Ballet and Sexism

Ballet is an art that I love. I've been dancing on and off since the age of five. I am by no means a seasoned dancer. I can dance well, but I can barely fouette. 

My love for ballet has always come with a bruise of reality. Sexism exists within the art. 

This post was triggered by an article by Troy Schumacher, as told to Claudia La Rocco.   The article entitled, We Call it "Dance Therapy can be found at The Performance Club.

In it, Schumacher captures the damage which occurs when a dancer goes through 2-3 pairs of dance shoes each day. Both photos below were taking by Schumacher himself.

Toe nails, painted in vain.


These photos exemplify quite well, why I have always refused to dance en pointe. Point shoes look amazing and they are an anatomical tool providing a graceful aesthetic. Even so, it is oppressive that the above photos are what dancers must simply get used to in order to maintain their art. 

In the Pointe Magazine, article, Confessions of a Dance Critic, Alastair Macaulay says this about ballet:

"Ballet is also an art of the ideal, isn’t it? When a woman steps onto pointe in arabesque, she can at once become something other than a woman: she can become a work of ideal geometry. That’s thrilling, and I’ve loved it ever since I first saw ballet. But this is something about which—living in a world that has been reshaped by the struggle for gender equality—we should also all feel a certain ambiguity. Ballet is a sexist art. In fact, I often say that it is the sexist art—the one and only art that’s based upon the dichotomy between male and female. He is not permitted to step on pointe (except occasionally as a comic or character effect). She is not permitted to promenade him or support him in pirouettes. I must admit that I love ballet as an art of chivalry, and I enjoy the fact that its sexism is to the woman’s advantage rather than the man’s. But I regret that the chivalry is really only one-way. Too often the sexism and acrobatics of ballet can be just mindless, and without any serious connection to the way we live today."

Macaulay makes some important remarks here. Although appreciated, he is the ballet critic who made the comment that in the New York City Ballet's 2010 performance of The Nutcracker; "Jenifer Ringer, cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy, “looked as if she’d eaten one sugarplum too many,” and that Jared Angle, as her Cavalier, “seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm.” 

For Ringer in particular; fans came to her defense. After the outcry, Macaulay came to his own defense by writing an article, in which he firmly holds his ground.

"In our own time many other female dancers with obvious physical imperfections have made impressions far greater than those whose bodies were ballet-perfect. But that’s their task: in an Apollonian art that requires purity of line, precision of execution and harmony of appearance, dancers with less than ideal shapes must bring other qualities to bear. Many have, and Ms. Ringer does, too, with several roles. This particular Sugar Plum Fairy — one of her rare tutu parts these days — was not one of them. 

Some correspondents have argued that the body in ballet is “irrelevant.” Sorry, but the opposite is true. If you want to make your appearance irrelevant to criticism, do not choose ballet as a career. The body in ballet becomes a subject of the keenest observation and the most intense discussion. I am severe — but ballet, as dancers know, is more so."

To read the full article, entitled, Judging The Bodies in Ballet, visit The New York Times.

In Confessions of a Dance Critic, he backpedals by saying; "Here’s what happened. The grand pas de deux ended that night and a voice near me in the orchestra said, “God, they're fat!” Afterwards my companion and I discussed whether this was fair. She felt yes. I felt that Ringer was only a fraction overweight: hence “looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many.” Only one. How big is a sugar plum? Jared Angle had put on a lot of weight between hip and thigh, which is why my remark about him was more emphatic: “seems to have been sampling half the Sweet realm.” Yet the brouhaha was about Ringer. I think that was deeply sexist; it tells us plenty about our culture."

What Macaualy doesn't seem to understand is that it is more often women who have the eating disorders as Ringer did, and more often are women under the microscope. Women are are unfairly judged in almost all aspects of life. This issue goes beyond ballet. If you want to contain it in the ballet box, fine. But if she truly ate one sugar plum too many, which meant that she was only a "fraction overweight", how does it truly affect her performance or her aesthetic?

Macaulay blames our sexist culture. Our culture is indeed sexist but Macaulay's remark is a deflection. He blames the "culture" when it is really he who is promoting sexism.

Form and line are up for critique in various dance styles as well as sport. And yes, I believe that ballet is the art which is scrutinized the most. I will always carry an ambivalence when it comes to ballet. I love it and I praise those who love it and do it because it fuels them. But parfait is not the way to live. I prefer, en parfait santé.