Dance Magazine: Last Friday, Dance Magazine published what has already become our most-read story of all time. At 2.8 million views and counting, our take on Lara Spencer's cruel comments about Prince George taking ballet prompted an enormous response from both the dance community and those who were simply bothered by what amounted to the bullying of a 6-year-old on national television.
4 comments:
Wow. The dance community feels like a section of the world of art that I have never taken part in but I’ve always appreciated. Whether I was taking hip hop classes in high school or watching “So you think you can dance” with friends I’ve always had a huge appreciation for dancers. I think this article presents some really strong points about the dance community. Ballet especially is very harsh on males (cis and trans). I loved the one tweet about how one female offends a man and yet male dancers in power could offend females or a minority and they aren’t asked to apologize. Sometimes they’re not even called out for the bullshit in the first place. The double standard that exists in the dance community is horrible. However, I think the presence that they showed in this moment shows the power that this community actually has, and if they can optimize on this gathering of people, maybe they can make greater changes within the ballet and greater dancing community.
There has been a lot of media coverage of the recent statements from news anchor Lara Spencer regarding Prince George’s ballet classes. Not only were her comments disrespectful to the future king, but they also hurt many people in the dance community. Men in the performing arts have faced similar disrespect for decades. Many people are uneducated in the fact that most theatre and dance used to be solely men; even the female roles in plays used to be men dressed as women. Although Spencer made a public apology, her comments still hurt. This article brings up a valid point regarding her apology and specifically how when somebody who is not a cis white male makes a hurtful or derogatory comment they are publicly shamed into apologizing with ostrisizing backlash. In my opinion, Spencer did make mistakes but is truly regretful of her comments. I have personally struggled with not thinking before I speak, but I have worked on it for years and have grown. Spencer could consider a similar pattern of growth. I did appreciate how she not only apologized to the prince, but to the entire dance community especially the men. The article also brings up a valid point on the disrespect within the dance community of transgender men as well. Trans rights have been a major topic of discussion in the media within the past decade, so bringing light to their struggle in the dance community as well is a good addition to this article.
I appreciate how this article calls out the desire for trying to prove that ballet is manly as a destructive and counterproductive measure. Ballet doesn’t have to be masculine or feminine for it to be valid or matter. Trying to reduce society’s current feminine view of it by enforcing the masculine roots of it just makes the problem worse, as girls today are still often teased for being in ballet classes when they are young because it’s “girly” and “childish,” which is definitely not what this former tom-boy wanted to hear from peers’ mouths. This policing of people and how they spend their time combined with the unnecessary labelling of activities based on gender is ridiculous for lack of better word. I also appreciate the brief but very important call outs to who is being left out of this conversation, specifically the trans community (in this article, transmen) as well as POC. The dance world has so many problems with inclusivity and diversity, I hope it takes this moment not to double down on “but dancing is MASCULINE” and really takes the opportunity to make it known that dancing is for everyone.
This article brings up one of the most great points ever. In Transboydancetoo’s Instagram post where the author talks about supporting boys dancing but wonders if cis boys would support him. In Michael Foley’s Facebook post, he expresses the same sentiment of how we say one thing but don’t fully act upon it. This one thing is inclusivity/respect. This article shows how much the dance industry fought to support the idea that ballet is for boys too but a lot of marginalized groups aren’t respected in the dance industry and the same inclusivity isn’t expressed. I am not saying that we should value the respect of one group over another but I am saying that everyone should be treated with the same respect. If you get upset at Lara Spencer then you should also get upset when the dance industry is transphobic or racist. This article points out that people aren’t doing this and how people aren’t really putting their money where their mouth. This is an idea that needs to be talked about in all areas of the arts because just from reading other articles on the blog, I’ve seen how this industry doesn’t support everyone equally. Overall this article and the article about outreach projects have taught me that I should be reading Dance Magazine more often because they write some pretty good articles with stellar points.
Post a Comment