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Chase Johnsey leaves Trocks; Joins ENB


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5 hours ago, Birdsall said:

I am not sure if I can find it. It was an email notification for Dance Spirit which I do not subscribe to, but had a link, and I clicked and read the short article. I think after reading it and mentioning it on here I deleted the email. If I can find it, I will post it.

If you find it -- great, and if not, that's life!

7 hours ago, meunier fan said:

I attended and was fascinated by the content. ... Mr. Johnsey said he would be filming a documentary in and about now - with original dance segments included - and I very much look forward to the potential of seeing that.

Good to know -- many thanks!

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On 7/11/2018 at 2:18 PM, Birdsall said:

There is another up and coming transgender ballerina Jay Ledford according to Dance Spirit magazine.

Link to Dance Spirit article about Jay Ledford:

https://www.dancespirit.com/jay-ledford-transgender-ballerina-2584065372.html?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&socialux=facebook&share_id=3741869&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Dance+Spirit&utm_source=facebook

 

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On 7/28/2018 at 3:55 AM, Mashinka said:

The BBC has a link to this on its home page today.  Something as a surprise as the beeb these days is obsessed with popular culture.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-44985730/gender-fluid-ballerina-chase-johnsey-take-me-seriously

I looks like Jhonsey is no more a "gender fluid ballerina" but a male looking/male referred artistic director in Barcelona.

http://www.balletdebarcelona.com/la-compania/equipo/chase-johnsey/

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1 hour ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

Oh...I see. The whole concept as a pure satire. Gotcha.😀

Gender certainly can and has been the object of satire at times (including by the Trocks), but I don't see or hear anything that suggests Johnsey's gender identity — in either life or art — is or ever has been "pure satire," no.

On 3/28/2020 at 9:28 PM, cubanmiamiboy said:

Around the time he went for a female corps position at the ENB he sometimes was referred as a "ballerina". I remember contesting such and not getting a very kind response.

I hope that was not here on Ballet Alert that you got a not very kind response — but would also emphasize that disagreement is not the same as unkindness.

Edited by nanushka
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Johnsey wanted to be taken seriously as a ballerina,  but that's not what the Trocks are about.   It's a drag comedy troupe,  not a deep interrogation of gender (although their dance and choreography elements are high quality).   A professional clash was inevitable.  It doesn't appear to have had much to do with his personal identity.

Years ago,  a group of Russian dancers started a company where the ballerina roles were danced by men,  because they felt that contemporary women had lost the essence of femininity.  (And of course,  being men,  they were certain that they knew better than women how true female identity should be expressed!)   But unlike the Chinese and the Japanese,  the Russian public seemed to have no appetite for men in women's roles.

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25 minutes ago, On Pointe said:

 A professional clash was inevitable.  It doesn't appear to have had much to do with his personal identity.

It was, though, because at the time Johnsey left, he said that the company director insisted that the dancers' offstage presentation be male, and he refused.

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54 minutes ago, On Pointe said:

A professional clash was inevitable.  It doesn't appear to have had much to do with his personal identity.

Johnsey's clash with the Trocks was "professional" and did not "have...much to do with his personal identity"? That wasn't my impression at all. What is your view based on? In the interview cited at the top of this discussion thread he says the following:

Quote

I decided to copy one board member on an email that described the harassment and bullying over our gender expression and identity. The artistic director said that the information in the email was not useful, and right away, I was retaliated against: I was not allowed to mentor other dancers, I was not allowed to speak out for other dancers, and a makeup sponsorship I had developed and managed for over two years for the company was taken away from me. After that I contacted two more board members, and was told they would need more dancers with allegations to launch an investigation. I followed up to let them know I had the stories of four current dancers and nine former company members. From then on the only response I received was silence. I decided to follow through on my threat to quit and did so on January 1st.

 

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3 hours ago, nanushka said:

Gender certainly can and has been the object of satire at times (including by the Trocks), but I don't see or hear anything that suggests Johnsey's gender identity — in either life or art — is or ever has been "pure satire," no.

 

Nanushka... I didn't go that deep in my reflection. I merely stated that I perceived every single performance of Les Trocks as a ballet satire. That they can do fouettes and pirouettes on pointe with excellence..? No doubt. But I haven't seen one performance of theirs that hasn't ultimately shown a comical approach to the art form.

Johnson filling up a female position on the ENB is a total different thing. 

 

Edited by cubanmiamiboy
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2 minutes ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

I merely stated that I perceived every single performance of Les Trocks as a ballet satire.

I was responding to your earlier post, where you seemed (to me) to be expressing doubt that some "whole concept" was "pure satire":

4 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

Oh...I see. The whole concept as a pure satire. Gotcha.😀

I apologize if I misconstrued your tone or intent. Now I'm not sure what you meant.

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59 minutes ago, nanushka said:

I was responding to your earlier post, where you seemed (to me) to be expressing doubt that some "whole concept" was "pure satire":

I apologize if I misconstrued your tone or intent. Now I'm not sure what you meant.

Apologies accepted 🥰. Of course I was just talking about the "whole concept" of the Trocks troupe and their approach to the art form. About gender fluidity and such I wouldn't even try to discuss, as it is quite a Pandora's box and much of a complex, personal perception that is certainly not of general consensus.

 

Edited by cubanmiamiboy
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Satire or no I do think cubanmiamiboy has a point about the moving goal posts in this particular instance of gender fluidity.

Aren't the Trocks though, following Susan Sontag, really High Camp performers, aware of their spectacle? And aren't the differences between say an orthodox ABT performance of Swan Lake and their version really the subject. The differences in size, proportion, recoil – the robust specifications – over the standard off-the-shelf performance as the thing, as the specialty of the house. It's an overlap of parody and good faith, a passionate half-heartedness, a sort of a post-modern approach. 

John Kelly does that with his Maria Callas performances and Audra MacDonald tried something even more bizarre when she sang Billie Holiday songs with all the artifacts of Holiday's deteriorating late style, the catches in her voice and sibilance of the microphone pickup, almost even the scratches in the record. They became the subject.

Edited by Quiggin
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The Trocks performances weren't the issue:  management was.  And the point of gender fluidity is, well, fluidity.  That, by definition, means the goalposts move, for him, and for the Trocks, which is not the same troupe that it started with.  Fluidity means he doesn't have to pick a lane and stick to it.  Nor does he have to represent.

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18 minutes ago, Helene said:

The Trocks performances weren't the issue:  management was.  And the point of gender fluidity is, well, fluidity.  That, by definition, means the goalposts move, for him, and for the Trocks, which is not the same troupe that it started with.  Fluidity means he doesn't have to pick a lane and stick to it.  Nor does he have to represent.

Yes yes yes

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