The Australian Ballet’s Choreographer Lucas Jervies employs movement and dance to incite a conversation about gender, politics, and identity.
If one searches ‘ballet’ in Google images, a cursory scroll through pages of elegant women draped in tulle, donning frothy tutus will confirm that ballet is still a deeply gendered art form. It’s not surprising that ballet reflects gendered socio-cultural patterns given that historically, dance classes were separated by gender, and dancers were required to wear gender-specific clothing as well as literally ‘perform gender’ on stage.
Teachers, dancers, critics and choreographers are shaped by the culture and social structures in which they operate, and while traditionally, those social structures dictated that identities should be assigned on the basis of gender, this is beginning to change – and it’s about time.
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Source: Gaurdian
