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

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

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. The creation of Ballez was funded by a grant from the

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and was originally an outreach program to provide ballet classes to LGBTQ people that felt disenfranchised in traditional classical dance settings. 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. 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

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epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, at La Mama in 2016. Other original works by the company include ''Slavic Goddess'', which was a collaboration with

Paulina Olowska Paulina Olowska (born 1976, Gdańsk) is a Polish painter and photographer, who also works in the field of performance and video-art, social action and applied art. The areas of her artistic explorations are modernist utopias and research on the w ...

in 2017, and a pas de deux for Kyong H. Park's ''PILLOWTALK'' in 2018. In June 2020 the company is scheduled to perform ''Giselle of Loneliness'', a modern take on the classical ballet ''

Giselle ''Giselle'' ( , ), originally titled ''Giselle, ou les Wilis'' (; ''Giselle, or The Wilis''), is a romantic ballet () in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first perfor ...

'' where the title character is a gender non-conforming lesbian. Ballez hosts open adult ballet classes at the

The company offers free

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videos of ballet class for people who are not able to take class in New York.

History

References

Further reading