It doesn’t take much to stir the pot. And Alexei Ratmansky did just that.
Last week, American Ballet Theatre’s resident choreographer lit a firestorm on social media after posting on his  Facebook page that “there’s no such thing as equality in ballet,” hinting that leading roles in classical ballets should be defined as they’ve always been: between a man and woman.

Whether Ratmansky knew that his post would draw swift backlash was besides the point. What he likely knew for certain was that people would notice. Dance Magazine wrote about it. So did the New York Times, which took Ratmansky to task in an article written by Gia Kourlas.

For his part, Ratmansky defended his comments, telling the Times that he was simply pointing out that he holds a deep a reverence for tradition.