Alien Bodies: Race, Space, Sex in the African Dias

thatlupa:

Pink pointes are not worn because ballerinas wear pink tights. The practice of wearing pink pointes and tights is because traditionally, it created a seamless illusion of having bare legs & dancing on your toes for white dancers. If a darker skinned dancer voluntarily chooses to wear pink tights and shoes, that is her prerogative. But forcing darker skinned dancers to dance in tights and shoes that aren’t flesh toned is as tacky in appearance as it is discriminatory. I am so proud of the Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey for encouraging their dancers to perform in flesh toned tights and shoes to not only celebrate their own diverse skin tones, but to enhance their beautiful lines. If you are a dancer sitting at your computer saying to yourself “Its only tights, big deal, that’s the way ballet is and always will be”, I’d love to hear from you how you’d feel if you were forced to wear the wrong colour foundation for every performance just because it was ‘tradition’. The rules aren’t always right.

(via blackamazon)