For centuries ballet and opera fans have gathered in theatres to enjoy the dazzling sights and sounds of the performing arts. All that time, the arts community has adhered to the belief that theatre should only be seen live and in person. While other live entertainment like sports moved into the homes and gathering places of everyday people, via TV and later mobile devices, the arts remained mostly confined to theatres.

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet

But after many years of holding onto tradition, the performing arts are going digital.

There are good reasons for their hesitation—but there are also drawbacks. In some ways, a piece of art that only exists for a moment in time for its viewers creates a special bond between the performers and the audience that risks being lost when mediated through a television screen.

But what of the others? Not every city has a Bolshoi Ballet or Metropolitan Opera. Why should individuals who cannot afford a ticket or who live outside major metropolitan areas be excluded from experiencing great works of modern and historic art? Access has long been a topic of conversation in arts communities. The pandemic poured fire on the debate as the globe went into lockdown and everyone, no matter how privileged, lost access to live performances.

An online artistic experience will never measure up to a live experience. This is as true of sports as it is of ballet or opera. Stadiums remain packed despite the availability of high-quality televised options. And yet, it is strange that we can watch our favorite sports teams, but (until recently) we have been unable to watch our favorite dancers in Paris or New York without getting on a plane, booking a hotel, and paying a sizable amount of money for a ticket. Let’s look to the sports industry as an example: devoted fans will always fill theaters, but digital or televised viewing options can bring much-needed access to many global communities.

The Obstacles

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet

The performing arts community faces three major obstacles when it comes to offering high-quality digital or televised content.

First, television has not afforded the arts the opportunity to broadcast their content in a way that allowed artistic directors to curate their content without having large budgets. But with the rise of mobile technology and social media, this obstacle has diminished. Arts organizations and arts alliances can build their own platform to showcase their work to global audiences, bring in new fans, talent, and investment possibilities, and retain artistic freedom.

Another issue is copyright infringement. Unlike a sports match, a ballet or an opera is a work of art—intellectual property—that requires legal protection. In the end I don't believe this should be a barrier, for two reasons. One is that a small amount of copying gives the real version of a piece of art more value. It's a bit like high-end handbags. Plenty of people buy knockoff Louis Vuitton’s, but what people really love buying is the real thing. In the case of handbags, knockoffs support brand recognition and encourage consumers to purchase the authentic version. When arts companies advertise their work as original, then the work acquires the same original value like a Louis Vuitton handbag. Second, with so much content online these days and the flurry of conversation that takes place around content, the internet community has become adept at self-governing when it comes to ripping content. Stolen work will be flagged.

Finally, there is the question of revenue. With dwindling government support in Europe and the difficulties of fundraising in places like the US remain a big issue, how can arts organizations successfully use digital content to support their organizations’ bottom line? On the other hand, we can flip the question around. How can arts organizations ignore a potential opportunity to garner new revenue and to expand their fan bases through digital experiences?

It’s also worth considering the kinds of content arts companies will be producing from this point forward. Productions made specifically for film have rapidly increased and look to continue into the future, giving arts lovers a whole new side of their favorite art that is entirely digital. No longer will arts companies be only thinking of the stage. These new works will be filmed in the streets and in sound stages and undoubtedly be a catalyst for change as the classical arts find new life online.

The question, then, is how can the arts best make a sustainable income from the digital world?

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the arts to lose almost all ability to connect with audiences, the debate of whether or not to go digital abruptly ended. Arts organizations were forced to look beyond clips on social media and the occasional DVD sale. But with vaccination rates on the rise, many directors still believe that streaming performances are only valuable if they lead people to opera houses.

This is short-term and exclusionary thinking. There is a host of promising new technologies that can engage fans on a new level and bring in new sources of income. One place to look? Web monetization.

What Is Web Monetization?

When it comes to monetizing content on the web, the options for most content creators and consumers are limited and complicated. How many online subscriptions can you justify adding to a growing collection? Should creators offer content for free and try to support their work with advertising revenue? What about viewers who dislike distracting ads that slow page loading times and undermine privacy? Should content creators spend precious time developing donation strategies that often lead to less than optimal results?

Instead of this complex reality, new web monetization strategies can help us envision a better system. Imagine paying for what you consume on the web like you do in a restaurant. Would consumers have a happier web experience if they could explore freely or simply push a button to pay for what they consume without having to register, add payment info, and face a host of other complexities that get in the way of the viewer and their content? This is the goal of web monetization.

Although it is still in an early stage of development, web monetization is a promising solution that aims to fix many of the problems that plague the internet today by allowing a more seamless and direct way of supporting the creation of digital content with privacy as a key element.

So how does it currently work?

The Dutch National Opera & Ballet

Web monetization consists of two primary pieces of technology.

The first is a simple web protocol called the Interledger Protocol (ILP) that allows for money to be sent over the internet in a trustless way, which allows two parties to conduct a transaction without needing to first establish trust. The ILP is open-source and able to transfer between any currency, an important advantage since there is currently no native way of directly sending money over the internet.

The second piece of technology is the proposed web monetization Application Programming Interface (API) standard. The API standard enables tiny payments called micropayments that would otherwise exceed transaction costs.

To enable web monetization, users sign up with a provider that in turn provides a payment pointer, which directs the payment to the appropriate receiver, paying the site on the user’s behalf as they surf. Right now there is only one provider: Coil. Coil charges $5 a month, giving users the ability to surf a large variety of sites (and growing), including premium content and special features. To receive payment, publishers simply need a digital wallet capable of receiving payments via ILP.

Coil doesn’t replace subscription services or advertisements. What it does do, however, is unlock the siloed site-by-site subscription model and reduce the complexities of content consumption. While producers can still offer their own subscriptions for all or some of their content, Coil gives consumers the option to visit a site and pay for just one piece of content. Also sites can offer special features like turning ads off for a small fee. As providers expand, more and more content will become available for consumers as different monetization strategies develop.

Many of you who follow Ballet Rising will have noticed that our videos are being hosted on Cinnamon.Video. This is a video hosting site, like YouTube, that is monetized using Coil. Likewise, Coil subscribers also get instant access to our premium content.

For more detailed information on Interledger, the web monetization API and the potential future of web monetization see Three futures: Exploring the future of web monetization.

Despertares Ballet Gala, Mexico

How Can the Arts Benefit?

The implications for easing the process for consumers to view the performing arts online are obvious and will undoubtedly lead to greater demand. But will arts companies begin to stream every performance? Probably not—and this is why web monetization is a great option for the performing arts. Individual companies and artists will retain freedom to determine what they put online and how they do it. Some companies may stream a live performance for a limited number of people. Others may show only pre-recorded events. A company could stream a gala for one category of attendees who pay at a higher price but then make the same performance available at a lower rate later in the season.

Rather than fearing the growth of digital content, artistic leaders should use this expansion as an opportunity to get creative about showcasing their work in ways that encourage people to come into performing spaces. Similarly, these technologies should be viewed as democratic options that allow artistic leadership to retain control of their content and individual artists to monetize their work even before they overcome the major hurdles to getting their arts on large, closed platforms. The best part is that these strategies can be utilized by anyone: from dancers to filmmakers to photographers, designers, and others. Everyone stands to benefit.

Artists are more eager than ever to connect with potential fans in every corner of the planet, and web monetization can make these aspirations a reality in a way that is sustainable for the artists themselves. This new shift to digital has launched the arts into a new area that will expose and connect millions of fans and future fans like never before. The future for the arts looks bright!

The Grant For The Web

To learn more about web monetization and join in the movement to help create a more fair, open, and equitable internet for all creators, visit www.GrantForTheWeb.org. The Grant For The Web is a $100 million fund that aims to help creators and developers realise this bold new vision for a better internet for all. Ballet Rising was a 2020-2021 grant recipient.

You can also watch this interview with Casey Herd, Greg Hannam, and Briana Stuart, where they discuss web monetization, the Grant For The Web, and the performing arts.

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=512200494752465959

In my last post I highlighted the growing need for artists and arts organisations to monetise performances and events in order supplement revenue from tickets and to help in extreme situations like a global quarantine. This time Id like to talk about streaming classes for students.

Now Is When We Need Web Monetisation

The past few months I have been teaching ballet and fitness classes at a small studio called Zhembrovskyy in my home city, Amsterdam. Its a wonderful studio that a former colleague on mine from the Dutch National Ballet started a few years ago. He has a growing number of dedicated people coming to take dance and fitness classes and due to the success of the studio he opened a second location this past week. Unfortunately COVID-19 has struck and not only have theatres around the world closed but the schools where the fans go to take class and where the professionals go to train have closed as well. There is a growing number of organisation, from the worlds largest theatres to small local schools, that are now feeling the financial pinch.

I am a freelance teacher. I get paid by the hour and if I am not teaching I am not paying my rent or buying food. While I was thinking of ways to help theatres stay afloat I have also been considering how my employer might do so as well.

A year ago a friend told me about a website where you could connect with people looking for online classes to have a one-on-one lesson, or group lessons via split screen, in whatever you want. She had been teaching classes on that site but unfortunately it seems to have gone under. I think this could be the solution for the extreme circumstances we find our selves in at the moment or in the future when people really get attached to a specific teacher but they are now living in another city. Imagine being able to go to a website and look up teachers anywhere in the world similar to how you order an Uber. You check the reviews and decide if thats the teacher for you. Likewise the teacher can look at the student and decide if they want to teach that class. The price would be set, the payment is made and a two way live stream goes live. Its clearly not ideal to be doing ballet in your kitchen or living room but its better than nothing and it just might help people fight the cabin fever and keep small business alive.

I would love to discuss with anyone how who might want to help me build a dance and fitness class network around something like XRPL and ILP for payments and bring one more use case for web monetisation into the performing arts world.

Thank you all again and looking forward to your ideas and comments!

balletrising@gmail.com

Casey Herd

Across the planet borders are being shut, crowds are being dispersed, performances are being cancelled, and workers cannot work. For the performing arts this is devastating. With budgets often running thin in good economic times, an unexpected row of performance cancelations, due to circumstances like COVID-19, can put many jobs at risk and leave communities broken.

The loss of revenue from tickets being refunded and gift shops closed, with no way of knowing when they will be open again, will undoubtedly bring back painful reminders of economic downturns from the past.

While we have to turn to proven methods of survival, we can also start thinking of the future. As the Internet of Value begins to form, we have an opportunity to look at how we might capitalise on this innovation to help us get through the tough times. It might also help us finally capture the full amount of value we produce when the flow of goods and services are at their peak.

Large opera houses can seat a couple thousand people on average and while tickets can range from twenty bucks to hundreds, this isn’t nearly enough to sustain a large cast of performers and the support staff behind the scenes. In Europe the shortfall comes primarily from the government and in the US almost entirely from private donations. Still tickets make up a sizeable portion of the annual budget; sizeable enough to sink the company if they aren’t sold. During the 2008 economic crisis many people couldn’t afford to attend the theatres as much and governments, like always, cut funding to the arts. American donors stopped donating as much and many people’s careers and lives were devastated. Since 2008 unfortunately, many governments never increased funding back up to previous levels, leaving many arts organisation still surviving on the edge.

What if people could watch performances on their mobil phones? What if someone halfway around the world who wanted to watch a performance of their favourite ballet company performing a piece by one of their favourite choreographers on their laptop? Historically performing arts companies have been apposed to televising or streaming performances as they believe live theatre should only be seen in person.

I think we can all agree that live theatre is not just optimal but sacred.

Does this mean we cant watch it from faraway. Why not? Why cant a ballet fan in Africa watch their favourite dancer’s premier at the Paris Opera? Why can’t ballet and opera fans watch companies around the world the same way football fans watch their favourite teams, religiously, on their TV or mobil device? We must maintain our identity as live performers but we can also reach out to much bigger audiences and bridge the divide between the people who can enjoy the arts and the billions of people who might never be able to travel to cities like London, or Moscow, NYC. I always like to ask sports fans if being able to watch the game on TV stops people from going to the stadium? Clearly not! Sports teams not only make a lot of money from the broadcasting rights, they're also are much more attractive to sponsors because their reach is far and wide and fans still pack the stadiums. I'm a big sports fan. I have also been a ballet dancer my entire life. Sports and the performing arts have many similarities and one very clear one is that seeing them live will never compare to watching it on TV. But if you really want to watch FC Barcelona, you can! If you really want to watch the Dutch National Ballet, get a ticket, book a hotel, get on a plane and good luck!

Live streaming performances can, and on very limited occasions, has been done. Also DVDs and VHS tapes have been out there for decades. Why can’t the artists them selves keep the lion’s share of the value they are creating through the Interledger Protocol? There are a number of hurdles to overcome in implementing this. Theatres, production crews, orchestras, set designers, composers, choreographers and more need to give approval. Paying all of the entities involved will be a great use case for smart contacts and digital assets as many of the people come from a wide range of countries.

Live streaming and streaming curated selections of old performances can bring in revenue, brand recognition, and fan engagement during good time. In rare situations like COVID-19, it can give companies the option to stream the performance from a closed opera house or just allow the artists to monetise more material from the decades of performances they have recorded in their archives. I believe many of these companies are sitting on a real meaningful income if they are able to capitalise on the wealth they are sitting on buried deep on hard drives in the vaults of history.

This might be a good time to really start developing solutions for the performing arts through the Internet of Value.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thank you!

Casey Herd

Cover image by Angela Sterling

While choreographers and dancers would be quick to remind us that ballet was still a live art form in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it is safe to say that during those years ballet had lost much of the mass popularity that it enjoyed from the 1960s through the 1980s, when individuals like Mikhail Baryshnikov were household names. Lingering lack of direction after George Balanchine’s death in the early 1980s, coupled with major loss of funding, were problems from which some observers believed ballet would never recover. The art form was increasingly seen by would-be audience members as out of touch.

