Ballet was eliminated from the audition process at a prestigious British dance school after it was criticized as a “elitist art form” based on “white European concepts and body forms.”
In an effort to “decolonize the curriculum,” the Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) evaluated dance and took into account how race and gender affected it.
Due to the expense of learning the dance form, its idealization of particular body forms, and its gender-divided roles, the Leeds-based school will no longer require ballet as part of its auditions, staff has announced.
The head of undergraduate studies at the conservatoire, Francesca McCarthy, called ballet an ‘elitist art form’.
Ballet’s traditional terminology uses ‘ballerina’ for women and ‘danseur’ for men, with female dancers focusing on pointe work and lifts and leaps for men.
Ms McCarthy said the ballet’s terminology has ‘strongly gendered roots’ and was, ‘problematic in relation to inclusion of non-binary and trans dancers.’
Ballet will still be taught at the school, which charges £9,250 per year for British students, and £17,500 per year for international dancers.
However the classes and teaching methods have been altered to be more ‘inclusive’.
‘There are issues relating to body, money, language and movement vocabulary,’ Ms McCarthy told The Telegraph.
She added that ballet “is constructed around particular white European concepts and body types” which could turn away dancers who do not meet this “aesthetic ideal” and that class fees have an influence on pupils who cannot afford to study the dance.
According to Ms. McCarthy, the nomenclature for the dance has “clearly gendered roots,” and most teachers received their training when there was a definite separation between male and female dancers.
Although there had been a gradual change to ladies and gentlemen, she continued, “this is still problematic in relation to the inclusion of non-binary and trans dancers.”
The head of undergraduate studies, who credits her ‘wonderful wife’ and two adopted sons for becoming more aware of ‘challenges experienced by young people today’, added that the NSCD is encouraging staff to use gender-neutral words, such as ‘dancers/people/folk/everyone/everybody’.
Staff are also encouraged to use ‘they’ instead of he and she, to ‘not make assumptions’ about students’ identities.
It comes as the school works to ‘decolonise’ its teaching and work with LGBT+ societies on the matter.
The NSCD said that it reviews its content, and has removed the dance from audition days ‘due to its potentially contentious nature’.
In an effort to “decolonize the curriculum,” conservatoire staff members started learning more about “unconscious racism” in dance in 2019.
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, this was given even more priority.
The following year, students established an LGBTQ+ organization that offered guidance on pronouns and the effects of gendered movement vocabularies, such as those used in ballet lessons.
The school is a part of the Conservatoire of Dance and Drama, which has plans to ban leotards and other form-fitting dance attire in order to make transgender persons feel more at ease.
