Race, Culture and Ballet

[Helene]

A white Othello would have to be dressed and presented as something very exotic and threatening indeed for him to have the effect on today's audiences that the mere word "Moor" had on those of Shakespeare's time.

Sadly, in our times, it would be the religious rather than racial connotation of "Moor" that would have that effect on today's audiences. Shakespeare's timelessness is a double-edged sword.

[fandeballet]

I would partially address this issue by making ballet- and performing/fine arts curriculums mandatory from 1st to 12th grades. How many artists in any area of perf./fine arts have we lost due to the exclusion of any arts education in many areas of this country?? The benefits to students could be great. My daughter took ballet classes for 7 years, she went to SAB for 4 years. The focus, and discipline she picked up has helped her with her academic performance in high school. We are talking about life lessons here!

[leonid17]

I was thinking about what it would be like to have a white Othello?

As I recall, Shakespeare doesn't really spend many words on Othello's color, or on the black man/ white woman contrast. But there's a constant reference to "this Moor," "the Moor," and this is often in quite a negative context: "lascivious Moor," "rude" (i.e. rough or uncivilized), etc. Desdemona's father calls Othello "Moor" rather than his own name, and refers to him repeatedly by using the label.

From memory, I believe that in Shakespeare's time there was a distinction between 'moor' and 'blackamoor'.

This may or may not correllate with present day north African people's of Arab/Berber descent and those of central and southern Africa.

[2dds]

This is a thread bump and refers to Mme. Hermine's link to a relevant article in today's Sunday New York Times——

Gia Kourlas in the New York Times on the dearth of black dancers in ballet:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/arts/dan...r.html?ref=arts

The second post in this thread by carbro includes links to other related discussions on Ballet Talk.

DefJef, I don't know how thoroughly you've read old posts, but this topic has been addressed from a variety of perspectives on this board.

• Race and the Arts
  
• Why ballet is still so pale . . .
  
• What are ballet companies doing ... to encourage diversity?
  
• Minorities in Ballet
  

I don't know how ballet can escape the problems of the larger environment. In fact, there seems to be a lag between the gains minorities have made in American society and the gains they've made in American ballet. And again, some minorities seem to have made greater strides than others.

I've read and reread most of these posts. I have already contributed to some as well, As many have commented along the way, frequently these discussions have generated more heat than light. I come to Ballet Talk for enlightenment, expertise, edification, and insight on so many topics, and I am rewarded with discussions so well developed, they are breathtaking. I wonder why the discussions on this topic are so much less well developed. I hope this time may be different. Out of respect to previous discussions, I bumped this rather than starting a whole new topic.

This is a daunting amount of material to peruse however closely or quickly, but the tone and content of previous threads might be instructive (or maybe cautionary ) for anyone wanting to pursue ths topic further.

As if this was not already enough to consider, I also call your attention to the relevant spin off thread on actual strategies for inclusion:

I have started a new thread here: Inclusion.

I, for one, will be interested to see how the new discussion goes...

[Old Fashioned]

Thank you for reviving this thread. I was thinking about racial diversity in ballet lately but didn't want to bring up the topic because it's something that has been discussed many times before and didn't know if there was much else that I could add that hasn't already been said. When there was still talk of who Peter Martin's would choose to dance the role of Juliet, I thought of the slight possibility that he would cast a non-white SAB student, since there is comparatively more racial diversity in the school than in the company. THAT would have made an interesting choice. Alas, it was beyond him.

The segment on Aesha Ash in Kourlas' article is devastating. If what she said is true, that was a rather insensitive comment on Mr. Martin's part. I could care less if her statement is in violation of some company confidentiality--I'm glad to be made aware of these things. I was also unaware that Alicia Graf had tried out for NYCB and ABT and rejected by both.

But on another side, the side that they’re much more afraid of, is their whole subscriber base and their whole history of being a ballet company the way you thought ballet was. It means that you have to create a kind of trust, and they’ve never challenged their audiences to move forward

If the lack of racial diversity in ballet companies is due to the fact that artistic directors are unwilling to "challenge" the audience, then they are more short-sighted than I thought. I highly doubt that people would be so unwilling to see more black, Hispanic, or Asian talent in the company ranks for the audience base to be jeopardized. It's not the pre-civil rights era where Hollywood execs were afraid to cast Lena Horne in Show Boat because Southerners didn't want to see a black lead. Ballet would be able to draw more viewers, diversifying the audience as well. Back in Texas, Lauren Anderson was probably the best recognized out of all HB ballerinas.