That is why the past five to seven years may have come as a surprise to audiences and professionals alike. Ballet, despite the period of uncertainty, is experiencing a renaissance that launched it out of the bleak period and toward a rebirth of choreographic energy, explosive diversification, and widespread popularity.

Evidence of this renaissance abounds.

Ballet Rising director Casey Herd speaking with schoolchildren in New Delhi, India about life as a ballet dancer

Audience members no longer have to visit major metropolitan hubs to view great ballet. The internet, experimental videography, streaming services, and social media have brought ballet directly into homes around the world, and ballet professionals, filmmakers, and community engagement managers are developing new ways to experience ballet. Filmmakers have been especially hard at work. The 2000 smash hit “Billy Elliot,” a rags-to-riches fictional drama about a young boy, born to a British miner during the 1984-1985 Coal Miners’ Strike, who eventually becomes a ballet star, launched a wave of ballet-related movies and documentaries. Ralph Fiennes recently directed and starred in “The White Crow,” a 2019 biopic about Rudolf Nureyev, that featured a host of ballet dancers as the principal cast, and Cuban ballet legend Carlos Acosta was the subject of acclaimed biopic “Yuli,” also released this year. Meanwhile, several recent Hollywood blockbusters, including “Red Sparrow” and “John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,” boasted ballet segments choreographed and performed by leaders of the ballet world. The ballet content in “John Wick” was so popular that Keanu Reeves is now planning to produce a spinoff called “Ballerina.” A film version of “Cats,” starring Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, and Taylor Swift, in collaboration with Royal Ballet dancer Francesca Hayward, is slated for release this Christmas. The Royal Ballet now hosts a “Live Cinema Season,” during which they broadcast live performances in movie houses around the world – and invite viewers to discuss the broadcast on social media in real time.

A range of documentaries, covering stories like Wendy Whelan’s retirement from New York City Ballet in “Restless Creature,” Justin Peck’s early choreographic endeavors in “Ballet 422,” Tiler Peck’s work as a curator in “BalletNOW,” and the history of the famed all-male company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in the documentary “Rebels on Pointe,” have received widespread acclaim. Along with Feature-length films there are several new dance series in the works, such as “Tiny Pretty Things,” an upcoming series based on the book by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton about elite ballet training, that will be released by Netflix next year. This comes on the heels of “Flesh and Bone,” a harrowing ballet-themed series released by Starz in 2015. A number of major companies have also jumped on the ballet bandwagon, joining forces with filmmakers and ballet dancers, to advertise products as in Apple’s recent short video promoting the iPhone 11 Pro Max. At the same time, choreographers are working with filmmakers to showcase their work in different ways. LA Dance Project delivers unusual film projects that feature ballet in urban and rural settings. Choreographer Justin Peck and filmmaker Ezra Hurwitz have joined forces to produce music videos with dance sequences. Dance companies even regularly release trailers for their upcoming premieres.

It isn’t just ballet on screen that’s exploding. Although ballet choreographers and dancers have long collaborated with artists in other dance forms, we’re seeing a new generation of choreographic innovation and cross-pollination between dance styles. In a recent, striking example, postmodern choreographer Pam Tanowitz – who believed she would never be invited to choreograph on New York City Ballet – produced what would become a highly acclaimed work entitled Bartók Ballet for the company in May 2019. In September 2018 Kyle Abraham, an eclectic choreographer who draws from multiple genres, brought music by Kanye West and Jay-Z to the NYCB stage in “The Runaway.” Another example of new crossbreeding is Akram Khan’s work for the English National Ballet. A contemporary dance and kathak choreographer by training, Khan developed a version of Giselle for ENB that blended classical ballet and kathak, to widespread applause. Meanwhile ballet is making a comeback in a big way on Broadway, a trend jumpstarted by Christopher Wheeldon’s stage version of “An American in Paris” that opened in London in 2015.

Ballet dancers are breaking the fourth wall and using tools like social media to explore new dance terrain and connect with the audience members. Their efforts have multiplied the number of ballet fans exponentially. Royal Ballet principal Steven McRae, for example, has racked up tens of thousands of followers with the inspiring ballet-oriented workout clips and stills he posts on Instagram, and Royal Ballet of Flanders soloist Shelby Williams, otherwise known as “Biscuit Ballerina,” uses her humorous account to show clips of badly performed ballet to bring levity to a sometimes high-stress profession. A number of high-profile celebrities in other fields have also become outspoken ballet fans and promote the art form through their social media content. Jennifer Garner, who puts out a weekly “Tutu Tuesday” Instagram post, is a prominent example.

