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 |
Ballez is an American ballet company based in New York City. The company re-stages classical works and produces original ballets to emphasize LGBTQ representation in ballet.
History[edit]
Ballez was founded in 2011 by Katy 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 the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and 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 include The 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 Ballez at American Realness at Abrons Arts Center in 2015, and Sleeping Beauty & the Beast, based on historic events in queer history from the 1982 garment workers' strike to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, at La Mama in 2016.[7][8][9][10][11] Other original works by the company include Slavic Goddess, which was a collaboration with Paulina Olowska in 2017, and a pas de deux for Kyong H. Park's PILLOWTALK in 2018.[6] In June 2020 the company is scheduled to perform Giselle of Loneliness, a modern take on the classical ballet Giselle where the title character is a gender non-conforming lesbian.[12][13]
Ballez hosts open adult ballet classes at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange[6][14] The company offers free YouTube videos of ballet class for people who are not able to take class in New York.[12]
References[edit]
- ^ "Mission". www.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'" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ Kravitz, Melissa (29 June 2018). "Inside the Movement to Make Ballet a More LGBTQ-Inclusive Space". Cosmopolitan.
- ^ Stake, Kristen. "Lez Dance — Ballez Artistic Director Katy Pyle on queering ballet vocabulary in Maine". The Portland Phoenix.
- ^ a b c "Company".
- ^ "Katy Pyle Makes Ballez: Re-imagining "The Firebird"". www.dance-enthusiast.com.
- ^ 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.com.
- ^ "The Ballez - American Realness".
- ^ "Ballez - "Sleeping Beauty & the Beast"". 14 March 2016.
- ^ a b "This Queer Ballet Company Is Putting Their Classes Online For Everyone". them.
- ^ "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.