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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHe Wants to Be a Ballerina. He Has Taken the First Steps.
For the first time in modern ballet history, a male dancer is performing as part of the female ensemble at an international ballet company, signaling an important moment in an art form that often celebrates a particular ideal of femininity. Or, as the great choreographer George Balanchine said, ballet is woman.But in a world with a heightened awareness of gender fluidity, and with transgender people increasingly accepted in a variety of professions, including acting and modeling, ballet is taking its own brave leap.
I want to be seen as a ballerina, said Mr. Johnsey, an American, who identifies as gender fluid but uses male pronouns. My hair is up, I wear makeup, female attire. I am able to do female roles and look the part, so that is artistically what I do.
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Mr. Johnsey is not appearing on point in Sleeping Beauty, but in what are known as character, or soft-shoe, dances, with costumes less revealing than those for point-work roles. His path even to these appearances has been arduous. Since beginning work at English National Ballet, he has lost 20 pounds, with the help of a nutritionist, and worked with both a physical trainer and a company ballet mistress, Loipa Araújo, to retrain and reshape his body.
I am a small, petite guy, but I am a man, Mr. Johnsey, who is 5 feet 5, said. My shoulders are wider, my calves are bigger, the textures of my muscles are different. He added, I had to cannibalize my body, make it run on energy from muscles and figure out how to lose muscle mass without losing strength.
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Mr. Johnsey, center, in a scene from the English National Ballets The Sleeping Beauty.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/arts/dance/the-first-man-dancing-in-a-female-corps-de-ballet.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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He Wants to Be a Ballerina. He Has Taken the First Steps. (Original Post)
Demovictory9
Jun 2018
OP
lunatica
(53,410 posts)1. Kicking down doors and shattering glass ceilings!!
And taking no prisoners!
Whats not to love?! ❤️❣️👍
Initech
(100,108 posts)3. Yes! More of this please!
monmouth4
(9,711 posts)6. And, a beautiful face..n/t
PJMcK
(22,056 posts)4. Not sure about this
Could this be considered a situation where a man is going to take a job away from a woman?
joshcryer
(62,277 posts)5. I think he's a rare once a generation thing, look at his performance:
I don't see this becoming a "thing" where men rush to become leading ballerinas. It's not easy to pull this stuff off with such elegance especially for a man.
chowder66
(9,087 posts)7. Wonderful performance! Wow.
And are the tights on the partner made of liquid?