Merritt Moore is a professional ballerina who has danced at an international level with a number of the world’s top companies. She is also a quantum physicist who graduated with cum laude honors in physics from Harvard University and with a PhD in Atomic and Laser Physics from the University of Oxford. Photo by: Skjalg Bøhmer Vold

As ballet on social media gains speed, ballet dancers are developing new projects that promote ballet and raise awareness of ballet as an art form to a younger generation in entertaining new ways. Royal New Zealand Ballet company member Madeleine Graham teamed up with choreographer Corey Baker to perform the first-ever ballet on Antarctica – a project that resulted in a stunning film designed to bring attention to global warming and climate change. Merritt Moore, a professional ballet dancer who doubles as a quantum physicist when she’s not dancing, hopes to dance in space one day. American Ballet Theatre principal Misty Copeland serves as an ambassador for MindLeaps, a non-profit organization that uses dance to inspire at-risk children in Africa. Copeland’s co-company member Stella Abrera has organized a number of charitable and non-profit endeavors in the Philippines.

The ballet world has been wrestling with its inner demons, as well. New York City Ballet experienced a multi-part #metoo moment that resulted in Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins’ resignation and the termination of three male principal dancers. (NYCB was ordered to reinstate two of them after arbitration). Paris Opéra Ballet has also been rocked by complaints of bullying and sexual harassment, communicated through an internal poll that was leaked to the public, and the English National Ballet has come under fire from dancers who claimed that company leadership fostered a hostile workplace environment. Tensions at the Bolshoi Ballet imploded in 2013 when Artistic Director Sergei Filin was attacked with battery acid – a horrific event that was ordered by a disgruntled Bolshoi dancer who later confessed.

Artistic directors are finally recognizing what many individuals have been pointing out for years: young women are rarely encouraged to exercise their choreographic muscle, and the few female choreographers who do balletic pieces are often excluded from annual programming. Not only are more women creating their own companies, but some are finally being commissioned to create work for existing companies. American Ballet Theatre’s Gemma Bond, NYCB’s Lauren Lovette, and Australian Ballet’s Alice Topp have made major waves with their choreography in recent years (though evidence suggests that there is still a wide discrepancy between the number of works by male choreographers and the number of works by female choreographers performed on stage each season). Women are also accepting leadership roles in major companies. Wendy Whelan’s recent appointment as associate artistic director of NYCB and Julie Kent’s appointment as artistic director of Washington Ballet are two recent examples. In 2017 NYCB Tiler Peck also became the first woman to curate the Los Angeles Music Center BalletNOW program, an achievement that was documented in a feature film the following year after movie star and producer Elizabeth Moss decided to pick up the story.

Michaela DePrince and Brooklyn Mack at Despertares Ballet Gala in Guadalajara, Mexico 2016

Ballet dancers, directors, and administrators are also slowly addressing the racism that has long been a part of the art form, as well. ABT’s decision to promote Misty Copeland to the rank of principal was a watershed event, and Copeland’s work has since been outspoken about the problem of race in ballet. She has, in some ways single-handedly, brought ballet to a broader audience and forced ballet leaders around the world to take a hard look at their hiring practices. Dutch National Ballet soloist Michaela DePrince has made similar strides. A new generation of black dancers, including Calvin Royal III, Brooklyn Mack, Precious Adams, Francesca Hayward, Preston Chamblee, and a number of young corps de ballet members are reshaping the image of ballet. Organizations like MoBBallet are documenting the contributions of people of color to the art form, and, shortly after the death of pioneering black ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell, Dance Dance Theatre of Harlem, The International Association of Blacks in Dance and Dance/USA announced the launch of The Equity Project: Increasing the Presence of Blacks in Ballet. Likewise, dancewear companies are finally beginning to produce clothing and shoes for different skin tones.

Although exposing a history of racism, sexism, and other problems in the ballet world reveals painful truths about the art form, the fact that community members are becoming more and more willing to confront these problems indicates that change is on the horizon. As more people of color are represented on stage and female choreographers create work that resonates in new ways with audience members, fans and professionals have become more enthusiastic about the art form. Ballet has become more relevant to ongoing conversations about gender, sexuality, race, and equity in the workplace, and ballet’s popularity, among young people especially, has risen.

**

The major lingering question, in light of this recent upsurge in the mass popularity of ballet, is what it means for the future of the art form. Curiously, despite the renaissance that ballet is experiencing, ballet companies are losing funding. It’s becoming more difficult to maintain companies and to put on major works. Many companies are still unable to offer their dancers full-time employment and benefits like health insurance.

