The recent viral video clip of actor Timothee Chalamet in which he makes digs and pokes fun at ballet and opera, sparked rapid and widespread backlash from the ballet and opera communities. My major take-away here; ballet dancers and those who love ballet, are fiercely protective of their art, their world, and their community. In short— don’t mess with ballet dancers. The rallying cry from within was loud, angry and not surprising. Listening to Timothée quipp “All respect to the ballet and opera people out there” I heard hey, I’m going to disrespect you all right now, sorry, not sorry. As I watched clip after clip of Timothée’s belittling, throw-away comments about a world I devoted a lifetime of work and dreams to, my thoughts bounced around a lot. Did he sound flippant? Absolutely. Did he take cheap shots at a world he is adjacent to, while simultaneously demonstrating a complete lack of understanding or empathy for what it is actually like to live within— or for that matter, love, that world? Without a doubt.
The ballet community is my community. It made me who I am in every way, shape and form. But what if you don’t move within it, or what if you’re not familiar with that world? There is little doubt that ballet remains widely underappreciated and undervalued in mainstream culture today. It is insular, invoking its own language, culture and beauty. If you don’t live it, well… it’s easy to just not get it. As it turns out, Timothée was familiar with that world. His mother and sister are alumni of the School of American Ballet, and he spent his formative years attending a performing arts school in NYC. He has even been seen sporting a New York City Ballet hat. In short, he knew better than to knock dancers and, could have and should have articulated the point he was trying to get across, better. Maybe next time, Timothée, you’ll think before you speak.
For me, this all this circles right back around to why I started ORZA. Why I spent a decade re-engineering the ballet shoe, from the ground up. I saw big companies that were not shaped or guided by dancers, churning out products that were not rising to meet the demands placed on dancer’s bodies every single day. I lived it, I knew it, so I fought to change it. Ballet is not fringe or niche to those who live it and love it. And, despite it not living fully within mainstream culture, its cultural impact is profound. Ballet (and opera) have existed for hundreds of years. They are not going anywhere. If this whole unfortunate situation has proven anything it is that; people care.
I will always advocate for dancers. They are my people. My hope from all this is that once the noise fades, a few more people grab a ticket to their local ballet company’s next performance or subscribe for an entire season. Or heck, maybe a few more people will go buy a really great pair of ballet shoes. Our community, and the world, will be better for it.
