01 Women & leadership
We see a gender gap in ballet leadership: ...in an industry dominated by women, traditionally few of the women rise to leadership roles
(Grundstrom, 2020, p. 10)
Gender in BalletA timeline
How did an art form once performed exclusively by men become synonymous with femininity — while positions of power remained disproportionately male?
This digital timeline traces changing ideas about gender, masculinity, femininity, performance and power throughout ballet's history, from its all-male beginnings in the 1500s to the challenges being made to its conventions today.
Research and writing by Anna Morgan
Begin the timeline1500s
An all-male art
(Adams, 2005, p. 8)Ballets were performed in Italy by all male dance groups
1643
Ballet, nobility & masculinity
France: King Louis XIV's reign began. He established a link between ballet and nobility. The French noble style was
(Homans, 2011, p. 20)danced exclusively by men
It was
(Homans, 2011, p. 20)unequivocally masculine, regal and weighted with gravitas
Where women were required in the plot, they were danced by men ‘en travesti’.
(Homans, 2011, p. 20)1681
The first professional women
Roles were performed by the first professional women dancers as ballet moved away from the court and towards the stage.
(Homans, 2011, p. 40)1700s
Steps without gender
Ballet steps were not gendered: women performed beats, turns and jumps, although with less force and more grace than men.
(Foster, 1998, p. 12)This reflected the commonly held understanding of the time that
(Homans, 2011, p. 26)women were thought to be biologically and physically the same as men - just a bit less developed
1700s
Introduction of the ballerina
(Homans, 2011, p. 50)Traditionally relegated to a supporting role, in the course of the eighteenth century ballerinas emerged as outspoken critics and bold innovators
1735
Ballet becomes feminine
Marie Sallé returned to the Paris Opera — one of the first women to link ballet and sex.
(Homans, 2011, p. 62)
(Homans, 2011, p. 62)The noble style had always been decidedly masculine, grave and weighted... Sallé changed all of that: in her hands, it became feminine and erotic.
Sallé and her rival, Anne de Cupis de Camargo (La Camargo), shifted the course of ballet and set it ready for the 19th century
(Homans, 2011, p. 63)when the ballerina would eventually displace the danseur at the summit of the art.
1790
Audiences prefer women
Plots needed to accommodate many more women: the Paris Opera realised the public
(Homans, 2011, p. 109)preferred to watch women rather than men onstage
“Men went from being paragons of the art to pariahs chased from the stage.”
— Homans, 2011, p. 122 1800
The male dancer changes
Following the French Revolution, the image of the male dancer changed.
(Burt, 2007, p. 9)Up until the nineteenth century in Europe, prejudices against the male dancer did not exist.
(Homans, 2011, p. 122)men went from being paragons of the art to pariahs chased from the stage.
It is worth noting this prejudice against male dancers was
(Adams, 2005, p. 8)rooted in class difference
rather than, as today, where prejudice is rooted in homophobia.1832
The rise of the ballerina
Marie Taglioni — sylph-like, feminine and able to rise on her toes — marked the beginning of what we think of as a stereotypical ballerina.
(Homans, 2011, p. 135)She is the pink-tights-and-toe-shoes ballerina of girlish dreams - and feminist nightmares
1841
The first modern ballets
La Sylphide (1832) and Giselle (1841), the first modern ballets:
(Homans, 2011, p. 171)...the ballerina was the undisputed protagonist of the art
1850
Alternative traditions
August Bournonville (Denmark) re-imagined the French ballets, with an equal expectation of men and women.
(Homans, 2011, p. 191)
(Homans, 2011, p. 191)Bournonville had little interest in the French cult of the ballerina. He thus expected a woman to perform a man's steps, if occasionally in modified form.
Meanwhile Italian ballet masters also created their own versions of Giselle and La Sylphide where
(Homans, 2011, p. 226)Italian dancers of both sexes pushed ever further into flamboyant virtuosity.
1895
The ballerina on a pedestal
(Winship, 2022)...ballet reached its zenith
in Russia with Petipa and Ivanov's versions of the famous ballets: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker.The ballerina was once again on a pedestal, with the Mariinsky dancers
(Winship, 2022)famed for their willowy physiques, the corps de ballet militaristically drilled in magical unison
1910
Ballets Russes & masculinities
Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes brought Russian ballet to revitalise European dance. Nijinsky became a ballet star — he
(Homans, 2011, p. 303)redefined male dancing and put the danseur back at the center of Ballet
Nijinsky, alongside other men in Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, represented a wide range of masculine presentations. They
(Garafola, 1999, p. 246)traced a spectrum of male roles that transcended conventions of gender while presenting the male body in a way that was frankly erotic.
1915
A woman choreographer
Ballets Russes choreographers included Bronislava Nijinska:
(Wirth, 2022, p. 128)As the only female choreographer at this renowned company, she set a revolutionary precedent.
