Smashing Ballet Stereotypes

Lizzy Howell whips out 11 fouettés in a video she posts on twitter destroying the idea that you have to be thin to be a ballerina. Lizzy's video goes viral and people are amazed with her skill and grace. She proves to those watching her video that you don’t have to have a thin body to be a beautiful dancer. Lizzy doesn't like to be classified as a plus size dancer  because she just wants to be seen as a dancer and she doesn't want that one aspect of herself to define her. "A female artist is just an artist, a transgender model is just a model, and a disabled athlete is just an athlete" Lizzy tells Buzzfeed. Dancing helps Lizzy manage anxiety from her pseudotumor cerebri, a condition that causes excess fluid around the brain and recently become an ambassador for Dancing for You, a disability awareness campaign. To read more about Lizzy go here .  Lizzy is an awesome representation of a dancer and someone that everyone can look up to for her perseverance threw stereotypes and her disabilities.
  

A Disabled Dancer

Gabi Shull had her leg amputated above her knee but instead of giveing up all the things she loves like dance, rock climbing and ice skating she had her ankle bone reattached to act as her knee so she could move around more freely with her prosthetic leg. This was a ground breaking procedure that was done because Gabi had a rare cancer in her knee called Osteosarcoma. Gabi is now 14 and is able to do everything she wants to despite her prosthetic. She is dancing competitively and is an inspiration for her strength and perseverance to keep moving forward and push threw the obstetrical life throws at us. You can see videos of Gabi dancing and read more about her experience here . This is such a beautiful story to me because I completely understand why she worked so hard to dance again. Dance is my passion and when I dance I let my stress go without it I don't know who I would be today.

Ballarinas In Ball Gowns

Ballet is a beautiful art form that can create so many different messages. When ballerinas  are captured in a picture you can see the beauty and the message if you look closely enough but this artist took photos of ballerinas for a different reason. The Art of Movement created by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory, captures both the effortless look to ballet and the extreme work put into ballet. This collections holds images of some of the most well known ballet dancers like Misty Copeland, Tiler Peck, Xin Ying, Marcelo Gomes, James Whiteside and more. The dancers can be seen in full length ball gowns which represents the effortless look and beauty ballet creates, but when you look closer at the dancers arms/ legs/backs you see the muscles these dancers are using to create these beautiful work which is then obviously not effortless. With the images are also quotes from the dancers themselves about what they have learned from the ballet world over the years. “Dance as an art form is bittersweet, on one hand, its beauty is instantaneous and visceral, and on the other, it only exists in a very fleeting moment of ‘now'”(Daniil Simkin, a principal at the American Ballet Theatre).

Read more about this here on the Huffington post.


“If a child told me they wanted to be a dancer, I would say being a professional dancer is a ton of hard work, but it’s the best job in the world. If dancing makes your inner light shine bright, and you love being challenged and constantly learning, then go for it! Get in as many dance classes as possible, make your own dances, and have dance parties in the rain whenever possible. Find professionals that inspire you, and simply, fly!” ― Rachael McLaren

 

“Having confidence in yourself will help you become a stronger dancer. It’s not about being conceited or worrying about whether you are good enough, but feeling focused and confident about your dancing. This will improve your artistry and presence and help you stand out more. Also, having confidence allows you to take more risks and realize your full potential.” ― Miriam Miller

Slum Ballet

Everyone deserves the ability to learn ballet. Sadly in Nairobi Kenya a lot of people don't have the resources to learn ballet. Thankfully their is a studio where girls and boys have the ability to learn ballet after school thanks to the UK- based charity Annos Africa. These children get to live their dreams and learn the techniques in ballet, some kids are even getting scholarships for school and some have even gone to prestigious ballet schools like the Dance Center Kenya. Mike Wamaya used to dance professionally but now teachers ballet to multiple students. They mostly dance barefoot but they do get used dance shoes donated to them. This is so amazing that people who might not have enough money get the chance to follow their dreams and dance.  Dance is something for everyone, you can relive stress get exercise and create art.
See more pictures here

Fighting The Race Problem

"It's easy for someone who isn't black or other or who has never experienced racism to dismiss what I'm saying,'Why do you focus so much on that? You're a beautiful dancer.' But the reason I'm here and I have this voice is because I'm black." Misty Copled said this to the Huffington Post when expressing her feelings towards racism is the ballet community. She expresses how dark skinned dancers get turned down for parts because they don't "fit the vision" of the director and they aren't "romantic" enough. Its society fault for giving skin colors stereotypes, "When we think of ballerinas, we think of pink and pale and fluffy," Anderson, the first African-American woman to reach the rank of principal ballerina with a major American company other than the Dance Theatre of Harlem, told the New Yorker. We give African American women this stereotype of and athletic, but what a lot people don't realize is that's exactly what ballerinas are. Its time we stop putting stereotypes on women especially of color because dance is all about passion and nobody understands your passion by just looking at your skin.

Pointe Shoes

Each dancer has their own set of steps to personalize their pointe shoe to them. They breakdown the material of the show until it is the perfect mix between sturdy and flexible. some things dancers will do to brake in their shoes is taking nails out of the shank, breaking or cutting away the shank underneath the heel, cutting slits over the ball of the foot to relieve pressure on bunions and even closing the shoes in doors. Some dancers will add extra layers of shellac inside the box of the shoe so that their sweat won’t break down the glue as quickly, while others purposely wet the fabric to help it soften and conform to their feet right away. In this video about the New York city Ballet they talk about how important these changes are for their dancing and how often they need to get new ones. Point shoes are still made by hand because every single dancer needs something different done for their shoes. “Sometimes it seems like the shoes have a personality of their own,” Wehner another dancer says to CPR news as she explains the way she breaks in her shoes. This last video is about Australian dancers and how they brake in their shoes. A women talks about the fact that dancers feet are not exactly beautiful but its just like someone who works with their hands.

Hiplet

Dancers from the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center perform hiplet which is mix of ballet and hip hip while on pointe. This style of dance uses the discipline and strength you use in ballet while creating a unique form of dance we are not use to seeing. Hiplet was created by Homer Hans Bryant’s who posted a video of his dancers that went viral getting more than 8 million views. “In order to stay relevant with young people, you have to do what they’re doing now,” "Hiplet" Homer Hans Bryant said on “Good Morning America”. Bryant has taught some stars like Lady Gaga and first daughters Sasha and Malia Obamaas. Creative new out of the box choreography is what helps keep dance alive and in the spot light. Huffington post jokingly posted an article and said "this is not your mama’s ballet". Being a dancer I watch these form of dance amazed knowing how much strength it takes to do the moves they are doing and looking so amazing while doing it.

Here is a video on Hiplet.