Ballez Explained

Ballez
Founded:	2011
Venue:	Brooklyn Arts Exchange Brooklyn, New York City New York, U.S.
Website:	Ballez
Artistic Director:	Katy Pyle

Ballez is an American ballet company based in New York City. The company re-stages classical works and produces original ballets to emphasize LGBTQ representation in ballet.

History

Ballez was founded in 2011 by Katy Pyle, a lesbian and genderqueer dancer, with a focus on creating possibilities, representation, and inclusion for queer dancers within the patriarchal structure of ballet.^{[1] [2] [3]} The creation of Ballez was funded by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and was originally an outreach program to provide ballet classes to LGBTQ people that felt disenfranchised in traditional classical dance settings.^{[4] [5]} The company aims to portray and include lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer people in ballet through their performances, public engagement programs, and classes that are open to the public.^[6]

Original takes on classical and story ballets that the company has performed include The Firebird, a Ballez, featuring a lesbian princess and a transgender prince, at Dancespace Project in 2013, Variations on Virtuosity, a Gala with the Stars of the Ballez at American Realness at Abrons Arts Center in 2015, and Sleeping Beauty & the Beast, based on historic events in queer history from the 1982 garment workers' strike to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, at La Mama in 2016.^{[7] [8] [9] [10] [11]} Other original works by the company include Slavic Goddess, which was a collaboration with Paulina Olowska in 2017, and a pas de deux for Kyong H. Park's PILLOWTALK in 2018.^[6] In June 2020 the company is scheduled to perform Giselle of Loneliness, a modern take on the classical ballet Giselle where the title character is a gender non-conforming lesbian.^{[12] [13]}

Ballez hosts open adult ballet classes at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange^{[6] [14]} The company offers free YouTube videos of ballet class for people who are not able to take class in New York.^[12]

Further reading

• Angyal, Chloe, Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Mission. www.ballez.org.
2. Web site: Katy Pyle, Ballez, and the Virtuosity of the Queer Body. 15 September 2015. Culturebot.
3. News: Katy Pyle and Her 'Misfits of Ballet'. Gia. Kourlas. The New York Times . 20 April 2016.
4. Web site: Inside the Movement to Make Ballet a More LGBTQ-Inclusive Space. Melissa. Kravitz. 29 June 2018. Cosmopolitan.
5. Web site: Lez Dance — Ballez Artistic Director Katy Pyle on queering ballet vocabulary in Maine. Kristen. Stake. The Portland Phoenix. May 2018 .
6. Web site: Company.
7. Web site: Katy Pyle Makes Ballez: Re-imagining "The Firebird". www.dance-enthusiast.com.
8. Web site: Ballez Blazes New Path for the Diverse Future of Ballet. Elizabeth. Spurbeck. 18 August 2017. The Official Publication of the World of Dance Community.
9. Web site: THE FIREBIRD, a Ballez - Katy Pyle. cargocollective.com.
10. Web site: The Ballez - American Realness.
11. Web site: Ballez - "Sleeping Beauty & the Beast". 14 March 2016.
12. Web site: This Queer Ballet Company Is Putting Their Classes Online For Everyone. them.. 22 April 2019 .
13. Web site: Katy Pyle Is Queering Up the Ballet Canon with Her Ballez. 21 March 2018. Dance Magazine.
14. Web site: Dance = Freedom: Ballez with Katy Pyle. lsheridan. 17 March 2017. BRIC.