“It’s a wake-up call”: In a press release issued on Thursday by the Berlin State Ballet, these bold words announced that an agreement for stage employees was reached with a member of the Black Corps de Ballet before the German labor court Year has filed complaints about racism against the company.
The dancer Chloé Lopes Gomes spoke out after her annual contract was not renewed.
Lopes Gomes, the only black female member of the company, will remain with the State Ballet until the end of the 2021/22 season and will receive financial compensation of 16,000 euros as part of the agreement reached during the arbitration.
In a December interview with the New York Times, Ms. Lopes Gomes said she had witnessed a number of racially insensitive incidents but was too afraid of losing her job to speak up. After being told in September that her contract would not be renewed, she made her allegations public. Incidents included being forced to lighten their skin in corps de ballet roles and being told during rehearsals that any mistakes she made were more noticeable because she was black.
In the statement, the interim artistic director of the State Ballet, Christiane Theobald, said that she regretted the experience of Ms. Lopes Gomes, which the company had “currently processed in detail”. She added, “A great opportunity to change lies in the current situation.”
In a telephone interview, Ms. Lopes Gomes said she was happy to have reached an agreement. “It’s a small win for me, but a big one for ballet, especially in Germany, because it’s pretty rare for a company like this to acknowledge that there has been abuse,” she said. “I can’t say I’m thrilled to stay at the State Ballet, but I’m happy to have work and dance.”
The press release added that an ombudsman’s office had been set up so that all members of the State Ballet could report on experiences of discriminatory behavior.
