Ballet and its American Icon

By: Annika Wiesemann

Women and men are still not always treated equal in our society related to their job positions or their different roles in the family. Referring to the article “Balanchine women” from Ann Daly (2002) Ballet and its American icon (The Ballerina) supports this unequally image of women and men.  “The girl is like an instrument” (Page 280) and is directed by the man. The men manipulate and assist the dance of the woman so that women don't make any movements without the initiation of them. They are the doers and prevent women power and ballet supports the men´s leadership. The image of men and women are shown in a conservative way in ballet and it´s not easy to rebuild it. I think a beginning would be to let men and women do the same movements and to let women also support the men while dancing. Anyway women are shown as light weighted figures in Ballet and they’re attracting the audience by their look. It’s all about the beauty and the perfectness of a ballerina. This New York Times article discusses how “Ballet demands sacrifice in its pursuit of widely accepted ideals of beauty”.

It’s not just that sacrifice. It’s also the women’s acceptance to be lower status and be constructed to be looked at. Men are represented powerful.

I don't like that they are not shown equally but I can also not imagine women to lead the men. That shows that I am already influenced by the way women and men (genders) are shown in our cultural mediums like on TV, theatre, books, movies…