Ballez
Ballez | |
---|---|
General information | |
Name | Ballez |
Year founded | 2011 |
Principal venue | Brooklyn Arts Exchange Brooklyn,New York City New York,U.S. |
Website | Ballez |
Artistic staff | |
Artistic Director | Katy Pyle |
Ballezis an American ballet company based in New York City. The company re-stages classical works and produces original ballets to emphasizeLGBTQrepresentation in ballet.
History
[edit]Ballez was founded in 2011 byKaty Pyle,a lesbian and genderqueer dancer, with a focus on creating possibilities, representation, and inclusion for queer dancers within the patriarchal structure of ballet.[1][2][3]The creation of Ballez was funded by a grant from theBrooklyn Arts Exchangeand was originally an outreach program to provide ballet classes to LGBTQ people that felt disenfranchised in traditional classical dance settings.[4][5]The company aims to portray and include lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer people in ballet through their performances, public engagement programs, and classes that are open to the public.[6]
Original takes on classical and story ballets that the company has performed includeThe Firebird, a Ballez,featuring a lesbian princess and a transgender prince, at Dancespace Project in 2013,Variations on Virtuosity, a Gala with the Stars of the Ballezat American Realness at Abrons Arts Center in 2015, andSleeping Beauty & the Beast,based on historic events in queer history from the1982 garment workers' striketo theAIDSepidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, at La Mama in 2016.[7][8][9][10][11]Other original works by the company includeSlavic Goddess,which was a collaboration withPaulina Olowskain 2017, and a pas de deux for Kyong H. Park'sPILLOWTALKin 2018.[6]In June 2020 the company is scheduled to performGiselle of Loneliness,a modern take on the classical balletGisellewhere the title character is a gender non-conforming lesbian.[12][13]
Ballez hosts open adult ballet classes at theBrooklyn Arts Exchange[6][14]The company offers freeYouTubevideos of ballet class for people who are not able to take class in New York.[12]
References
[edit]- ^"Mission".ballez.org.
- ^"Katy Pyle, Ballez, and the Virtuosity of the Queer Body".Culturebot.15 September 2015.
- ^Kourlas, Gia (20 April 2016)."Katy Pyle and Her 'Misfits of Ballet'".The New York Times.
- ^Kravitz, Melissa (29 June 2018)."Inside the Movement to Make Ballet a More LGBTQ-Inclusive Space".Cosmopolitan.
- ^Stake, Kristen (May 2018)."Lez Dance — Ballez Artistic Director Katy Pyle on queering ballet vocabulary in Maine".The Portland Phoenix.
- ^abc"Company".
- ^"Katy Pyle Makes Ballez: Re-imagining" The Firebird "".dance-enthusiast.
- ^Spurbeck, Elizabeth (18 August 2017)."Ballez Blazes New Path for the Diverse Future of Ballet".The Official Publication of the World of Dance Community.
- ^"THE FIREBIRD, a Ballez - Katy Pyle".cargocollective.
- ^"The Ballez - American Realness".
- ^"Ballez -" Sleeping Beauty & the Beast "".14 March 2016.
- ^ab"This Queer Ballet Company Is Putting Their Classes Online For Everyone".them.22 April 2019.
- ^"Katy Pyle Is Queering Up the Ballet Canon with Her Ballez".Dance Magazine.21 March 2018.
- ^lsheridan (17 March 2017)."Dance = Freedom: Ballez with Katy Pyle".BRIC.
Further reading
[edit]- Angyal, Chloe,Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself.