What are some examples of racism in ballet and who are some ballerinas who are faced with this
unfortunately, there are a lot. the ballet world has a history of not hiring and/or not promoting dancers of color. a lot of dancers of color have been rejected based on “body type” reasons which is a terrible and racist excuse. more dancers of color have been asked to drastically change their bodies to even be considered for casting. institutionalized racism runs rampant in the ballet world.
misty copeland, an african american dancer, was originally rejected by ballet companies under the guise of “You have the wrong body for ballet,” as seen in this under armour commercial, saying that she lacked the right feet, achilles tendons, turnout, torso length, and bust.
furthermore when misty started at abt, she was the only black female dancer out of 80 dancers.
precious adams was told to bleach her skin by one of her teachers while studying at the bolshoi ballet school, and she is not the only one who has been told to do this.
the houston ballet, a company with 47 dancers, has only 2 black dancers, both male, and Houston’s population is 23.7 percent black
nashville ballet has one black female dancer among nine other women, but luckily has begun working with project plie to try to increase diversity in their programs
michaela deprince overheard one of her directors saying “we don’t put a lot of effort into the black girls, because they end up getting fat”
Out of the English National Ballet’s corps of 64 dancers, only three are black.
the bolshoi ballet has no black dancers OUT OF OVER 200 DANCERS
similarily, the mariinsky ballet has no black dancers out over 200 dancers as well, and very few asian dancers as well.
no black ballerina has danced the female lead in Swan Lake at Covent Garden, and misty copeland was the first black female dancer to do odette at abt
lauren anderson was the first black ballerina to dance swan lake in 1996
2012 Britain saw its first black swan with the debut of Celine Gittens at Birmingham Royal Ballet
Ella Havelka was the first indigenous dancer ever appointed to the Australian Ballet in 2007
yuhui choe still hasnt been promoted after being a soloist for seven years and doing tons of principal roles- which hasnt been openly said to be because she is a korean dancer-but come on.
michaela deprince said she experienced both overt racism “from some ballet moms who seemed to be eager to express their opinion about black girls in classical ballet” and subtle racism from “from schools, especially from summer intensives, and companies.”
out of almost a hundred dancers, the royal ballet has less than a dozen black dancers, and many of its asian or hispanic dancers have faced stagnation in the ranks.
pacific northwest ballet has one cuban male principal, one mongolian male principal, and no principal ladies of color. there are no female soloists of color, and two male soloists of color.
maria tallchief was one of the first native american dancers in 1942, and unfortunately since her era, we have seen very few others.
new york city ballet’s principals are also very white as well- out of 22 principals there is only one dancer of color- amar ramasar. the soloist rank has two dancers of color- craig hall, and georgina pazcoguin. new york city’s population alone is more than fifty percent people of color.
the nutcracker is basically a GIGANTIC RACIST STEREOTYPE, no matter how much we love or hate it, it’s obvious that all of the second act divertisments are overblown caricatures
san francisco ballet has two asian female principals, three cuban principals, and one brazilian principal.
angela harris, formerly with the georgia ballet, said “Race is always present in our lives; often we are not considered just good dancers, but good black dancers. “
Lauren Anderson faced racist death threats in the 1990s for daring to dance in supposedly white classical roles.
racism is RUNNING RAMPANT in the ballet world and these are only a few examples. and unfortunately the ballet community on tumblr tends to ignore this- blindly pretending that racism isnt present in ballet, or ignoring when these cases are brought to our attention. i know that i have inadvertently done this as well, contributing to the silencing of the voices of dancers of color.
the fact that diversity has taken this long to start to take roots is terrible. in hundreds of years of ballet history, it has taken until the end of the twentieth century for us to see any progress towards racial equality. the civil rights movement took place in the 60s, and it has taken us even longer in the ballet world to recognize it.
we NEED more dancers of color. we need more dancers of color to be promoted and given the ranks they DESERVE. we need to recognize their experiences and encourage diversification in our art form.
if this is not enough examples for you that racist is very, very present in the ballet world, is suggest you take off your glasses and actually look at the stark reality here. this isnt even all of the examples. i could go through every major ballet company’s roster and find very similar results. i apologize if i have left anything very important out, but please feel free to add. dancers names are in italics and there are links to the articles in which i found this information.
titsay
vaporwave
jbbartram-illu
andulkaphoto
