BLACK SWAN AIMS HIGH KICK AT ‘RACIST’ BALLET
BERLIN: The Berlin State Ballet’s first black dancer, Chloe Lopes Gomes, says she has been made to feel different because of her skin colour since she first donned ballet shoes as a child.
Now, after being subjected to still more “racism” at Germany’s largest dance company, she has launched a fightback that has forced the Berlin State Ballet to investigate her complaints.
Lopes Gomes says it is time for the classical ballet world to address the issue of racism. Recalling instances where she was made to feel uncomfortable, she cited a rehearsal for a production of the ballet La Bayadere, when the company’s ballet mistress was handing around white veils for the dancers to wear. When she got to Lopes Gomes, she laughed, the 29year-old French dancer says.
“I can’t give you one. The veil is white and you’re black,” she was told. Another dancer from the company has confirmed Lopes Gomes’ account on condition of anonymity.
The ballet mistress “said it like it was a joke … I was completely shocked,” she says. Lopes Gomes, who studied at the renowned Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, felt humiliated – but not surprised. She had been subject to “harassment” at the hands of her boss ever since her arrival in Berlin in 2018, she says.
“In our first rehearsal for Swan Lake, six of us were new but all of the corrections were directed at me,” she says.
Last year, she was asked to wear white makeup for a production — following the departure of another director who had opposed the idea.
The ballet company is investigating the incidents.