkiness in her own upper body and lack of refined port de bras, which are detriments in classical ballet, are actually race attributes and thus something for which she should not be deselected. Meanwhile, a black female dancer with exquisite lines, proportions, and dancing ability sits on ABT’s backburner in order to allow Misty to try to advance her faux pas.
For ballet companies to become truly non-discriminatory in terms of race and ethnicity AND age, they will have to adhere even more strictly to identifiable selection criteria that are measurable and a system of meritocracy that is not based on one director’s personal tastes or on the number of Instagram followers that a dancer can afford to purchase. It is amazing to read the number of uninformed journalists who ooo&ah over a social media following that is purchased.
You’re so right, Frank, that a lot is demanded from dancers in return for a short career that requires crippling regimes. Many times, the dancer’s family has made sacrifices and invested much time, effort, and money into advancing a dance education. That makes it all the more important that opportunities be based upon a meritocracy with measurable standards that are neither arbitrary nor simply one man’s taste.
Hi, Frank.
Ballet might be better off if it instituted a form of blind screen audition the way some orchestras do for their first-round auditions. Put the dancer behind a lighted screen to assess an arabesque line and to weed out bulky upper bodies, uneducated port de bras, etc. The basic shapes of pirouettes, tours, and beats might even be more clear if assessed while performed behind a lighted screen. The quality of simple movements (balance, pique turns, etc.) might appear more clearly without interference from other things such as face makeup, hair color, brand of leotard. I have no doubt that the technology exists so that ballet companies could do this for early-round auditions.
In the U.S., first-round job applications in businesses are often submitted via computer and include a request for the applicant to self-report race, ethnicity, age, and veteran & disability statuses. However, such information is separated from the applicant’s submission of his/her qualifications before the application gets to the Human Resources professional for assessment. Ballet has to figure out how to separate such information in its application process, too.
While Misty is very much advocating for ballet companies to incorporate (her) race more favorably into the selection process, she is also trying to advance a specious argument that the bulkiness in her own upper body and lack of refined port de bras, which are detriments in classical ballet, are actually race attributes and thus something for which she should not be deselected. Meanwhile, a black female dancer with exquisite lines, proportions, and dancing ability sits on ABT’s backburner in order to allow Misty to try to advance her faux pas.
For ballet companies to become truly non-discriminatory in terms of race and ethnicity AND age, they will have to adhere even more strictly to identifiable selection criteria that are measurable and a system of meritocracy that is not based on one director’s personal tastes or on the number of Instagram followers that a dancer can afford to purchase. It is amazing to read the number of uninformed journalists who ooo&ah over a social media following that is purchased.
You’re so right, Frank, that a lot is demanded from dancers in return for a short career that requires crippling regimes. Many times, the dancer’s family has made sacrifices and invested much time, effort, and money into advancing a dance education. That makes it all the more important that opportunities be based upon a meritocracy with measurable standards that are neither arbitrary nor simply one man’s taste.