1934
“Ballet is woman”
George Balanchine opens the School of American Ballet and later founds New York City Ballet, known as
(Homans, 2011, p. 507)unabashedly hierarchical institutions in which authority went unchallenged
(Homans, 2011, p. 513)Balanchine famously said, “Ballet is woman,” and many of his dances openly idealized the “eternal feminine. The ballerina was on a pedestal and the male dancer was cast.... as her devoted chevalier.
He was also known for his misogyny and body shaming:
(Wirth, 2022, p. 129)As much as Balanchine revered women as the stars of his ballets, his treatment of them was deeply tinged with objectification and oversexualization.
“Ballet is woman.”
— George Balanchine, quoted in Homans, 2011, p. 513 1953
“Sissy for its boys”
Dance was again seen as a feminised activity. Carolyn Parks wrote in Dance Magazine:
(Parks, 1953, p. 42)The American public has always looked at art in any form as suitable for its girls, but sissy for its boys ... most shocking of all seems to be the idea that any boy should put on a pair of tights, and thus brand himself a fop.
This stereotype still prevailed half a century later, with a study by Gard & Meyenn (2000) showing perceptions of 11–14 year old boys being that
(Gard & Meyenn, 2000)a dancing body was ‘weird’ or ‘pointless’ or just ‘gay’, something they contrasted with sport.
1960s
Superstars & speculation
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev became
(Homans, 2011, p. 434)balletic rock superstars
Their electric connection on stage thrilled audiences and caused speculation about their sexual relationship,
(Fisher, 2009, p. 3)despite the fairly common knowledge that he preferred men.
1970s
Vocabulary divided by gender
Ballet vocabulary and qualities were once again separated across the gender binary. New York Times critic Tobi Tobias said
(Tobias, 1977)men can focus on jumps – those all-important signifiers of masculinity – while women and girls can focus on ‘fluidity and finesse of line’
1974
Parody & subversion
The norms and conventions of romantic and classical ballet were being parodied by Les Ballets Trockadero:
(Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, no date)the world's foremost gender-skewering comic ballet company
1980s
The dancer-as-athlete
(Adams, 2005, p. 78)The dancer-as-athlete theme remained popular in attempts to legitimize men's dancing, drawing on popular assumptions that athletic men and effeminate men are mutually exclusive categories.
(Adams, 2005, p. 81)A number of educational videos from the 1980s try to make dance more palatable and accessible to boys... relies on comparisons with sport...
1995
A male corps de ballet
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake premieres, captivating audiences by
(Swan Lake, New Adventures, no date)replacing the female corps-de-ballet with a menacing male ensemble, which shattered convention, turning tradition on its head
It went on to become the
(Swan Lake, New Adventures, no date)longest running full-length dance classic in the West End and on Broadway.
2009
Against “making it macho”
Jennifer Fisher challenges the strategy of attracting more boys into ballet by likening it to sport, arguing it limits men's choices of how they can legitimately present masculinity.
(Fisher, 2009, p. 9)
(Fisher, 2009, p. 9)making it macho is not a strategy that will ever work... Ballet Man will always be something the Terminator isn't—light, precise, and more delicately attentive to the music and the muses than a strictly macho man could hope to be.
2017
Gender-neutral roles
Gender-neutral roles are becoming more common.
(Mainwaring, 2019)In 2017, Justin Peck, City Ballet's resident choreographer, made headlines when he included gender-neutral roles in “The Times Are Racing,” showing that male and female dancers could swap roles.
2019
Duet
Kristen McNally, Principal Character Artist with The Royal Ballet, choreographs ‘Duet’ for two women, screened on BBC Four. In the film, dancer Beatriz Stix-Brunell's voiceover explains
(Duet, 2019)Ballet is woman, in a way, but I do think it is still run primarily by men.
“Ballet is woman, in a way, but I do think it is still run primarily by men.”
— Beatriz Stix-Brunell, Duet, 2019 2020
Male love on stage
American Ballet Theatre present ‘Touché’, the first all-male pas de deux, which
(Touché, American Ballet Theatre, 2020)explores the themes of male love.
2021
Queer the Ballet
Queer the Ballet is formed, aiming
(Queer the Ballet, no date)to broaden the scope of classical ballet to authentically include lgbtq+ voices and narratives. Focusing on queer cis women, trans people of all genders, and nonbinary dancers in ballet, Queer the Ballet seeks to “queer” our ballet spaces and explore choreography often absent from ballet stages.
—After 2021
So where are we now?
“The feminization of dance has resulted in a tremendous gender imbalance among both dancers and spectators and, following from this, limited public support for the art.”
Ballet is not serving any gender group successfully. It is an industry which is simultaneously feminised and yet also patriarchal.
