Rupert Christiansen

I feel sorry for those stupid enough to believe that ballet is racist or transphobic

By demoting ballet classes, Northern School of Contemporary Dance is simply demonstrating that it is small-minded, ill-informed and myopically parochial

New York City Ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell in 1963. Photo: Jack Mitchell / Getty Images 
issue 06 August 2022

Sick though one may be of the way that the poison dart of ‘woke’ is lazily flung at what is a real and complex set of problems, I fear that it’s deservedly winging its way towards Leeds’s Northern School of Contemporary Dance. Last month it announced that it would no longer require a competence in ballet for its auditions on the grounds that it is ‘an essentially elitist form’ built around ‘white European ideas and body shapes that are often alienating’.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in