Yesterday evening I went to the New York City Ballet for the first time and saw Swan Lake. I thought the performance was quite beautiful, but I was incredibly disturbed by this: out of an almost completely white cast, the villain was played by a black male ballerina. It bothered me so much that I was distracted from the story and the dancing. I did a Google search for “swan lake racism” and found a dancer’s blog commenting along the same lines about the same New York Ballet production I saw:
“Also, the RACISM. This is another thing I hate to admit I often forget about until I see the ballet again with a friend, and the friend is horrified at the fact that a black man is playing the evil character. Must von Rothbart always be danced by Albert Evans or Henry Seth? Are we not living in the year 2011? I mean, this is a huge reason why young people are so turned off from the ballet. And none of the very educated critics ever seem to be calling Martins on this. What’s up with that? Seriously? I think once you go to the ballet a lot you begin to forget about these things, you become immune to them. Which is horrible. But really, asking your audience to associate black men with evil is a horrible insult to that – probably very educated – audience.” –Tonya Plank
According to Ms. Plank, casting a black villain may be a longstanding tradition in ballet. How might this “black = evil” theme be manifested in other traditional art forms? The story of Swan Lake itself could be interpreted as racist as well as the Black Swan character (the villain von Rothbart’s daughter Odile) also represents evil and shatters any hope of love between the central characters, Odette and the prince.
Me Before the Show
Examining Racism 