Ballet gay
Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection
The Morgan Library and Museum, NYC
June 28-September 22, 2024
Several major exhibitions have been planned to celebrate the Morgan Library and Museum’s centennial year. One of these exhibits is Crafting The Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection.
The exhibit specifically focuses on five of Robert Owen Lehman’s musical manuscripts that are at the very heart of the story of the Ballets Russes. These include: Stravinsky’s Firebird (1910),Stravinky’s, Petrouchka (1911),Debussy’s L’Après Midi d’un Faun (1912), Stravinsky’s Les Noces ( 1923), and Ravel’s Bolero (1928).
Some background to the Ballets Russes: At the center of the organization is the flamboyant impresario, Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929). Launch in 1909, Diaghilev and his company electrified Paris with performances that revolutionized the static nature of the arts at that time.
Deeply influenced by Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) idea of gesamtkunstwerk wherein different skilled disciplines are brought together to create a perform, Diaghilev and his associates aspired to create a ballet that combined song, dance, and desi
GENDER IN OPERA and ballet
When it comes to gender, opera is a distinct case. In the iron repertoire, there are plenty of trouser roles, in which female singers (often mezzo-sopranos) sing roles of male characters (almost always young men). Sometimes this is because a role was originally written for a castrato, a voice type that (fortunately) no longer exists, but just as often it was a conscious choice during the creation.
But a alert choice does not automatically mean that gender becomes a theme in operas with trouser roles. In Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, for instance, one cannot say that with the character of the irascible adolescent Cherubino, sung by a mezzo-soprano, gender identity enters the opera. Cherubino is primarily a young man who develops along masculine lines. The fact that the role is sung by a woman falls under the heading of 'suspension of disbelief'.
In ballet, something appreciate a trouser role would be unthinkable. No other art form has such a hierarchical structure as ballet. In ballet companies, the dancer's table is still divided into various ranks, and within those ranks, into women and men. Gender is also linked to a whole gender-specific movement l
Boys dance too: My life as a male ballet dancer
This story was published in print in December 2022.
The faint sound of pointe shoes echoes through a narrow walkway as I begin to ascend a set of stairs. With each step, the delicate tapping crescendos into a storm. At the highest, I take a right, passing a wall peppered with photos of legendary dancers, choreographers and directors. I turn left, passing a bulletin board of castings, rehearsal schedules and showtime updates. One more left turn to leave. My mind desperately tries to calm itself down, but doubtful thoughts initiate to seep in. With no time left to spare and my soul shaking off the last drops of doubt, I turn to face the dance studio.
For six years, I’ve danced at Maryland Youth Ballet and earned incredible opportunities. I’ve landed lead roles in my studio’s productions, worked with world-class choreographers and even performed in a professional production at the Kennedy Center. But those opportunities didn’t fall into my lap — they required limitless dedication and sacrifice.
What started as a three-hour weekly obligation where I learned the basic positions and steps, quickly snowballed into a 25-hour weekly commitmen
LGBTQ Ballet Dancers
The planet of the Ballet dancer is a unique one. As an artistic undertaking that incorporates athletic ability, artistic expression, and general performance, it demands a significant amount of talent for the individual creator. Similar to many demanding professional sports, it tends to be a profession for the young that takes a heavy toll in terms of period, energy, and physical and mental stamina.
LGBTQ ballet dancers have been a visible and important part of the arts collective for many generations. As an artistic field which appreciates its talent, it is a profession that has accommodated LGBTQ individuals even in conservative political and religious environments.
A survey of professional ballet dancers in 1997 revealed that they themselves believed that 57.8 percent of the men in boogie companies overall were lgbtq+, while they considered 53 percent of the men in their own companies to be gay. Indeed, many past high profile LGBTQ ballet dancers are household names. These contain Erik Bruhn of Denmark, Jerome Robbins of the United States, and Vaslav Nijinski or Rudolf Nureyev of Russia.
In addition to their prominent adv dance careers,
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