[bart]

I couldn't get the Link to Gia Kourlas' article to work, even when I tried to repost it. If you're having the same problem, here's a link to Mme. Hermine's original post (first one in the thread). For some reason, clicking her link DOES seem to work.

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...topic=24737&hl=

Previous threads have shown that BT'rs are divided on the question of what ballet can and should do about these matters. Moderator Beanie ON: I know that we all will contnue to discuss this topic fairly, temperately, and with tolerance and respect for the views of our fellow members of Ballet Talk. Moderator Beanie OFF:

The Kourlas article begins with the following:

IN 1933 Lincoln Kirstein wrote a passionate 16-page letter to his friend A. Everett Austin Jr., the director of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, introducing a man named George Balanchine and a dream: to remake ballet for America. The plan, as Kirstein wrote, was to have “four white girls and four white boys, about 16 years old, and eight of the same, negros.”

Kourlas does not quote what follows next: the plan to train all students, black and white . . . .

[ ... ]in the classical idiom -- not only from exercises but he [balanchine] would start composing ballets at once so they would actually learn by doing. As time went on he would get younger children from 8 years on." Lincoln then went on to rhapsodize, in the vaguely racist if commonplace terms of the day, about why Balanchine wanted to include blacks: their "combination of suppleness" and their superb "sense of time ... they have so much abandon -- and discipline." (Forty years later, Lincoln would lamentnot only the lack of black dancers in the company but also express the "wish we reached more blacks, Poreto-Ricans [sic] and underprivilated citizens ... we must strive to push ... [our] limits.)

From Martin Duberman, "The Worlds of Llincoln Kirstein," pp. 178-179.

I am impressed by Kirstein's belief in the healing power of the arts -- particularly the classical arts. I am also struck by his belief --shared apparently by Balanchine -- that the classical arts can only benefit from opening the doors to new people and new influences.

[Mel Johnson]

Kourlas' article cites culture as one of the contributing causes of a shortage of African-American ballet dancers, but only talks of the culture of the ballet companies. Neglected is the African-American culture which defines and despises ballet as "Not Black". This is negritude run amok. African-American dancers shouldn't have to suffer this kind of bigotry from their peers. Indeed, back in the 1930s, the negritude movement in France among intellectuals characterized itself as "raciste anti-racisme". Ah, but what did the Intellectuals know then? The French artist Marcel Duchamp also constructed a commode lined with mink fur in the bowl and signed a urinal "R. Mutt" (one of his Dada alter egos), entitling it "Fountain". Dada had absolutely nothing to do with race, or perhaps it had everything to do with race. One of its organizing principles was that it didn't have any organizing principles and didn't itself actually know what it was about.

[bart]

I would agree with Mel that there is hostility to ballet and the classical arts generally in the African American communities. Other groups in America are not exampt from this kind of philistinism. Also, these larger cultural currents -- black, white, or mixed -- are often outside our control.

Kourlas's article, however, deals with young dancers who, far from sharing this hostility, are actually willing to do the incredibly hard work to have a ballet career. For whatever reason, and often at graet cost, they select their own cultural values and love what they as individuals love.

Perhaps as this thread continues we should focus on these people -- of whatever color -- and not on the larger mass populations of all colors who do not love or respect ballet.

[Old Fashioned]

Kourlas' article cites culture as one of the contributing causes of a shortage of African-American ballet dancers, but only talks of the culture of the ballet companies. Neglected is the African-American culture which defines and despises ballet as "Not Black". This is negritude run amok. African-American dancers shouldn't have to suffer this kind of bigotry from their peers.

