Dance school drops ‘white’ and ‘elitist’ ballet from auditions
BALLET has been dropped from auditions at a leading dance school, with staff saying it is rooted in “white European ideas”.
The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, which aims to be a “progressive institution”, has reviewed the “elitist” art form as part of a diversity drive that has seen the introduction of new policies relating to gender and race.
Ballet has been ditched as a requirement for school entry auditions because of its “contentious nature”, with teaching staff saying that the traditional mode of dance comes with the baggage of “white European ideas”.
The centuries-old artform was seen as a barrier to inclusion because of the exclusionary financial burden of taking classes, and also because of its idealising of certain European body shapes, and its division of roles along traditional gender lines.
The changes come after the conservatoire undertook work to “decolonise the curriculum” and take advice from LGBT societies.
Information from the NSCD, based in Leeds, states: “We review content and have removed ballet from our audition day due to its potentially contentious nature.”
Francesca McCarthy, head of undergraduate studies at the conservatoire, told The Sunday Telegraph: “It is essentially an elitist form. Young people need to pay to take ballet classes as a general rule and for a vast number of potential students, they’ve not had access to ballet.
“It is a very specific form that is built around particular white European ideas and body shapes which are often alienating to young people who do not fit that aesthetic ‘ideal’. There are issues relating to body, money, language and movement vocabulary.”
The issue of vocabulary hinges on ballet’s traditional terminology – which has led to gender distinctions like “ballerina” for women and “danseur” for men – and the everyday use of “men and women” or “girls and boys” in dance classes.
The split of roles along gender lines, with female dancers tending towards pointe work and men customarily performing leaps and lifts, has also been cited as an issue, and the NSCD is seeking to become more inclusive by tackling distinctions.
Ms McCarthy said: “Ballet has strongly gendered roots in terms of the movement vocabulary.
“Most of our ballet staff were trained at a time where divisions in the teaching of ballet were clear and ‘men’ lifted ‘women’. There was a shift to ‘ladies and gentleman’ over time but this is still problematic in relation to inclusion of non-binary and trans dancers.”
She added that the NSCD has encouraged staff to use gender-neutral terms such as “dancers/people/folk/everyone/everybody”, and also to “try and embed the use of ‘they’ in terms of pronouns in order to not make assumptions about a dancer’s identity”.