June 3, 2021

"I was like, I want to dance with Audrey, because I wanted it to be another Black woman... And I want to be in love. I want a Juliet and Juliet... Seeing a choreographer say women aren’t supposed to lift men — well what if they can, though?"

From "Lesbians in Ballet: ‘Has Anyone Like Me Ever Walked These Halls?’/Ballet’s strict gender norms put pressure on women to conform. But dancers who don’t are finding they’re not alone" (NYT).
Posted by Ann Althouse at 9:35 AM
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5 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

mikee writes:

Much like the lament in a South Park episode that "The Simpsons did it," lesbians in ballet have become a trope of film and stage and, well, ballet.

Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, from the movie "Black Swan" immediately come to mind as a recent film example.

This movie of course is NOT mentioned in the article, because ... race of the actresses? And this being Pride month?
Sins of omission by the NY Times means it is a day ending in "Y."

6/3/21, 10:32 AM
Ann Althouse said...

tcrosse writes:

"An old college friend from the '60s had been a dance major at the U of Illinois, and wanted to break into ballet. She had the necessary talent, but was burdened with frizzy hair that would not let itself be tamed into a little bun, and a generous poitrine. In other words, she would not fit the required look. Or that's the way she tells it."

6/3/21, 10:34 AM
Ann Althouse said...

Rosalyn writes:

"I thought about the prevalence of gay men in ballet and wonder, why is it that they
do not seem to have the same kind of angst about their gender role as "men" in
traditional ballet? They don’t seem to be isolated or alienated by the prospect of
dancing with women and playing the stereotypical male role. They don’t seem to
have a problem as dancers acting in their roles, while lesbians do. Is there some
reason you can think of for this or lesbians being more closeted?

"I don’t enough about this to offer an explanation and apparently the writer of the
article didn’t think to ask. Or maybe the article is just slanted from the point of
view of lesbians in ballet and the writer didn’t bother to ask any gay ballet
dancers about their experience?"

Perhaps strong women want to be involved in the lifting and the dominance that the male dancer has been monopolizing.

6/3/21, 2:47 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Irving writes:

Rosalyn writes: "I thought about the prevalence of gay men in ballet and wonder, why is it that they
do not seem to have the same kind of angst about their gender role as "men" in
traditional ballet?

Years ago, I worked at the Hennepin Center for the Arts here in Minneapolis. There were several dancing companies in the building. Every member of every company was friendly including the gay dancers at a world-famous ballet company housed in the building. The gay men in all of the dance companies were really great guys, but I’d lived and worked with gay dancers from all over the world, so I was not surprised (full disclosure – I’m not gay, NTTAWWT or a dancer). But there was one group of dancers that were the exception. The female ballet dancers where the most arrogant, self-important people I have ever encountered. Saying good morning to any of them on the elevator or lobby would get a look of -- who the hell are you to be talking to me? Odd that.

So maybe it isn’t just Lesbian ballet dancers that so full of angst, but rather, female ballet dancers generally. Though I must admit that I had the privilege of working with a female dancer from the Cleveland Ballet and she was both professional and super-nice. Perhaps she was the exception that proves the rule.

6/3/21, 7:00 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Rosalyn says:

Dear Ann,

Thanks for posting my comment, and the feedback to it.

I agree that maybe some lesbian dancers are looking to be more dominant and use their physical strength. That's plausible, especially if they are leaning towards transgender. Although I doubt a seriously dyke dancer would make the cut into a ballet company.

I took a look at the question again from a different angle and discovered that the history of ballet is one of sexual exploitation of the female dancers. In this article, "Sexual Exploitation Was the Norm for 19th Century Ballerinas Wealthy men turned the famous Paris Opera Ballet into a brothel." Author ERIN BLAKEMORE explains that ballerinas were considered fair game for male patrons and upper class men looking for sexual adventures. Being sexually available to men in order to guarantee your ballet career was expected and the norm at that time. Such a situation would of course be doubly awful for lesbian ballerinas, if there were any. The current state of funding for ballet companies is not dependent on overt prostitution per se, however sexual abuse and exploitation is still a big issue in ballet culture. Female dancers find themselves obligated to cultivate sexual relationships with male company directors and male dancers, if at all possible, in order to get ahead. That's according to 'It's like a cult': how sexual misconduct permeates the world of ballet So there again, being an out lesbian would not be a winning ticket. This seems to me like a possible explanation of why lesbian ballerinas would want to stay closeted and why their situation is so different situation from gay dancers.

What the commenter Irving took as arrogance and odd coldness coming from female ballet dancers may have been their defense mechanism to all the sexual abuse and come ons they were accustomed to receiving and rebuffing.

6/4/21, 5:28 AM

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