Ah, now we have come upon the larger question. There has always been a divide among African-Americans; those who want to conform to the dominant culture to gain acceptance within society and those who embrace their own cultural identity. In the history of ragtime, jazz, to the present controversy over hip-hop, some (usually the more affluent middle-class African-Americans in opposition to the lower-class) have resisted these black forms of music, which they saw as debasing and "giving them a poor image." They preferred their children to learn the highbrow music of Bach and Mozart rather than learning the music played in brothels. Politics of respectability are at play here. James Reese Europe's family is a good manifestation of this occurrence. Europe's mother was dismayed at her son's preference for ragtime music, and his sister actually became a very talented concert pianist in the European tradition.

Applying this to ballet, I think economics play a more important role in keeping minorities out of the classical European arts than negritude. What's interesting is how this dynamic seems to be occcurring in jazz music, too...I could go at length about that, but I won't.

[2dds]

I was hesitant to post on this, too Old Fashioned, so I am glad you were glad to see it. I had previously posted on Alicia Graf's recent career adventures, but I received no real follow up, and as a matter of fact, the thread ended with my post on Graf. This was post #23 in a thread called "The Star System - Rockwell in the Times" in the Aesthetic Issues Forum. Aesha Ash's comments had appeared previously as part of a longer discussion in an issue of Dance magazine devoted to concerns about race. I think this issue came out in June 2006, but I haven't doublechecked this.

Bart thank you for fixing my attempt at a link to Mme. Hermine's post. I was working way beyond my skills in trying to include all those quotes and links.

Also

Respectfully, Major Mel, defining black culture as monolithic and then going on to characterize that very heterogeneous world view as both defining and despising ballet as "Not Black" seems to violate my understanding of the social science concept of culture as it is used in the 21st Century. In addition, I am mystified both by your use of terminology like "negritude (doesn't this have a much more narrow practical attribution/application among professional historians?) run amok," and by your concern for victimization of African American dancers suffering from internal bigotry launced by other African Americans. Each observation, in its own way, seems somewhat when looking at the issues Kourlas targets.

Maybe you could clarify, since I confess to being quite thoroughly at a loss. By the way, I am not requesting clarification on the fur lined toilet bowl. This is already more than I needed to know...

Also respectfully, Old Fashioned, making African American culture into a class-based assimilationist vs. separatist dichotomy improves only slightly on the unitary African American culture Mel Johnson proposes.

I very much agree with bart on the direction I would like to see this thread take by focusing on the experiences of both emerging and established female African American ballet dancers (they are the ones specifically addressed in the Kourlas piece, and are associated with very particular concerns; they are explicitly distinguished from other ballet dancers of color or even from male African American ballet dancers). These are the missing "Black Swans."

I must admit, I find the reluctance to tackle this issue head on might be a sign that the current incarnation of this topic may fare no better than previous incarnations. Yet, I remain hopeful...

I am also hopeful that we will return to the specific circumstances faced by female black dancers within the ballet world rather than continuing to try to characterize African American culture. I understand that we are all free to take discussions wherever we see fit, but frankly, there is already a great body of scholarly expertise out there on African American life, history, and culture, and I would much prefer to see that rather challenging, subtle, and complex aspect of this discussion left primarily to those more qualified experts.

IMHO if we stick with our strengths as balletomanes, this will be a much more productve and insightful exchange.

[Mel Johnson]

With all respect, 2dds, I disagree with you entirely on the matter of silly ideas getting more play than they deserve. As for "negritude" having a specific application in history, I happen to be a professional historian, and I have used that word deliberately. Negritude was a Parisian response, in part, to the Harlem Renaissance, and produced some pretty condescending works intended to be flattering to Africans. The Darius Milhaud/Fernand Leger/Blaise Cendrars "La Creation du Monde" presented by the Ballet Suedois comes immediately to mind. Negritude radicalized in the 1960s with the militant wings of both the Black Nationalist and Black Separatist movements. In today's world we see the groupthink of many African-Americans satirized by Aaron McGruder in his comic strip and animated cartoon Boondocks. In McGruder's work, we find a modern 9-year-old boy (Huey Freeman) adrift in the Black Panther mentality of the late 60s, yet realizing occasionally (he's a bright kid, and with a concealed soft heart that sometimes undercuts his hardline rhetoric) that it's not right either.

As a ballet teacher over the decades, I have had too many promising African-American students tell me that they were quitting ballet "Because my friends call me names," "Because my mom and dad say it isn't right for black people," "Because my boyfriend beat me up and threatened to kill me if I didn't quit." These episodes tend to make one a bit sour on the whole subject.

