Two new ballet projects, both released online this month by the Joyce Theater, allow dancers to be their authentic selves in very different ways. In a live stream on June 10th, Ballez, who turns 10 this year, will unveil “Giselle of Loneliness”, a radical reinterpretation of the classic romantic ballet “Giselle”. And Pierce’s “Animals and Angels”, a short film with the dancers Cortney Taylor Key and Audrey Malek in a duo on top, celebrates its premiere on June 21st.
In a project that is still developing, the dance artist and scholar Alyah Baker, 39, is researching her artistic background as a queer black woman in ballet. For her final master’s thesis at Duke University, “Quare Dance,” she brought together three dancers (on Zoom) who share their identities: Malek, a member of the Washington Ballet Studio Company; Key, a freelance artist based in New York; and Kiara Felder, dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal.
“Always being the only one is one thing I’ve seen a lot,” Baker said, “either the only black woman or the only black dancer or the only queer dancer or woman in certain circles.” Her research, she added added, “was really motivated by: I know that I am not the only one.”
Dance historian Clare Croft, editor of Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings, notes that ballet education for women begins so early that it is imperative for women to have different role models. “Looking up to the older girls is so ingrained in what it means to grow up a woman in ballet,” said Croft. “That’s why it’s exponentially more important to have people who come out as lesbians or queer women.”
“I want a Julia and Julia”
Throughout her career, Pierce, 32, who danced for the New York City Ballet and Miami City Ballet, rarely met other lesbian ballet dancers. When she saw an article in Pointe magazine about queer women in ballet last fall, she immediately contacted one of the featured dancers, Lauren Flower, a former member of the Boston Ballet and founder of the Queer Women Dancers blog. Together they reached out to others with similar experiences and organized a “big queer zoom call,” as Flower calls it.
