This is a thrilling article. Not just because of the courage, humor, and artistry of the dancers, but because of Ebershoff's honesty and lucidity as a writer. I never thought I'd see the time when queer "ballerinos" had their own, distinct voice. May they all have long, influential careers
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One of the reasons I love the Boston Ballet is that they have many male dancers and stage some dance performances that feature all men. Boston Ballet also has a very diverse company with dancers of color taking all kinds of roles. I really appreciate seeing this!
Irlan Silva is a fabulous dancer with a great stage presence. I noticed him immediately when he took the stage at Boston Ballet. I enjoyed seeing him in this article.
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I'm a 73 yr old gay man who came of age in the mid-60s and I loved this article. My reaction to the segment of Not our fate was how intensely masculine it was and how accurately it reflected the the male-male sexual attraction and experience, without being either prurient or directly arousing. This is exactly how it feels, that pressure in the chest, that tightening in the throat, the realness, the rightness. The first glance, recognition. Bravo!
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Now, I would love to read an interesting article like this on heterosexual male ballet dancers. I think everyone knows that there are many gay male ballet dancers, this is actually the stereotype. My brother is a heterosexual ballet dancer and choreographer in Mexico in his 40s, which means my mother was truly a revolutionary thinker, ahead of her time in the 1970s macho Mexican culture. All he wanted to do since he was a little boy was to dance, and finally my mother pulled him out of high school, enrolled him in dance school and told him to be the best he could. He was the only boy in his class. I would love to read a piece on dancers like him.
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Are male or gender fluid dancers learning to dance en pointe? That seems to be the big gender divide in ballet and it seems ripe for breaking.
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@Tracy Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is the only troupe I know of where the men dance sur les pointes.
It is indeed a gender divide. I took one class en pointe (I'm male) and quickly realised why I had a much easier time making it as a dancer than my female colleagues did!
13
Thank you for the article....my only problem was with the video of the dancers. The artistry and message is in the dance, not in trying to make the video artful , and the video was so jumpy, and cutting that the art, and artistry of the dance, and choreography was mostly lost.
Still, I much enjoyed the article and it's message.
7
I like the feminine part of ballet, that being lovely women with long necks and arms, moving about the stage gracefully. And then the amazing male with his strength comes in to juxtaposition the difference. I never want to see a ballet that eliminates the feminine in it. Women are important to ballet and no matter how gay you are, you will never be a female. You are a gay male who is an amazing ballet dancer. Difference is what makes ballet beautiful.
7
I don't know what to make of this. I throughly enjoy the performing arts and appreciate the unique talents of those who dedicate their lives to them. I buy my ticket, enjoy the performance and go home enchanted. But I really could care less about the artists politics, religion or sex outside the context of the performance. I respect their trials and tribulations, as I do of all artists, but I don't hold them in any higher esteem because of their sexuality.
16
Back in 1983 in The New York Times, Anna Kisselgoff reviewed a ballet called "Proust - Les Intermittences du Coeur." It includes a duet danced by two men, extraordinarily beautiful and clearly homoerotic. Kisselgoff perhaps felt compelled to warn potential ticket buyers - she describes the ballet as "artfully original, deliberately perverse and highly interesting." In the context of today's article on "Male Ballet Dancers Rethinking Masculinity," the last sentence of Kisselgoff's review, from 35 years ago, provides some insight into how things have, and have not, changed: "Although the last male duet symbolizes a duel between good and evil, it also has implications of a homoerotic duet - which is an aspect Mr. Dupond and Mr. Gil, while dancing beautifully, brought out perhaps too strongly."
Kisselgoff's 1983 review is at https://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/19/arts/ballet-french-company-opens-in-petit-s-proust.html
A video of the duet, from about 10 years ago is, for now at least, available on YouTube, with dancers Mathieu Ganio and Stephane Bullion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvK4hiEow8Y
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Great article but, yawn. As if gay male ballet dancers are anything new. A more interesting to me story is the non-existence of lesbians in the classical dance genre. A girl who discovers she has same sex attractions in that world of girly girls is someone who is probably profoundly nervous. This comes via a friend, a beautiful ballerina, who was a student at SAB quite some time ago. Maybe it's different now. If it is, no one hears about it. Any lesbians at SAB? I'm very curious to hear their stories.
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@Paolo I studied at SAB many years ago, before dancing professionally for one season. Yes, there were gay female dancers. Not as many as gay male dancers, but they were there and mostly out.
There were many more girls/women who explored their sexuality, thanks to the more open and accepting nature of the dance world. Not sure how many of these women eventually identified as gay or bi, but they were probing their sexuality at a time when it was not remotely trendy or acceptable to do so.
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This is so beautiful. Thank you.
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I made a brief foray into the ballet world when I was young, a very worthwhile divertissement in my life's arc. I took my first ballet classes to impress my high school girlfriend, a common story for straight guys in the dance world. I aspired, briefly, to dance professionally in one of the companies mentioned in this piece.
I don't know what percentage of male dancers were gay, though it was large, and strikingly juxtaposed to the overwhelmingly heteronormative story lines of the classical repertory. I thought to myself back then, If same sex romance can't be represented in ballet, where then? There seemed to be an unbridgeable divide between the hetero society that showed up for galas, and the full spectrum of romances going on not far from the stages and rehearsal studios.