"Blame those of European descent first" is another silly idea whose coin has run out.

[papeetepatrick]

"Blame those of European descent first" is another silly idea whose coin has run out.

I think we wish it had, but I can't agree that it has run out just because it is totally ridiculous.

Anyway, I wrote recently about the current Roundabout production of '110 in the Shade', in which mixed races worked perfectly, in some surprising ways, and somewhat more extensively than just its sublime star, Audra McDonald. This is a show about TEXAS some 50 years ago, and Audra McDonald plays the white daughter of John Cullum and has 2 white brothers. The kid brother Jimmy has a white girlfriend played by an African-American as well. So we are not only talking about a show that would never have dreamed of having black actors in it at the time (this is the early 60s, even before such things as 'Hallelujah, Baby!' and Pearl Bailey in 'Hello,Dolly!' doesn't really count, since she was paired with Cab Calloway, as I recall. Diahann Carroll with Richard Kiley in 'No Strings', a few other notable examples, perhaps though...), it is even a show about the Deep South with a white sheriff falling in love with a white woman played by a black woman. All of it totally works, without even the slightest sense of discord. What I am saying is that I wouldn't have really believed it till I saw it. And just now I remember that in my original post on the show I said nothing at all about this, because I had completely forgotten it.

This made me interested in casting of a black Juliet, which I now see would never seem jarring to me if the individual was right. What I have liked less was that trashy TV Cinderella of a few years ago, in which there seems to be a token from every sizable-voting-bloc race, and you don't notice anything but the race, when it's so obvious that, in fact, they were literally put there to show all sorts of colorblind demands which are rendered impossible by not being based on who is merely the best qualified (nobody is more qualified than Audra McDonald to do almost anything she's cast for, for example.) And that 'Cinderella' casting reminded me of my objections to not making Oktavian look as much as possible like a man--because it is an insult to the audience to see something that looks Lesbian, while demanding that you never think it anyway, that if you can't help believing a little of what you see, then you have a dirty mind (it's because Oktavian already sounds like a woman, being sung by one, so it's too much of a stretch for 'him' to look like one too.)

This may be a little off from what could work in ballet, but I have a hard time believing it.

I think it's good to use legit terms like 'negritude' in their proper historical context. Reminded of the old This Week when Sam Donaldson and Stephanopoulous were discussing the stupid controversy over the word 'niggardly.'

[Mel Johnson]

Cf. Mark Twain, "On the Damned Human Race": "The damned race is never more so than when it seeks to find ways to divide itself."

[volcanohunter]

Here's an aside the French-speakers among you may find interesting. It's a brief interview in which POB étoile Kader Belarbi discusses his Algerian heritage.

http://www.tv5.fr/TV5Site/webtv/player1.php?id_video=601

[bart]

I start with the assumption that you cannot organize your explanations for things that seem to be happening until you know, in some detail, what actually IS happening.

That brings me back to the specifics of the excellent Kourlas article.

I was surprised at some of the information about the current status of the top level of ballet training, in NYC at least. This obviously bearing on who is being prepared for work at the pinnacle of the art. "Access to quality ballet training" (Kevin McKenzie's phrase) is obviously perceived as problematic nowadays. Whatever the reasons, the problem remains.

First of all:

Ms. [Tai]Jimenez credits Mr. Nissinen with being a director who aspires to have a diverse company. But while many company leaders express that desire, few have acted on it, partly because there is a shallow pool from which to choose. In response to interview requests American Ballet Theater, led by Kevin McKenzie, said in a statement: “Overall, more than 40 percent of A.B.T.’s roster has been trained outside the U.S. We think these numbers speak to the larger issue of access to quality ballet training in the U.S., regardless of racial background.”

I'm not sure I understand all the implications of the above, but it raises issues of economics, such as supply-and-demand in the international skilled labor market. These economic factors would exist even if race were not an issue. But racial perceptions must, I would think, play some sort of role in deciding who wins and who does not. At least with certain employers or in certain places.

