Nearly every ballet studio dress code in the world includes the following line: "girls must wear pink tights and pink shoes..."
sometimes they let you wear white canvas! That's exciting.
Can we talk about this for a minute? I think now is a good time.
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Oh, you guys know how much I love breaking traditions in ballet.
The idea was to extend the lines and make their limbs look longer and more elegant.
Flash-forward to the 20-21 centuries when dancers of all ethnicities and skin tones are now participating in ballet. All over the world, dancers are lined up in pink tights and pink shoes.
Meanwhile, if you look at the top half of their bodies, we see all kinds of colors.
It's really quite odd.
I know this picture is horrible, but I feel it makes a good point.
Arthur Mitchel of Dance Theatre of Harlem made the change quite a while ago when he asked all dancers to wear colored tights.
I watched this presentation by Homor Hans Bryant while putting together my TED Talk for Dance playlist. It struck me and has stuck with me - why do we make brown dancers wear pink tights? As a ballet teacher and dancer, we are so used to seeing it that we don't even notice how strange it looks. He shows this picture to illustrate the idea of how uncomfortable it would make us feel if we switched it.
^seriously, if you watch nothing else, watch this TED Talk.
So while we are all posting various hashtags and posts on our social media, and signing petitions for dancewear companies to make flesh-colored shoes and tights and skirts and leotards... What good is that if the studios don't allow it?
"For once in my life, I felt like myself." That's what Michaela DePrince said when she looked in the mirror and saw that her arms matched her legs. Why should you be brown up top and pink at the bottom?
Guys, our dance studios are the safe places. We are the places where children learn not to be bigots. (reminder - in sociological terms, people are bigots, and policies/laws are racist). We are the places where they learn that their Black friends and Asian friends and Indian friends and Hispanic friends are just as valuable as they are. We are the places where they learn how the world works, how to value others, how to respect others. We need to be the ones to make the changes.
Dancewear companies will make whatever we want to buy. Remember how fast they started making masks when Covid-19 hit? It took them like, one week.
If even 1/3 of dance schools around the world suddenly said, "You need skin-toned tights and shoes" guess what... every dancewear company in the world would rush to accommodate. They want to sell you stuff, remember?
"These two little black girls came in the next day and started ballet because of me, because they'd never seen someone who looked like them before [do ballet]."
If you're white (like me) you've never experienced this. Imagine just for a minute that you saw someone of your skin color do something that you had never seen before. Representation changes lives.
So don't post online and sign petitions. Make the change yourself.
And I fully understand that changing our dance studio dress code to allow for colored tights and shoes is not going to end racism. But it will end your racist policy. And it will make those of color feel more appreciated and respected. And that matters. Because it starts something.
The good news is, there are already quite a few companies making this change. But they can't sustain it if we don't allow it.
The Challenge
I challenge every dance studio owner and teacher to challenge racist dress code policies (even unintentional, passive racism can hurt).
Tell their dancers, regardless of their ethnicity, "You may wear tights and shoes that match your skin." explain this is to lengthen the lines and create unity onstage. Offer to help color the tights and shoes if necessary.
If they are pink, they wear pink.
If they are tan, they wear tan.
If they are coffee, they wear coffee.
Try it and see what happens to the vibe in the room. Go ahead. Try it.
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