Inequalities
“Under no conditions do I recognize a man’s right to dance in public” (Smith 34)
Stereotypes of Ballet
Men used to be discriminated against in Ballet. Ballet was considered a woman’s art form and not suited for “men”. This limits freedoms of both men and women by saying that gender roles are defined by a certain way of moving. (Smith 35) Now we are finally becoming more accepting of the male dancer. However due to the lack of men in ballet, and the abundance of females, we actually find that in the dance world men are permitted more freedoms.
New York City Ballet - rehearsal of "Don Quixote" George Balanchine and group of men, choreography by George Balanchine (New York)
The Male to Female Ratio
Because of this stereotype that women must be delicate, graceful, fragile, female ballet dancers are a dime a dozen. People put their daughters into ballet from a young age to develop this quality and simple because it is a fun things for little girls to do. But when those little girls continue and grow up they will miss out on scholarships given to boys who have far less technical acumen. This privilege is often given to the rarity of male dancers (specifically ballet dancers) to encourage them to stay in the discipline. Essentially, men often have to do less work, to get paid more. This perpetuates the attitude that men can behave however they want with no repercussions.
Moving Forward
In order to change this discrepancy between them we must change the taboo of male ballet dancers. This starts at a young age. For example, "In New York, a recent audition for 6 – 10 year olds attracted 544 applicants, 65 of them were boys – that’s roughly 12%. " (Kleber-Diggs 1) There are surely more young male ballet dancers in New York than most other cities in the United States, so this statistic is alarming if you think about what it must be like in less artistically rich cities. To balance this out we need to allow children the ability to choose from a variety of extra curricular without fear of judgement on how it would change them as a "boy" or "girl". Boys can do ballet, and girls can wrestle or play basketball.
Works Cited
Image 1 : UNK, The New York Public Library. "New York City Ballet - rehearsal of "Don Quixote" George Balanchine and group of men, choreography by George Balanchine (New York)" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1965. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/360d0000-4835-0133-9cbe-00505686a51c
Image 1 : UNK, The New York Public Library. "New York City Ballet - rehearsal of "Don Quixote" George Balanchine and group of men, choreography by George Balanchine (New York)" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1965. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/360d0000-4835-0133-9cbe-00505686a51c