Tradition is Failing Ballet

This is a blog about strength and conditioning for dancers, but if we’re really going to help the dancers we claim to, we need to address the strategic environment in which all of this work is taking place. I’ve been thinking about our role in the dance world and how my work fits into it, so context is something that’s been on my mind.

The New York Times reported recently about an incident that has been the talk of the black dance world, in which Chloé Lopes Gomes was told to lighten her skin for a role.

Ms. Lopes Gomes, who is French, is the only Black female dancer at the Staatsballett Berlin, and just a few days earlier, she said in an interview, one of the company’s ballet mistresses had told her to use the white makeup to color her skin for “Swan Lake.”

The piece outlines what so many in the dance world already know, which is that so many of the traditions especially in ballet are rooted in misogynoir.

The practice of female dancers powdering or painting their bodies to look whiter probably dates from the mid-19th century, when romantic ballets like “Giselle” or “La Sylphide” popularized ethereal creatures who were variously ghosts, spirits or enchanted beings — like women who were turned into swans.

Baked into the cake of these “romantic” ballets is the notion that women need to be ethereal—nameless, faceless, dehumanized, and unmistakably white—”creatures” in order to be desirable, presumably for a male gaze. And while I can’t prove it, from a fitness perspective it seems to me that this aesthetic has driven the way particularly female dancers have approached cross training. “Long, thin” muscles. Avoid “bulk” at all costs. Only use light weights to preserve “femininity.”

As a strength coach, it’s my job to push back against some of the ascientific nonsense usually peddled to women who dance. But as a human, I think it’s also important that we question the rationale of the aesthetic itself and of some of the most important stories in the ballet tradition. I think it’s well past the time when the ballet community collectively decided that aspects of its canon are better left to the museum of a racist, sexist past.

It’s tempting to hold onto the tradition, to reimagine Nutcracker rather than admitting that the second half of the piece if rife with racist tropes and appropriation. Phil Chan, who co-founded Final Bow for Yellowface, “which works to improve how we represent Asians on the ballet stage,” according to a recent article he wrote for Dance Magazine in which he offers suggestions for how companies can deal with racist caricatures, says

The second act of The Nutcracker is a great opportunity to discuss the many issues that ballet companies face when trying to keep tradition alive while expanding beyond an exclusively Eurocentric point of view. Work with your education department, if you have one, to come up with thoughtful questions that can lead to constructive and respectful conversations. Discussions should deepen an audience member's understanding of the ballet itself as well as the racial dynamics at play. This can take the form of social media content, preshow talks, program notes, curtain speeches or a complementary educational curriculum.

Perhaps it’s because I was never a dancer, but I see this as far too conciliatory. When we collectively nibble around the edges of doing what’s right because of tradition and because we’re afraid of offending people who enjoy racist imagery, we fall far short of the reckoning Western countries in particular must still face. Where the misogyny built into ballet has terrible consequences for the mental and physical health of women who are encouraged to have unhealthy relationships with food, the uninterrogated racism baked into Nutcracker performances serves to send an unambiguous message to people of color that we are not welcome in these dance spaces.

I don’t know what comes next for the ballet world, but I know the only viable future is a representative one that values the full spectrum of humanity onstage and behind the scenes. Sometimes—often, actually—progress means that we leave some things behind because we’ve outgrown them or we’ve learned better.

I was reminded of this recent clip from journalist Bomani Jones, who was talking about another activity supposedly steeped in “tradition:” American football. As you listen to him describe the changes quarterback Robert Griffin III made to make himself palatable as a traditional quarterback, I want you to think about black ballet dancers who’ve been told for decades to do the same things. Lighten their skin. Change their hair. Somehow change their body type.

What appears to have happened in the American National Football League is talented players made it obvious to coaches that if they wanted to win, they would have to adapt their game to the players rather than the other way around. The ballet world aesthetic, still dominated by an unhealthy policing of women’s bodies, has yet to catch up to the reality that “ethereal” often has translated to “unhealthy,” with devastating effects on women’s mental and physical health.

Ballet companies serious about reckoning with #metoo and the aftermath of the George Floyd uprisings would display more authentic courage by dispensing with traditions steeped in hatred of women and people of color, reimagining what the ballet aesthetic should include, and commissioning choreography that reflects a modern, humane era. When that happens, I think the training you see associated with the ballet world will make a concomitant healthier shift.

Jason HarrisonComment