As choreographers, dancers, and directors push the boundaries of the art form, It is imperative that we also begin to push the boundaries of traditional funding and traditional publicity. At Ballet Rising we’re hoping to do both. It’s crucial that we continue to build a global ballet community that self-supportive, collaborative, and open to innovation. Although some critics have lamented some of the recent changes in the ballet world, the majority of audience members and professionals have welcomed these changes wholeheartedly. The momentum that pulled ballet out of a bleak period in the late 1990s was fueled by efforts to rethink tradition, to cross borders, and to encourage new habits. Ballet Rising is part of the effort to reimagine ballet for the 21st century.

by Lindsay Alissa King

https://balletrising.com

A former principal dancer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle and the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, Casey Herd fell in love with travel during his years on the road as a ballet dancer. Following his retirement from the stage in 2016, he embarked on a new project that combines his love for ballet with his love for learning about the world. Here he describes the inspiration behind Ballet Rising.

When I retired from the ballet stage in 2016, I found myself at a major turning point. Until then, most of my life had been dedicated to my work as a dancer, but during those years I had also nurtured other interests. Chief among these interests was travel. Years of traveling around the world for dance had given me the opportunity to see places and experience other cultures that fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more. Even though I had retired as a performer, I knew I wasn’t finished traveling.

At the same time, I wanted to maintain a foothold in the ballet world. Although I enjoy teaching and choreographing, I knew that these weren’t the right career paths for me. Even though I eventually want to direct a company, right now I want to be out in the world, exploring life beyond the stages where I have already performed. As I was exploring a post-ballet career, I felt like it was important for me to step outside my comfort zone to learn what life outside the theater could teach me.

In the months after I retired, I began to brainstorm ways to incorporate my love of travel with my desire to stay connected to the ballet world. In the meantime, I started hearing inspiring stories of ballet initiatives in places where you might not expect ballet to have taken root. I learned about ballet schools in India, Cambodia, Brazil, Iran, and elsewhere, and that got me thinking: why not travel to these ballet communities and discover their stories? It was then that Ballet Rising was born.

As I began organizing Ballet Rising, I realized that there is a major demand for individuals with my skillset among small ballet communities in many places. I found that ballet teachers and students in the places I started visiting didn’t need me to tell them what ballet is. What I could do for them was help them get plugged into the global ballet network where I was already well connected. My friend and former colleague at the Dutch National Ballet, Chris Weisler, now an accomplished photographer/filmmaker, suggested we record their stories on film and on other media on our website. We hoped to bring attention to their work, sharing it with colleagues, companies, and potential patrons back home. More than anything, these ballet communities need recognition for the great work they are already doing, and that is something I could help bring them.

I also discovered that I could identify with many of the individuals I met on my travels. I grew up in Salt Lake City, the third of four children, in the 1980s. My mom was a single mom, and we relied on government assistance to make ends meet. In many ways I was more disconnected then than the communities I visit are now. Print magazines were the only source of information I had about dance, and my family couldn’t afford to travel to cities like New York, Paris, or London where ballet culture was much bigger than it is in Salt Lake City. Sometimes I felt so far away from art and culture that I felt as though I might as well have been on Mars. Luckily, Ballet West, Salt Lake City’s local company, provided a good standard, and I feel so fortunate to have grown up in a safe and supportive city that was home to a good ballet company, with talented dancers and ample funding. In many respects, the individuals I visit on my travels have access to much more information than I did as a kid: casting, programming, news, and any piece of ballet knowledge they can Google. The difficulty is not so much information but getting their name out there. That’s where I hope that Ballet Rising can provide support.

My goal for Ballet Rising is to build a global ballet community that is inclusive, that incorporates the efforts of everyone. I want to show communities that are hard to reach that the current leaders of the ballet world care about their work, and I want to break down old-fashioned perceptions of ballet as exclusive or elitist. I want to help build a culture of artists who speak from a perspective of unity and mutual respect about the importance of art and freedom of expression. As I travel the world, I become more and more aware of forces that try to divide us, and I believe that it is crucial for artists to join together to push back, to emphasize the unifying value of dance. Ballet Rising is a way that I can help amplify the voices of people who want to be heard and to support the work of people who, like me, want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

Ballet Rising

WHY DANCE?

At Ballet Rising, we show how ballet can play a role in inspiring dancers and enriching dance communities around the world, but we believe that all forms of dance have important benefits for individuals and communities everywhere.

Here are 10 skills that dance can teach everyone:

HEALTH BENEFITS

Dance is good for your body—and your mind. From better balance to increased flexibility to memory boosts and weight management, dance has obvious health benefits. But dancers often report having happier and more fulfilling lifestyles as well. Studies have shown that people who dance regularly often experience less stress and more fulfilling social interactions.