Mostly, though, I felt an effervescent freedom as a straight guy in the company of men who felt no obligation to follow narrow cultural definitions of masculinity. Unlike the straight jacket of the macho football culture I'd been thrust into when my family moved to the suburbs, I was irrevocably freed to explore my feminine side; a part of myself that I truly enjoyed but had kept under wraps during my high school years.
And the girl? Well, that didn't work out. But I'm forever indebted to my gay friends in the dance world, who were beautiful and creative and funny and kind. And most importantly, comfortable with who there were. They inspired me to become comfortable with who I am.
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Wow. We could use a few more human beings like you. The world would be a better place.
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@hammond Thank you. Very touching.
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@hammond thank you for sharing this! I wish more men could have this type of experience....where they learn to be comfortable with all facets of themselves.
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They are beautiful dancers and beautiful human beings. Period.
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This story touched me, too, in unexpected ways.
When the author received the note from the dancer -- "One day, you too will find yourself" -- I teared up for the author, and for all people who find themselves oppressed and unable to find their true selves, their true voices.
Although this is not meant to be a political story, the politics of today are written all over it. If you haven't already done so, go vote today if you can; vote tomorrow for certain. Even art is at stake.
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As a gay man, I really hate that newly fashionable word ‘queer’. In my youth it was a term of contempt, and for many it still is. Its use in progressive circles has become a form of virtue signalling. As for me, I really don’t need it. Sorry.
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@Tim, as a relatively progressive straight woman, I don't think I've heard or read anyone using the word "queer", who isn't LGBTQ themself. So, I don't think the progressive circles are misappropriating it for their own use.
Sadly, you're most likely correct that "queer" is still a term of contempt used by some people.
btw, I find labels confusing at times. Recently, someone [not here at the Times] referred to "SJW's", and I had to look that up.
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It’s exactly because it WAS a word of contempt that it was reclaimed: to tell those that used it as a weapon that it doesn’t work any more. It also challenges those of us that are self-hating to reflect upon their experience and to embrace who they are.
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@Matthew That line of reasoning (which I have heard before) seems very tortured to me. Why wallow in self-hatred, or the hatred of others?
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Isn't the point of artistry to transcend stereotypes and labels. If so, what is the purpose of the article.
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@glorybe I would say that the purpose of the article (as well as the purpose of artistry) is to reflect the natural world. Rather than present themselves as purely objects of entertainment for consumption they tell a bit of their story. The article means different things to different people, but, in my mine the purpose is clearly help others understand they view themselves as normal rather than the stereotype you saw.
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Because... they ... ARE .... transcending the stereotypes of the culture of ballet. You both are spot on and entirely missed the point at the same time.
10
This is a wonderful, vastly important article, both for art and for our understanding of culture and people in these bizarre times. I am an older straight man with three grown children, fresh out of college -- they are all committed to a broader understanding of gender difference and fluidity, and taught my wife and me a lot.
The gay men in this piece speak loudly and clearly, not just about ballet, being gay, but about being people in search of themselves, of knowledge, and of finding 'place' in a sometimes less than accepting world. Young men questioning their sexual/psychic identities need models and heroes, leaders who can help them carve their paths -- because school won't be a place to find them. Ballet and the arts in general should provide those grounds for guidance, support, and love.
Kudos to these men, these artists who put their best selves on the dance floor -- they speak admirably, dance beautifully, and represent the best of our times.
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Possibly this kind of view into the world of homosexuals will make it possible for heterosexuals to better understand them. For I suspect the main reason they are looked down upon (not the only one) is that they simply are a mystery to mindsets that have never felt a sexual attraction to members of their own gender. For me, the wonderful world of dance makes possible (not probable, but possible) a chance to experience the ultimate in artistic expression: female bodies in motion, to music, with meaning. It is this goal that guides my movie making and search for the perfect choreographer/dancer to help me realize that vision. As for others whose goals are different, I wish them luck. But honestly, my general reaction when I see an especially handsome young man in tights or not who is apparently gay, I remember what my millionaire business colleague, former professional soccer player visiting from Scotland said when I pointed to a group of gays at the bar of The Dallas Cowboys back in the late 70s and asked, "What do you think of all the gays in New York, Matt?" He glanced over at them, then turned said to me, "Well, that just leaves all the more for us, lad."
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@Albert Yokum Wonderful share on the balanced perspective!
We promise not to ponder the mystery of your existence if you agree to the same, OK? We not Martians. We are human beings. That’s the only thing you have to understand. You do your thing, we do ours, and in a better world we would support each other. Pretty simple.
12
I cannot think of a world that has been more welcoming over the last say 50 years, to gay men, that the dance world. I encourage these young men to see a tradition of inclusion, despite the societal pressures that left many closeted.
But really from Nijinsky, through Hermes Pan, to Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, and Nureyev, not to mention the dozens of gay choreographers that powered the MTV years, the world of dance IS and WAS the locus par excellence for professional expression for creative gay men.
Better to see the genealogy and build on that, than to imagine a tabula rasa. If these young men don't see their tradition, the are unnecessarily starting from ground zero. A good place to start: the AIDS crisis' impact on the dance world.
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