The article goes on to say that there are 2 black students (one male, one female) at the Onassis School, the ABT company school. And how about the SAB? There seems to be an active diversity outreach already in operation. But the higher (older) you go, there does indeed seem a high rate of "minority" attrition, which translates, from an African American perspective, to significantly less diversity.

At the School of American Ballet, where this year the age of potential students has been lowered to 6 from 8 in an effort to attract a broader applicant pool, Annette Burgess, director of projects, said there had been an increase in minority students since the school started holding community auditions in 1998. The next round will take place on May 17 (in Chinatown), May 19 (in Brooklyn and Queens) and May 20 (in the Bronx and Harlem). Unlike auditions at the school, to be held during the next three weeks for children 6 to 10 who pay a $25 fee, community auditions are free.

Since the 1998-99 season minority enrollment in the children’s division of the school has risen to 22 percent, from 13 percent. (The school’s figures don’t differentiate among minority groups.) But in the advanced division there is just one black female student. Marjorie Van Dercook, the school’s executive director, said: “That gets to the City Ballet issue. We’re their academy, so what you see on the stage is reflected by what you see in the school.”

Nearly 70 percent of the dancers who join City Ballet come from the school’s highly competitive summer program for 12-to-18-year-olds, which mainly attracts dancers from outside New York. Here the number of minority candidates drops considerably from that 22 percent in the children’s division. Ms. Burgess said there weren’t many minority applicants at School of American Ballet auditions around the country, even in Chicago and Detroit.

[Old Fashioned]

There are different opinions regarding the quality of training in the US. McKenzie's statement seemed to be a way of avoiding answering the more sensitive issue and directing the attention elsewhere. The article argues that it's not because these dancers are not talented enough, but that there may be some inherent racism or unwillingness to hire or promote them because they don't fit a particular "vision." Should artistic directors make a conscious effort to hire black female dancers? Or is affirmative action in this case out of the question?

[Mel Johnson]

If there is no compromise of standards of technique, then affirmative action is fine. If there is a compromise, it's counterproductive and must be avoided.

[bart]

Sorry, I lost a post due (I think) to the system upgrade that was taking place last night. I'll try to remember my train of thought.

If there is no compromise of standards of technique, then affirmative action is fine. If there is a compromise, it's counterproductive and must be avoided.

I agree with this completely. I also rather llike some of the current attempts to expand the definitions in the affirmative action program , especially the gradual replacement of "race" caegories by "class" (income based) catagories.

Where I have a problem is when a legitimate concern for standards is not balanced by an increased effort to attract and retain the most talented, regardless of background.

This problem is addressed in the Kourlas article in the story of Alicia Graf, the Dance Theater of Harlem dancer who, after the closing of that company, was turned down and/or ignored by both NYCB and ABt before being taken on by Alvin Ailey. I don't know enough about the individual circumstances to form a definite opinion of how or why this occurred. But the general pattern is interesting. I admire Graf for her own "take" on this:

"Ms. Graf views the question "Why don't companies hire black dancers?" as outdated. "We have to change the pradigm now," she said, "and I think that in order to do that we have to challenge companies to make it a priority to diversify their roster, and not just to do an outreach or bus in some kids and expose them to dance. The companies, as a business tool, have to go into communities where dance is not present to expose and train dancers. [My bold]

That's what [Arthur] Mitchell set out to do when he formed Cance Theater of Harlem. While the company remains on hiatus (performances continue through the organization's Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble), the school still functions, directed by Endalyn Taylor, a former Dance Theater member. But without a company to aspire to, Ms. Taylor said, the situation "is really challenging and really sad."

"My mind always goes back to the days when there was a company." she added. "I remember the students looking in the doorway, watching us. Being the role models for them made it a lot easier."

I've been attending ballet since the 50s, and I admit I've been influenced by the models provided in those days by Balanchine and company and by the Civil Rights movement. During this long (long, long, l-o-n-g) period of time I've seen administrators, teachers, and audiences in American opera, theater, film, circus, you name it, do a better job in this than the equivalent people in American ballet.

Younger audiences especially are remarkably color blind when it comes to what they see on stage. Imagine ANY other art in the 21st century in which people would even bother to dicuss the whether we dare to risk a "black Juliet", or a "black swan" for that matter.

