Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself

by Chloe Angyal

It was not that women did not choreograph, she argued, but that they were barred from choreographing for the most prestigious ballet companies and theaters. And because of ballet’s fixation on the elite, those dances—and the women who made them—have largely been written out of ballet’s history.

Choreography requires creativity; ballet teaches girls the importance of conformity. Choreographing requires finding and using your voice; ballet rewards girls and women for silence. Choreography is a form of leadership; ballet punishes girls and women who aren’t obedient.

Choreography is a skill that must be honed; simply having been a dancer does not make one a dance maker.

just as it can be hard for women to imagine themselves “at the front of the room”—where choreographers, teachers, and artistic directors stand, wielding power over dancers—it can be hard for ballet’s gatekeepers to see women as artistic leaders of any kind.

In an interview with the New York Times, Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins patted himself on the back for his purported daring and courage. “What can I say, I’m gutsy,” Martins said.

I hate this bitch lmao

“How,” Lauren Wingenroth asked in Dance, “can an art form be alive when it excludes so many?”

In other words, an all-men evening is a just normal night at the ballet, at which no one bats an eye. An all-women evening is a special event, a showcase, a diversity push. It happens very, very rarely, and never without a press release.

As in Hollywood, women choreographers struggle to attract the kind of investment that men get, meaning that they’re more likely to make short or one-act ballets rather than long and expensive three-act works.

Where male choreographers are granted room to fail and to grow, women are expected to be perfect the first time and every subsequent time.

and even worse for woc !

Consider what stories ballet is missing by extending the chance to choreograph story ballets to mostly white men and a few white women.

There is simply no good reason for eight of the top ten ballet companies in the country to be led by white men.

Ballet cannot continue to tell the same old stories and expect to cultivate new audiences.

Companies should think expansively about what kinds of stories are missing from their stages, what kinds of human experiences they are failing to represent, and which audience members they are excluding as a result.

ballet has survived for centuries because hundreds of thousands of people decided that it should.

If ballet is going to continue to be worth our time, it must evolve.

mic drop