Tapfan

I think the problem isn't Misty taking a role away from someone more "deserving" (which I agree that there are better dancers in the soloist rank, most notably Stella Abrera), but the complete lack of opportunities for soloists and corp de ballet dancers to dance in these roles. In companies like the Mariinsky, Bolshoi, or the Royal Ballet it is not an anomaly to see soloists and corp de ballet members dancing lead principal roles like it is for ABT.

If it wasn't such an anomaly I think people wouldn't be so hard on dancers they consider "less than" being given a chance. But then, that opens up a whole other can of worms with ABT like the lack of adequate coaching. If Misty had proper coaching to fix her issues, would she be considered a dancer only accomplished in modern works? It makes me wonder.

Exactly. Misty didn't take the opportunity away from Sarah or Stella because THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO GET IT. Mckenzie's actions have made it very,very clear that he doesn't see those dancers as O/O. I'm sure he doesn't see Misty as O/O either, but she forced his hand by going out and developing her own following, by creating demand. In addition to the appearances & Payless deal she has been a guest judge on So You Think You Can Dance 5 times so far this season. 5 times! Do you know how big that audience is? McKenzie didn't need a small O/O, Hammoudi is a big guy. If he hadn't given her the O/O he would have given a second performance to Part or Hererra. It wouldn't have gone to Stella or Sarah.

Also, I think Misty is quite fine in terre a terre classical work. She was a good Gamzatti (barring the performance just coming back from that horrendous leg injury) and an excellent Gulnare. I just don't think she's particularly suited to O/O, but with the right coaching, who knows?

In any case, most role assignments aren't based solely on talent or suitability for the role. Just look at Seo's Fouettes, or Boyleston's gangly elbows . How much were those role assignments and promotions based on powerful patrons or one man's taste in dancers? I admire Misty for taking her future into her own hands.

Misty would probably be even more underutilized than Stella Abrera if she didn't promote herself. And the bolded is why I can't bash her for it. You have dancers in the principal rank who have glaring technical and artistry issues. Since role assignments are obviously not based on talent, why not campaign for a Swan Lake?

Amen to that. ABT is just too obsessed with nabbing the latest superstar to nurture what they already have.

I don't understand why in an art form with an undeniable history of racial bias, people who complain about its lingering effects are slammed and frequently accused of playing the race card.

Yet, AD's and other gatekeepers of the art form are always given the benefit of the doubt that the lack of black women on their rosters means there simply were and are no black women who are good enough. Case closed.

Carlos Acosta is one of the greats of classical dance. When you consider his privileged position in the ballet world, one wonders why he doesn't just sit back, shut up and reap the awards and accolades coming in as his career winds down.

But even though it does him absolutely no good personally to rock the boat, Acosta has nonetheless expressed a belief that subtle bias continues against black women in classical dance.

Why should he stick his neck out for what many believe is nothing more than racial paranoia unless he really thinks bias against black women is a thing?

I wish there were ballet companies out there in which racial diversity is part of the aesthetic.

Barring that Never-Neverland fantasy, I wish there were more predominately black companies like DHT or Ballet Black. More self-segregation may not be the best or the ultimate goal, but not having to deal with every kind of race issue has got to be a relief for all concerned.

Alicia Graf did a lot to raise the profile of the Ailey company, I think. The reviews, expecially in the NY Times, of her performances were always very positive, sometimes ecstatic. I'm pretty sure that a number of years ago, the NY Times listed her performances in its top ten end of year roundup as among the most pleasurable dancegoing performances of the year. She has a skill set - a classically trained ballet dancer - - which most of the Ailey women lack. Although Ailey is a "modern" company that does not perform on pointe, Graf just looks better than almost any other Ailey women in the choreography she is assigned to perform. In addition to her high skill level, her proportions are awe inspiring. In addition, she has beautifully arched feet and a gorgeously flexible back. Sadly, the same cannot be said of a lot of the other Ailey ladies. The difference is palpable on stage. That's why, among other reasons, they took a chance on Graf despite her history of illness/injury. She is capable of a much higher level of dancing than almost any of the other women in the Ailey company.

Personally, once I learned that Graf was injured, I decided to skip their engagement at the Koch in June. If Graf doesn't return for the December 2014 Ailey seasons at City Center, I will probably take a break from seeing the company. They do post their casting in advance.

I greatly admire Alicia Graff Mack. But in all the articles I've read about her, I've never gotten the feeling that she felt she "saved" Ailey by joining the company.

