Chapter 8: Ballet is [White] Woman: Anti-Black Standards of Beauty within Ballet

The ballet industry has long been criticized for using excessively thin and exclusively Anglo-looking ballerinas. The statement that they fit the “look” or comments such as this in the 2015 New York Daily Post: “A lot of people feel ballerinas should all be the same color” (Keivom, 2015) have been used to exclude Black and Brown ballerinas. This chapter describes the relationship between race, gender, and beauty within the ballet industry. It describes the challenges that Black women experience and the anti-Blackness that takes place within ballet due to Eurocentric beauty standards. Through a focus on the emphasis on hair texture, flesh-tone tights, and pointe shoes, and on the racist history of America and ballet, this chapter demonstrates how ballet continues to discriminate against and marginalize Black women.