SOCIAL COHESION

Whether you dance for fun or through a training curriculum, as a dancer you learn how to fit into a social group and how to stand out. Dancers learn the skills necessary for collaboration, mutual respect, and group work, but they also learn to throw caution to the wind when they dance a solo.

TEAM BUILDING

Dance is a team-building tool. If you’ve ever danced before, you know that it’s impossible to dance well without learning to communicate with your fellow dancers. Only through effective communication and frequent knowledge sharing can dancers successfully create something greater than themselves.

RAPID PROBLEM SOLVING

Dancers are problem solvers. After you learn a new step, you have to figure out how to repeat that same step in hundreds of different combinations and situations, requiring you to problem solve every time you’re on your feet. The creative repetition of dance is great exercise for the brain.

PERSISTENCE

Studying dance teaches you to be persistent. Dance is difficult, and to master it, all dancers, from young children to seasoned professionals, have to work hard. Dancers learn that success comes from practice, not talent.

EXPERT LISTENING SKILLS

Dancers are adept listeners. We listen to our instructors. We listen to our colleagues and to our friends. Above all, we listen to the music. There is no better way to learn to be a good listener than to be constantly engaged in the art of listening.

FORWARD-THINKING SKILLS

Dancers have to think several steps ahead. From the earliest years of training, dancers have to prepare themselves for what is coming next: stretching and warming up your body before rehearsal, remembering choreography from a previous session, taking time to prepare yourself mentally for performances. Dance teaches you to be prepared, on and off the stage.

DISCIPLINE

Dancers learn quickly that discipline is crucial if you want to perform at your best. To improve, you have to push yourself. Teachers and mentors are important, but self-motivation is the only way to reach your goals.

ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE IN THE ABSTRACT

Dance is an effective tool for learning and expressing complex subjects, like feelings and ideas or traditions and stories. Dance uses movement and rhythm to convey abstract subjects more simply. It also teaches dancers to express abstract thought in the language of the body—like a poem you compose with your body.

ENCOURAGES CREATIVITY

Dancers are always surrounded by creative people, from costume designers to choreographers to music composers and photographers. Being surrounded by creativity of many forms encourages dancers to be creative themselves, inventing and expressing unique interpretations of emotions and ideas through movement.

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SUPPORTING BALLET ABROAD BOOSTS BALLET AT HOME

In the epilogue to her 2010 book Apollo’s Angels, Jennifer Homans wrote, “We are watching ballet go, documenting its past and its passing before it fades altogether.” Homans’ opinion, one that was perhaps not uncommon at the time, was that ballet was experiencing a slow and inevitable decline.

In the decade preceding the publication of Apollo’s Angels and in the nine years since, ballet companies in places where ballet has traditionally had its home—especially Western Europe and North America — have experienced devastating budget cuts and difficulties securing enough funding to sustain themselves. Financial setbacks threaten the future of the art form, underscoring Homans' ominous observation.

This state of affairs begs the question: is it worth investing in ballet initiatives in places where ballet is not a leading art form? Why spend time learning about ballet in places like India and Brazil if dance in traditionally ballet-centric locations needs support?

Dançando Para Não Dançar students watching rehearsal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Curiously, when Homans made her diagnosis in 2010, the ballet world was already being transformed by a handful of choreographers and a new generation of dancers. Since then, ballet has undergone a change that in 2010 one could hardly imagine. Instead of fading from existence, ballet has surged in popularity. New audiences go to live performances. Viewers around the world connect to ballet through social media and YouTube. A host of new, young choreographers—many not originally trained in ballet—are being commissioned by major companies to produce new works.

What’s caused the revitalization?

English National Ballet principal dancer Isaac Hernandez of Mexico with Birmingham Royal Ballet Principal dancer Yaoqian Shang of China.

It’s not that audiences have returned to a “fading” art form or felt nostalgia for ballet as it existed in the final decades of the twentieth century. Rather, ballet itself changed. Ballet dancers no longer hail exclusively from the same, small handful of countries. Companies and casting are slowly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Although choreographers have always integrated other forms of dance into balletic pieces, ballet dancers and artistic directors are seeking out new collaborations with artists who perform street dances like hip-hop and breakdance, eroding barriers between “elite” and “non-elite” dance styles. Ballet dancers are breaking the fourth wall, connecting with audience members around the world through social media and developing fanbases far beyond the cities in which they regularly perform.

All these changes teach us that ballet benefits from change, experimentation, collaboration, and broad interaction between dancers, choreographers, and audience members.