In that infamous 2007 NY Times article about the lack of black ballerinas, Delores Brown said that she feels heartbroken when she speaks to talented black ballerinas who tell her they'd rather go to Broadway or a modern company than keep feeling they have to be twice as good to get half as far in the ballet world.

Are some of these women incorrectly assuming that they are being left behind because of their race when it really is due to a lack of talent? Yes.

Are all black female classical dancers with racial grievances about the ballet establishment paranoid whiners? No way.There are just too many of them. Most of these women don't want to be victims, they just want to dance.

As to the evidently unending highway robbery committed against Stella Abrera, well why hasn't another company snapped her up?!

Graf danced at Ailey for a few years then retired due to injuriies. After about 2 years, she returned to Ailey and came out of retirement because her injuries had healed. Most recently, she had significant back surgery and has been out of Ailey since April 2014. Not sure if or when she will return to the stage. Based on her history of significant injuries, I can't really dispute NYCB's unwillingness to take a chance on her. Once you have a long history of illness or injury, NYCB does not go out of its way to hire you (see Kathryn Morgan).

If she was so physically broken down, why would Ailey want her? I would think she would be unemployable anywhere doing any style of dance. And why would ABT say they were turning her down because she was too tall, not because she was too physically fragile?

Misty has lots of endorsements, for which she is most assuredly well compensated.

But she doesn't just sell products OR herself. This woman has done scores of interviews in black media and has appeared in countless dance studios preaching and teaching about ballet.

I would love it if some other black woman like Precious Adams was to become a star dancer because her mere presence turns the notion of how a beautiful dancer is supposed to look on it's head.

When Adams did her Aurora variation at Lausanne, the act of simply wearing dark, flesh-colored tights when everyone else wore white, was downright subversive.

But alas, Precious is just beginning her career.

And I wonder what made her decide on ENB when she had expressed interest in NBC and The Dutch National Ballet?

I was in Payless earlier this year and there was a special kiosk with Misty's Payless ballet and tap shoes. Their were 3 African American girls crowded around it (and from their dress I assume they were ballet students) and I overheard them gushing about Misty, how much they want to be like her, etc. Incidents like these makes me see how much her self promotion has been inspiring a lot of young, black girls, to take up classical ballet. I think more ballet dancers should welcome the media like Misty and Hallberg have. Maybe ballet in the U.S. would be less of an art form seen as elitist and elusive. That's one thing I admire about how ballet is seen in Russia.

Yep, it is ironic that perhaps the most prominent evangelist for ballet in America is someone that many balletomanes don't see as worthy of carrying the message.

Stranger things have happened.

But Calvin Royal is on my radar screen, for sure. Thanks to Ratmansky for giving him such a prominent role in the third Shostakovich piece. I'm eager to see how Ratmansky casts his new Sleeping Beauty. I'd love to see Calvin in Blue Bird, e.g.

Black men don't have the same glass ceiling as black women. Just look at the head shots of American ballet companies. Most have at least one black male. Not so with black females.

Alicia Graf was a ballet superstar. I saw her perform the Balachine rep, as well as other material, many times before DTH went under. She did master ballet at the highest level.

Yes, Alicia was such a superstar that she couldn't get arrested after DTH disbanded. Going to Alvin Ailey was NOT her first choice.

Virginia Johnson was particularly annoyed that City Ballet didn't want such a Balanchine-like ballerina.

God Bless Boston Ballet's AD for hiring Tai Jimenez from DHT as a principal, despite her being an ancient 35 year-old.

I think we all agree that more racial diversity is needed in classical ballet in the US. But Copeland has muddled the issue more than necessary. I haven't read her entire book, but have seen excerpts in which she always seems to blame racism (never her own technical limits) for excluding her from certain roles. Now, when she does get plum roles, we will always wonder how much those charges of racism had to do with it. She fails the test of "Know thyself" and seems unable to recognize that her own technical limitations might have something to do with it, at least part of the time.

I'm not willing to wait for Black Ballerina Supergirl - whom everyone can agree is great - to swoop in and prove once and for all that black women can master the art form at the highest level. Either I or ballet will probably be dead before that happens.

I'd just like to see a black woman dance the lead in Swan Lake. Ballet Black and DTH don't seem to be inclined to program this ballet any time soon.

Following the careers of people with the potential to be stars like say, Precious Adams, is next to impossible and people like Kimberly Braylock and Courtney Lavine don't seem to be on anybody's radar for stardom.