[Mme. Hermine]

Here's an aside the French-speakers among you may find interesting. It's a brief interview in which POB étoile Kader Belarbi discusses his Algerian heritage.

http://www.tv5.fr/TV5Site/webtv/player1.php?id_video=601

thank you! it was interesting.

[SanderO]

Ballet like much of European culture is caucasian centric because that is the environment and context which the works were created.

The world has changed and much of the West is now multicultural... that is we are living in an environment which is a mix of peoples and cultures and there are genres which cross "pollination" occurs... jazz, art, dance, theater, painting.. and so on But the issue of other "races" (hate the word.. we are one human race)...

Can we see past color and race and see a performance as simple form, movement and so forth? Why not? But it would represent a certain stretch and not be "historically" accurate.

When we look at renaissance painting we expect to see the people look (more or less) as they did in Tuscany or wherever the painter worked... the painting was like a photo snapshot of the time it was created.

I don't see that race matters, except as one tries to be historically accurate and mixing it up would be a jarring and "inaccurate"... but for pure form and movement.. even using classical technique... race is should be a non issue...any and all can and should be welcomed.

Some of us are curious and like to dip into the other cultures of the world (aside from our own) ... some of us have no interest in this and others like to mix it up and hybrids and new things are created.

The west is still very euro-centric and so it dominates the narrative and makes it hard for other cultures to penetrate. Some cultures do and some of them want to maintain their own cultural heritage/legacy as pure as possible for the future.

As long as there is tolerance and no some sort of institutionalized exclusion it appears that we will have some ballet looking much like it did in the last few centuries into the next few... and perhaps something new... Or would that be modern dance and not ballet?

[bart]

SanderO, would it be possible for you to link that NY Times article you referred to on the "class" thread -- the one about NYCOpera's Gerard Mortier's outreach effort to the African American community -- to this thread. The topic would seem quite relevant here.

Your comments above are so interesting, that I hope you won't mind my res

onding with some of the questions that occurred to me as I read them.

I don't see that race matters, except as one tries to be historically accurate and mixing it up would be a jarring and "inaccurate"... but for pure form and movement.. even using classical technique... race is should be a non issue...any and all can and should be welcomed.

Does "innacurate" have to be jarring? In ballet, the mere fact of dancing on point, wearing tights, never talking is certainly historically "inaccurate." Classics have been produced in periods other than the time in which they are supposed to have occurred, or were originally danced.

I suspect that we are "jarred" not so much by inaccuracy, but by the fact that our own cultural conditioning and expectactions have been violated, or challenged. Certainly in opera mixed race casting has become the norm in most places. If the voice fits. A generation ago it "jarred," especially in the US. But now?

The west is still very euro-centric and so it dominates the narrative and makes it hard for other cultures to penetrate. Some cultures do and some of them want to maintain their own cultural heritage/legacy as pure as possible for the future.

Japan seems to be an example of a country which has adopted "western culture" on a wholesale basis -- actually going a bit overboard in some areas -- while keeping traditional art forms (noh, kyogen, kabuki, bunraku) as a kind of "national heritage," analagous to those replica traditional farm villages you can find in many countries.

In contrast, high culture in the West is without a doubt the most successful and powerful of export products all around the world. Our traditional culture is not seriously threatened from the outside as much as that of Japan, China, and numerous non-Western countries.

"Heritage" here should have to do with respect for the form, the technique, the integrity of the works. Need it also involve the kind of casting a 19th century audience would have been comfortable watching?

When you write

As long as there is tolerance and no some sort of institutionalized exclusion it appears that we will have some ballet looking much like it did in the last few centuries into the next few... and perhaps something new

would it be possible, in your opinion, to keep works llike Romeo and Juliet or Giselle "looking much like" they did in the past and still have casting in which skin color was not a factor?

I guess another way of putting this question is this to reverse it -- are there classical ballet works in which legitimate "emploi" in ballet does involve color?

[Old Fashioned]

Can we see past color and race and see a performance as simple form, movement and so forth? Why not? But it would represent a certain stretch and not be "historically" accurate.

I don't see that race matters, except as one tries to be historically accurate and mixing it up would be a jarring and "inaccurate"... but for pure form and movement.. even using classical technique... race is should be a non issue...any and all can and should be welcomed.