The revitalization born of experimentation, collaboration, and diversification demonstrates an important fact about ballet today. Although there are significant differences between national styles, ballet does not rely on a national model to fuel its future. Instead, expanding ballet beyond its “traditional” boundaries, into regions where it has historically had a smaller following, has an invigorating effect on ballet in the United States and Europe.

Elan Ballet artistic director Ritika Chandra teaching floor-barre in New Delhi, India.

Today many major ballet companies are largely international, drawing from a global talent pool, and in recent years European and American companies have increasingly hired dancers from countries outside ballet’s traditional zone. Brazil has become an established training ground: the Royal Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet, and the Stuttgart Ballet—to take four of the best-known and best-regarded ballet companies in Europe—are all home to multiple Brazilian dancers, several at the rank of principal. Dancers from South Korea and China are also well represented. Brazilian dancers like Marcelo Gomes and Roberta Marquez or Chinese dancers like Yuan Yuan Tan have enriched the ballet world: with access to good training and ample resources, there is no doubt that dancers from new locales could have the same impact. Similarly, the establishment and expansion of ballet companies around the globe would provide exciting new terrain for artistic growth.

Encouraging international interest in ballet broadens the fanbase for companies and individual dancers around the world. Ballet companies no longer rely exclusively on international touring or the circulation of print media to increase their reach. Instead, fanbases are built through social media, often through the content that individual dancers, rather than company public relations teams, produce. Thanks to new digital tools, fans are now exposed to a wide variety of companies and dancers, even if geographical or financial constraints prevent them from attending performances.

Yos Clark dancing in the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Photo by: Ange-Lise Boulaud-d'Estriché

Supporting ballet outside North America and Europe changes the perception of ballet as the property and activity of white-skinned people. At the same time, ethnic and racial diversity in ballet not only dispels racist assumptions about ballet as the purview of white people, but it also encourages audiences to ask new questions and experience new emotions when they watch ballet. Ballet has always benefited from choreographic change and aesthetic or visual experimentation. Similarly, ethnic and racial diversity has the healthy effect of allowing audience members to experience ballet, even pieces that are well known, in a new way.

From a practical standpoint, expanding ballet outside traditional zones can help secure the future of the art form at a time when ballet and other arts-initiatives are experiencing financial setbacks. For instance, ballet dancers often struggle to find employment after they retire from the stage. A larger global ballet community increases the need for ballet teachers, choreographers, and repetiteurs around the world, providing job opportunities for dancers post-retirement. Likewise, growing global interest in ballet expands demand for companies and individual dancers to perform far beyond their home turf, offering new sources of income.

Perhaps the most important observation when it comes to understanding the benefits of investing in ballet on a global scale is historical. Ballet has never been an art form that held fast to geographical boundaries, a fact that Jennifer Homans outlined in Apollo’s Angels. From its origins in the French court of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ballet has made its home in many different locations: revolutionary France, imperial Russia, Denmark of Bournonville, jazz-juiced America of the 1960s and ‘70s, behind the Iron Curtain, and more recently the rise of Cuba. Ballet is not, in fact, indigenous to most countries, but few dancers or fans would deny that the expansion of ballet outside of France enriched and improved the art form. If we insist that ballet remain trapped within specific boundaries, we’re limiting what may well be an even more vibrant future.

Article by Lindsay Alissa King

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BALLET RISING IS FOCUSED ON THE STORIES OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD, WHOSE PASSION FOR CLASSICAL BALLET IS REDEFINING ITS CULTURE AND ELEVATING BALLET AS A TRULY GLOBAL ART FORM.

The stars of the ballet world used to be born and trained in Europe and North America or sometimes Japan, Cuba and Argentina. Today the talent pool has grown. More major dancers are coming out of China, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and elsewhere. Dancers have a wider range of ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds than ever before. Globalization is expanding the ballet world, fueling international exposure to and passion for ballet—and transforming the art form. Ballet Rising takes an in-depth look at the communities reshaping ballet and brings their stories to global audiences. Although ballet has always spoken to people on a profound level, imagine how engagement would grow if people all over the world felt like ballet represented them. What if ballet were accessible to dancers everywhere? Ballet Rising is joining the movement to make ballet a truly global art form that welcomes all to take part.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ9b2AsAF5A

Through digital media Ballet Rising will collect and highlight stories of people who are pushing the boundaries of classical ballet beyond its usual borders. We’ll be sharing inspiring tales of courage, passion, and perseverance, encouraging the global dance community to engage with ballet in new and unexpected locales. We’ll learn what motivates the people we visit, how they overcome obstacles, and how their culture shapes ballet. We’ll explore the ways that local culture changes ballet, contrasting ballet practices from one place to the next.

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