During class, we talked about dance, and one of the things that was brought up was that dance in other countries (specifically in Europe) is funded by the government. It made me wonder about the traditional (ballet) aspects of dance played a role into how dance is now as an artform. We could even look at societal standards and see how that plays out.

First off when ballet was created, only men could perform, which is so funny to me because ballet is so feminized now. But I believe that dance and hierarchies and such are exactly the same. Back then, women were expected to be modest and be elegant “garden fairies”, which is accurate to their expectations at the time. Think of Snow White, and that’s who women were expected to be like. Very “men save the princess”. Female dancers were only supposed to look graceful at the time in society, and men were supposed to be suit and armor knights. That is just gender roles alone.

Looking at the capitalist structure of our government, dance is also a pretty accurate mirror to corporate society. For example, the large companies are considered the representation of dance, such as Alvin Ailey, New York City Ballet, and some other bigger ones. Dancers fail to think about the smaller companies and projects that are more inclusive and overall better work environment. It’s the same as the government in that aspect. People think of the corporate organizations such as Starbucks first before considering local coffee shops. That is very much the exact same way it is in dance. Dance has it’s own little structure that matches exactly how corporate America is ran. That is crazy to me.

Because of that way of thinking, that makes a career in dance a lot more viable than what people originally thought. It is still going to be hell to find a stable job, but thinking about smaller dance companies makes things a lot easier as an adult.