So it's Misty or nobody.

By the way, despite having done well at the Prix de Lausanne, I can see the resentment amongst many in the balleratti building towards Precious Adams because she had the unmitigated gall to suggest that she was the victim of unabashed racism in that politics - free bastion of freedom and fairness in Putin's Russia, the Bolshoi school.

While it's true that nobody forced her to go there, it's not unreasonable for her to expect to receive fair treatment at a place of learning, if not in the Russian society at large.

Copeland will finally get to dance an iconic role after seven years as a soloist, and that won't hurt any other female dancer in any way. Nobody who is brilliant or even just good, will be held back because of Misty.

I beg to differ. If they were going to pick a short soloist for SL, it should have gone to Lane, not Copeland. Lane is a superior dancer, and has also performed the role with Corella Ballet. Merit should win out, but it doesn't.

But McKenzie makes that decision, not Misty. If her unyielding self-promotion is supposed to be pressuring McKenzie into promoting her to principal despite her being undeserving, it's not working very well. After all, she's been selling herself to the public for as long as I've been following her and that goes back to 2010.

Also, it's not like Sarah hasn't had her own fair share of opportunities to dance leads in important ballets like T&V. She even had her own mini PR push with the Black Swan dance double controversy. If there is a consensus amongst in-the-know people that she is so vastly superior, why didn't that assure promotion to the top ranks?

I agree with sandik and Tapfan that comparing Misty Copeland to a woman whose original claim to fame is a sex tape seems uncalled for. While I too would prefer to see a number of other dancers at ABT get chances at major roles before, this is Kevin McKenzie's decision not hers. After seven years as a soloist, is Copeland supposed to turn down the biggest opportunity of her career? And are there like comparisons for Hee Seo, Isabella Boylston and Julie Kent at this point in her career?

And like it or not, her story is very unique like Jeremy Lin in the NBA. Maybe it is tiresome to longtime ballet fans, but if we complain about companies not reaching out to new audiences and potential new fans, should we also be complaining that Copeland, along with promoting herself, is promoting ballet and ABT to a group that has been and still is very underrepresented in the art and in its audiences?

I know the last time I was in NY at an ABT performance, I sat behind an African-American family with two little girls, and they were very excited to see Copeland dance. They really went wild every time she came onstage. Maybe that's not how it should be, but it is. (I do remember the first time I saw Asian people not playing cooks or laundry owners on American TV. I actually called my mother to tell her there were Asian people on TV. ​And they were eating cornflakes!)

Let the church say, Amen! Your remarks remind me of stories told by my parents about the time when they were children in the late fifties and early sixties. This was a time that seeing black people on TV was so rare, that when someone like the young comic Bill Cosby appeared on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, black parents would wake the whole family to see him.

I wouldn't call Misty a Kim Kardashian. She may not be a world-class dancer in the eyes of many, but at least she does have a job in show business and isn't famous for being famous.

I agree that her constant self-promotion can get tiresome. But the fact that deserving white dancers like Sara Lane and deserving minority dancers like Stella Abrera don't have higher profiles or jobs as principals isn't Misty's fault. Heck, the fact that most ballet superstars aren't as famous as Misty isn't her fault. The PR hustle Copeland engages in is open to most of the people of stature in ballet who are willing to do the work.

I personally think that ballet could do with more "vulgar" profile raising.

I agree with Virginia Johnson who said that in an ideal world there would be 15 or more great black female classical dancers whose career trajectories at major companies were so steep that we could be certain of finally seeing black women in the senior ranks.

But right now, for those black ballet fans who want to see reflections of themselves on stage in lead roles, Misty is all we've got. There isn't another black woman anywhere else in the world who comes close to her seniority at a major company. The fact that she obviously generates lots of haterade in some people is a fact most of us are willing to overlook in order to see a black woman get a chance at lead roles.

Copeland will finally get to dance an iconic role after seven years as a soloist, and that won't hurt any other female dancer in any way. Nobody who is brilliant or even just good, will be held back because of Misty.

I'm glad to hear that he seems interested in diversifying the racial makeup of POB. I'm happy that this is important to someone who runs a major company.

I read that he's interested in developing new choreographers. I assumed that meant people other than Peck, Wheeldon and Ratmansky. That's why I don't fear that he will try to turn POB into City Ballet on the Seine.

SingerWhoMoves, that's a cool name.