I agree with you for the most part, but being colorblind can be to a fault. If directors do not have the initiative to improve racial diversity within a company, then they could be acting under the auspicious title of "colorblindness" because race is a non-issue for them. I’ve seen this sort of mono-culturalism occur before in organizations that pride themselves on indifference to race, color, or origin, and this happens because it discourages active diversity within.

[papeetepatrick]

Sander0 said: 'I don't see that race matters, except as one tries to be historically accurate and mixing it up would be a jarring and "inaccurate"... but for pure form and movement.. even using classical technique... race is should be a non issue...any and all can and should be welcomed'

Bart said: 'Does "innacurate" have to be jarring? In ballet, the mere fact of dancing on point, wearing tights, never talking is certainly historically "inaccurate." Classics have been produced in periods other than the time in which they are supposed to have occurred, or were originally danced.'

I think that's two kinds of 'inaccurate' though. My guess is that Sander0's 'historically innacurate' would be in a serious dramatic work in which, for example, there was real subject of racism. There's been talk of reversing races in stories narrated in some way or other, but this would be the novelty and not used much. As in a movie like 'In the Heat of the Night', or any film about segregation, slavery, civil rights history, you have to use the actors of the races. Of course, the likelihood of ballets about racism is not great, and it doesn't even sound of much interest to me personally. Modern dance about race history, etc., might occasionally have something worth looking at, but if so, it sounds best if blacks are cast as blacks, whites as whites, Asians as Asians. As far as ballet being 'historically inaccurate' because of point, tights, etc., it's probably just an extreme example--that's true of all the arts to some degree, and is at least equally true of opera.

If there is not race and/or racism as a subject, I agree it should be a non issue--and the idea of a ballet about racism sounds woefully lacking in any potential potency. Almost any other medium would be better--because the traditions of toe shoes don't have a thing to do with the traditions of racism, although some sort of half-effective thing is imaginable. The only one that would be obviously interesting is the subject discussed herein--racism in ballet--but a movie about it with some dancing still sounds better.

Bart said: 'I've been attending ballet since the 50s,... During this long (long, long, l-o-n-g) period of time I've seen administrators, teachers, and audiences in American opera, theater, film, circus, you name it, do a better job in this than the equivalent people in American ballet.'

Yeah, I agree, and that may be the most imoprtant point. The nature of ballet, its inaccessible and comparatively precious qualities, probably made this inevitable. It's just like in art history, some arts are just developing into the full expressions of their periods, while others are already at a Mannerist stage. In any case, ballet is going to have to go the way of all the other arts in terms of getting to that point at which you don't think about the skin colour any more--that's more important than any rococo considerations that are perhaps more related to Interior Decoration, with the occasional exception.

[The new software makes the quotes somewhat difficult. I couldn't 'fix it', so I've just quoted like this.]

[kfw]

. . . . being colorblind can be to a fault. If directors do not have the initiative to improve racial diversity within a company, then they could be acting under the auspicious title of "colorblindness" because race is a non-issue for them. I’ve seen this sort of mono-culturalism occur before in organizations that pride themselves on indifference to race, color, or origin, and this happens because it discourages active diversity within.

I would think that color blindness would be exactly the right approach for any director trying to serve the art form, and their function should be to serve the art form, not to promote diversity. It's wonderful that directors are trying to reach out to people who have traditionally lacked access and exposure to ballet, but in my opinion lack of diversity is only a problem when non-white dancers are treated differently that white dancers. Unless the pool of minority dancers is exceptionally full of talent vis-a-vis the larger white pool, diversity for diversity's sake will only lower the quality of what's onstage.

On a side note, Ballet Talkers within driving distance of Richmond can enjoy the talents of Richmond Ballet dancers Maggie Small and Michael Forrest-Johnson.

[papeetepatrick]

Unless the pool of minority dancers is exceptionally full of talent vis-a-vis the larger white pool, diversity for diversity's sake will only lower the quality of what's onstage.

Absolutely. That's why that 'Cinderella' musical from about 1997 was so repulsive. You were seeing something that ought to be called 'Rainbow Coalition', not Cinderella.