By Charlene Co

15 December 2020

Under the unforgiving, highly competitive and elitist spotlight of classical ballet, Misty Copeland shines. Copeland, who in 2015 became the first African-American promoted to principal dancer at the prestigious American Ballet Theatre (ABT), moves with youthful exuberance, stunning artistry and sheer veracity.

She’s come a long way from her days of attending ballet classes on the basketball court of a local youth community centre. There, at the late age of 13, she learned her pliés and elevés while living in a motel room, struggling for a space to sleep on the floor with her five other siblings. But as most awe-inspiring stories go, this rough journey propelled her to successes she never thought was even remotely possible.

Over her 25-year career, Copeland has taken on a range of both classical and contemporary roles – among her most notable ones was in 2012, when she performed the title role in The Firebird, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, and the lead role of Odette/Odile in ABT’s Swan Lake in 2014, making history as the first black woman to assume the role. In 2015, she was promoted to principal dancer at ABT, and in the same year named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. Copeland’s professional success provided her with a platform from which she continues to rally passionately behind racial and gender equality, and inspires aspiring young ballerinas, especially those of colour and from less privileged circumstances.

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By Abigail Rasminsky For Dance Spirit

02 December 2020

Finding the Right Cast

To ensure the show would feel authentic, the creators set out to cast dancers who could act, not actors who’d require dance doubles. The process spanned three months and many continents. It often felt—especially when casting two of the leads, roles that ultimately went to Kylie Jefferson and Barton Cowperthwaite—like “trying to find unicorns,” head choreographer and dance consultant Jennifer Nichols says. “To be at that level of dance skill is already a huge feat, and to be a brilliant actor on top of that is hard.”

Nichols was also tasked with making sure every other element of the production accurately reflected the ballet world. “The team consulted about how the shoe room would really look, how the studio was set up, how to tie a pointe shoe ribbon,” Nichols explains. “These are all dead giveaways unless they’re supervised by someone in the dance world. I was worried we wouldn’t have the time and money to make it all look right, but it was never pushed aside.”

Ballet-World Realness

“Tiny Pretty Things” explores issues many young ballet dancers grapple with: How do you befriend your biggest competition? How has racism stained the ballet world? How does a young dancer figure out their sexuality? How common are eating disorders among dancers? “In the past, entertainment often hasn’t done justice to the dance world,” Nichols says. “Not just the ups and downs of it, but also all the difficult work that goes into it.” Oren, played by Barton Cowperthwaite, struggles with his sexual identity and an eating disorder. June, played by Daniela Norman, is tortured by a mother who doesn’t believe in her talent. Bette, played by Casimere Jollette, lives in the shadow of her more gifted sister, a principal dancer in the company. Shane, played by Brennan Clost, worries that his male lover will leave him for a woman.

Kylie Jefferson, 25, who plays Neveah and earned her BFA at The Boston Conservatory, says her character’s storyline reflects her own experiences with racism in ballet from “top to bottom.” In the first episode, the head of the ballet school, played by Lauren Holly, glibly claims that Neveah, who is Black, was plucked out of Compton (she wasn’t); fellow dancers make fun of a YouTube clip of her dancing hip hop; and her ballet teacher critiques her every move (and clothing choice).

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An Interview with Bradford Chin

by Emmaly Wiederholt

16 November 2020

Can you tell me a little about your dance history – what shaped who you are today?

My name is Bradford, and I use he/him/his pronouns. I am a San Francisco native, which is becoming increasingly rare and comes with its own privileges. I did not take my first ballet or modern classes until I was a freshman in college at Cal State Long Beach. I started as a pre-med biology major. I was introduced to and encouraged to dance at the end of high school by Nina Mayer, but as far as what people would consider “formal training” in Western dance culture, it wasn’t until college. Somehow, I got into the program when I auditioned to minor, which happened to be the same audition to major, and then I switched.

I had a very conservative Christian upbringing coupled with my experience as an Asian American. Undergrad, for me, was a lot of struggle, both internally and externally. I was trying to navigate my sexuality without having role models or support. Doing that alone, along with not having familial support on my new dance journey, was really hard. But it also felt like the right path, and those experiences informed my interest in the minoritized student experience in Western dance culture. I didn’t have the vocabulary to iterate or understand the questions I was dealing with at the time. It’s only after I’ve graduated and continued with this line of work that I’ve been able to contextualize it.

As a freelance choreographer, my questioning revolves around Western dance performance practices, conventions of Western dance theater, why we do the funny things we do, what is it about the choreographer/dancer/audience relationship, etc. Unpacking that led me into questioning how educational practices in dance continue to perpetuate those practices in performance.

I have had the privilege of working with marginalized student populations, like students from very low-income households, people of color, and people with disabilities, which has significantly impacted my pedagogy and how I consider equity in dance. I’m currently a dancer and teaching artist with AXIS Dance Company, a physically integrated dance company which is one of the world’s leaders in inclusive dance education. Physically integrated means we have dancers with and without physical disabilities.

All these experiences continue to build on my questioning of Western dance practices, and now I’m going into the next iteration of these research interests: How does inequality impact the aesthetics of Western concert dance?

Read the entire article here.