02 Boys & men
Whilst men in ballet are disproportionately promoted to leadership roles, boys and men are often persecuted for participating in what is perceived to be a feminised art form, resulting in a significant amount of abuse men often take for not choosing a more conventional occupation.
(Fisher, 2009, p. 1)
03 Beyond the binary
In this patriarchal structure, trans, non-binary and other gender non-conforming dancers are even further from having their needs met.
—Looking forward
And where do we go from here?
We can see from the above timeline that the way gender is constructed and perceived in relation to ballet is cyclical and ever-evolving. I believe this is a pivotal time where we can again reform the way in which we approach gender in ballet.
Acceptance and celebration of all gender expressions and sexualities has to extend beyond the ballet classes and companies themselves. Ballet cannot move past its heteronormative image until progress is made in wider society.
“When being likened to a girl or a woman is a pleasure and not a shame, it will be okay for boys to take dance class. When it is okay for men to be gay, to look gay and act gay (whatever that might mean) – in dance and elsewhere – men's dancing will have it made.”
“Therefore, a move towards a pedagogy that is gender free and empowering for all genders is required. To achieve this changes need to be focused at the teacher training level to further encourage dance educators to be empowered and reflective practitioners who challenge restricted notions of masculinity and femininity.”
—Continue exploring
The timeline doesn't end here.
This timeline formed part of Anna's MA research at Rambert School. Her work examining gender, power, leadership and culture in ballet has continued since.
- Leadership & power
- Training & pedagogy
- Gender beyond the binary
- Explore the data
- Read the full MA dissertation Coming soon
Sources & further reading
- Adams, M. L. (2005) ‘Death to the Prancing Prince’: Effeminacy, Sport Discourses and the Salvation of Men's Dancing’ Body & Society, 11(4), pp. 63-86
- Burt, R. (2007) The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities. - 2nd edn, London, Routledge
- Clegg, H., Owton, H. and Allen-Collinson, J. (2017) ‘Challenging conceptions of gender: UK dance teachers’ perceptions of boys and girls in the ballet studio’ Research in Dance Education, 19(2), pp. 128–139.
- Duet (2019) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuy5NbDX0VM [Accessed: 23 June 2024]Open
- Fisher, J. (2009) ‘Maverick Men in Ballet’ - Rethinking the “Making It Macho” Strategy’, Fisher, J. and Shay, A, (eds) When men dance: Choreographing masculinities across Borders Oxford, Oxford University Press
- Foster, S. L. (1998) ‘Choreographies of Gender Signs’ Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 24 (1), pp. 1–33
- Gard, Michael & Meyenn, Robert. (2000). ‘Boys, Bodies, Pleasure and Pain: Interrogating Contact Sports in Schools.’ Sport Education and Society - SPORT EDUC SOC. 5. 19-34.
- Garafola, L. (1999) ‘Reconfiguring the Sexes’ L. Garafola and N. Van Norman Baer (eds) The Ballet Russes and its World New Haven, CT, Yale University Press.
- Grundstrom, J. (2020) The Female Leadership Experience in Pre-Professional and Professional Ballet All NMU Master’s Theses.
- Homans, J. (2011) Apollo’s angels a history of Ballet, New York: Random House; London: Granta
- Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (no date) Available at: https://trockadero.org/ [Accessed: 23 June 2024]Open
- Mainwaring, M. (2019) The place to challenge Ballet’s gender stereotypes? in daily class, The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/arts/the-place-to-challenge-ballets-gender-stereotypes-in-daily-class.html [Accessed: 23 June 2024].Open
- Parks, C. (1953) ‘Sex: Male, Profession: Dancer?’ Dance Magazine. 27 April: 42–3.
- Queer the Ballet (no date) Available at: https://www.queertheballet.com/aboutus [Accessed: 23 June 2024]Open
- Swan Lake, New Adventures (no date) Available at: https://new-adventures.net/swan-lake#overview [Accessed: 23 June 2024]Open
- Touché, American Ballet Theatre (2020) Available at: https://www.abt.org/ballet/touche/ [Accessed: 23 June 2024]Open
- Tobias, T. (1977) ‘It’s Becoming O.K. in America for Boys to Dance’ New York Times, 9 January: 6, 27. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1977/01/09/archives/its-becoming-ok-in-america-for-boys-to-dance-ok-for-boys-to-dance.html [Accessed 20th June 2024]Open
- Winship, L. (2022). Dancers and dissidents: How ballet became a political football between East and West, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/mar/17/dancers-and-dissidents-how-ballet-became-a-political-football-between-east-and-west [Accessed: 23 June 2024].Open
- Wirth, Lydia Mariya. (2022) ‘Cultural, Political, and Choreographic Developments of Feminism in Classical Ballet,’ Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 8, Article 9.