Wow. I never knew LaFosse had been with ABT. In fact, the only thing I knew of his work was when the cast of Fosse: The Musical, appeared on the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon.

I'm just in awe of the breadth of knowledge of the people on this forum.

Yes, that's right. I remember reading somewhere that she started off as a child actress and that she thought she might return to acting when her ballet career ended.

Still, it's been a while since she worked as an actress. Good for her.

Gosh I wish movie musicals would make a comeback. Unfortunately in this day and age of un-yielding irony and loud, action "event" movies that crowd out every other genre of film, that's very unlikely.

City ballet's prep school vibe annoys me to no end, but big props to Megan, Robert and Tiler for stepping out of their comfort zones to try something new.

I deeply admire Broadway musical theater artists who dance, act AND sing. The ability to do all three at a professional level is quite difficult.

Just ask Miami city ballet dancers who were asked to dance, act and sing in their production of West Side Story.

I'm very much looking forward to Flesh and Bone. I've had a crush on Sasha since I first saw him in Center Stage.

But even if F&B gets good reviews and good ratings, I suspect that most ballet people will hate it.

Despite it being a high art form, many people in ballet circles have the annoying habit of behaving like they are the members of a historically persecuted minority group.

Because so few films or tv shows about ballet or with a ballet backdrop are made, ballet folks want every representation to be the be-all and end-all of ballet stories and to have the fidelity of a documentary while bathing everyone involved in a flattering light.

When these shows don't meet this impossibly high bar, ballet people complain that nobody understands or appreciates them them and that everyone is out to get them.

I understand the need for the art form's gatekeepers to push back against outsiders who would dumb down ballet in order to make a buck. But sometimes, these folks are just too hypersensitive.

Does anyone truly believe that anyone who saw The Red Shoes, The Turning Point, Center Stage or Black Swan, mistook them for documentaries?

Thanks for the info. I knew that Desmond had been on Broadway and in film. I also knew that Makarova had won a Tony and an Olivier Award for her work in musical theater. Didn't know about the others.

I assumed there was still quite a bit of snobbery existing in the world of classical dance that implies that when ballet people do Broadway, they are slumming.

When I think of how many in the the ballet establishment may view other dance forms, I'm reminded of how the Hollywood movie industry used to look down on the Hollywood TV industry as an inferior art form.

Or how Ethel Barrymore initially referred to theater people doing films as "prostituting" oneself.

Funny how larger, more mainstream audiences and great goo-gobs of filthy Hollywood lucre can make wh---s of just about anyone.

What has broadway got against ABT dancers? ;)

Or DTH dancers?

Heck, what have they got against fellow Broadway gypsies? Don't many have extensive ballet training?

I smell a conspiracy orchestrated to lock anyone who isn't connected to the house of Balanchine out of the game!

Everyone knows that City Ballet is the only thing that matters!

End of rant.

Tapfan takes her meds and lies down.

I have mixed feeling about Misty Copeland. If she brings in a new audience great, at the same time one hopes that the people she brings in get hooked and return even if she isn't dancing. I don't know if that is the case.

The novelty of seeing a black woman dancing prominent ballet roles may draw in some new audience members, but it's the quality and entertainment value of those productions that will keep them coming back.

In this, black audiences are no different than any other people.

I was the one who steered the conversation to the topic concerning the number of possible open positions at NYCB.

I wondered about the number of potential hires because I figured that the larger the number of open slots, the better chance a person of color might join the ranks.

Another reason I wondered about the lack of East Asian dancers in City Ballet, was because I was under the impression that ballet was becoming very popular in parts of Asia.

That lead me to assume, evidently incorrectly, that this would mean an increase in the number of foreign Asian students in top American ballet schools like SAB.

NYCB places a great deal of emphasis on new work (the captions at the beginning of "Ballet 422," the new documentary following the creation of Justin Peck's Paz de la Jolla, describe NYCB as a "creative ballet company." I puzzled and puzzled over this until I decided they were making a point about their tradition of new choreography).

In some ways, they more closely resemble a typical modern dance company, with the usual emphasis on making all things new, than older models of ballet companies that depend on the historic repertory.

Is there a feeling among City Ballet fans that this emphasis on new work post Balanchine and Robbins is worth the time and effort? Are there really that many works of note that have been created since their deaths? I ask because it seems that the critical reception of many recent works - with the occasion exception of Wheeldon and Peck - seems to imply that the new stuff falls short of the master.