(How our everyday aesthetic judgements can perpetuate oppressive ideologies.)
Historically, ballet is the respected dance form of white supremacy culture. For centuries, while developing into an esteemed cultural legacy, ballet perpetuated racist, classist, sexist, ageist, oppressive, and body-shaming traditions. Ballet gave us a new understanding of human movement capabilities, but it also gave us the strict balletic-body ideal.
Though pole dance and ballet are very different forms with different histories, the most demanded and revered aesthetics in the mainstream pole world (in particular: flat splits, a back that deeply arches, the hyperextended knee, and the fully pointed foot), come from ballet. In classrooms, on stages, and across social media, these ideals are upheld as standards of beauty and proficiency in the pole world.
Here's the issue:
Ballet-derived aesthetic expectations are still sometimes used as a basis to devalue Aboriginal, vernacular, African, and intuitive dance forms from around the world. They’re still used to call many natural body-shapes ugly. They’re still used to reinforce the gender binary and patriarchal gender roles. They’re still used to devalue non-skinny, flatter-footed, and other non-conforming bodies. They’re still used to discourage Black and Brown bodies from participating--and as a basis to tell them their bodies (often their feet specifically) are ‘wrong’. Also, ballet-derived body expectations are still used to say that pole-dancing sex workers, who have no reason to worry about their knee and ankle positions, are not worthy of respect.
Dance pioneers Joe Nash and Pearl Primus by Gerda Peterich, circa 1947. Amoung their accomplishments, Pearl was an anthropologist who brought Africanist dances to the US to show they are worthy of study and Joe was an expert on African-American influence on modern dance.
If you grew up in Western society, you’ve been exposed the perspective that not only are balletic aesthetics better and ‘cleaner’, they are more desirable (particularly on white cis-gender women). You learned through art and imagery that the daintiness of a 'pointed' foot demonstrates purity, femininity, and other-worldliness.
Edgar Degas, The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage, ca. 1874. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
You heard that 'beautiful' dance reinforces gender-roles: men stay stable and grounded while women highlight their supple bodies and decorate their partners. And, it’s likely you've been told that (young) women are sexiest when their legs are 'lengthened' and their feet are immobilized, whether by pointing, wearing heels, or dancing 'en pointe.'
Thanks to the unchecked pervasiveness of ballet-derived ideals, most pole dancers have learned that their respectability and value are dependent on how they position their feet and legs while dancing. Through explicit and implied messages, they’ve learned that to be pretty, sexy, or win a competition, they must ’properly’ ‘point’ their toes, even when it doesn’t feel right or align with their identity.
Many people within the pole world believe that non-sickled ‘pointed’ toes are unquestionably the best and most beautiful toes, and that unless feet point well, they are ‘bad’ and less respectable. This, I call, “toe-point supremacy.”
I’ve seen adult pole dancers, with fully developed skeletons, agonize over the 'wrongness' of their knees and feet. Even when they stretch incessantly and squeeze every muscle they can, they still don’t arrive at ‘acceptable’. Some try to rapidly change their joint structures, causing bodily self-harm in the process. Others quit because it isn’t fun to pursue something when you will never be satisfactory.
Not everyone arrives at pole thinking they are insufficient in these ways. They learned from entering a competitive and aesthetically-guided studio culture. Or, they learned from internet ‘aesthetic-concern trolls’ . (Longing to make themselves into authorities, aesthetic-concern trolls offer unsolicited advice on form. Many internet pole trolls actually pole dance, which makes the behavior even more disappointing).
In other words, they learned they aren’t palatable from other pole people.
Before anyone panics, I'm not, at all, writing this to kill toe ‘pointing’, disparage dancing in stilettos, or discredit purposeful and sound uses of the body (joint integrity and control remain indicators of proficiency). I'm not telling you that you have been oppressing anyone by yelling ‘point your toes’, or that you should feel guilty for liking how ballet shapes bodies. We all have full permission to use, and drool-over, balletic joint-forms and ‘finished’ lines.
My comments come with tremendous respect for those who instruct and pursue ballet. I recognize the incredible contributions ballet training make’s to an individual's awareness, balance, agility, oppositional/line-finishing ability, active range of motion, and work ethic. It is an artistic legacy that enriches people’s lives. Ballet continues to influence my own work with the pole, and it probably always will.
And, of course, my comments come with a tremendous, take-it-to-the-grave love for pole dance and the people who make this industry what it is.
I am writing to say that if you are a lifetime member of the church of toe-pointing and have not questioned your tendencies to demand it of others and devalue the non-proficient and non-conforming, especially if you don't know the history of the dogma, this is an excellent time to investigate your bias.
If you think non-‘pointed', and ‘sickled’ feet are ugly, inferior, ‘improper’ or you, "just don't like it," I recommend asking yourself why you feel that way--especially if you cast that belief onto others.
Bangarra Dance Theatre is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performance group based in Australia.
With that said, there is a substantial difference between taking class from someone who explains that their instruction is guided by a particular aesthetic tradition or objective and taking class from someone who declares that they are showing the one and only ‘right’ way. Instructing according to the balletic tradition is lovely. This is not a problem. However, when a teacher says that other ways of moving are inferior or unattractive, they are ‘othering’ and using their position to create bodily hierarchies.
If you are thinking, "Okay, but, it's SAFER to point your toes," in many cases, it is not. If ‘pointing’ were the safest option for absorbing impact or bearing weight, you would also see it used in martial arts and parkour. But, I will have to explain that in depth another time (my first draft filled seventeen single-spaced pages).
Full toe ‘pointing' and protective engagement of a well-aligned ankle are not the same thing (Protective engagement does prevent injuries in weight bearing positions). Sometimes, what is labeled 'safer' has nothing to do with safety, it has to do with flawed biomechanical understanding and unexamined aesthetic preferences.
There is this ill-informed notion that still floats around centers of (non-pole) dance: "Ballet is the foundation of ALL dance.” I heard this repeatedly growing up, and I feel confident that notion has influenced how we assign value to pole dancers. It’s not only incorrect, it is exemplary of white supremacy's grip on art and bodily ideals.
Even critics of that statement often say, "Actually, ballet is the foundation of Euro-centric dance." I'd argue even that isn't entirely true. To say something is a foundation implies that it came first. Dance is as ancient as culture itself. Europe had dance traditions in every culture, from pagan rituals to circle dances. Today, these are called "folk dances." But they only came to be known as "folk" as a way to define them as unrefined and lesser than the "high-art" of ballet.
For quite some time, ballet was a cultural treasure of Italian and French aristocracy. The lofty positional preferences evolved to reinforce the belief that ballet-privileged people were 'above' others and were not a part of the beastial, natural world. Balletic positions, while perfect for ballet, are impractical and even dangerous while navigating nature, fighting, or performing manual labor. Since the upper-classes outsourced physical work to those 'below,' they wanted it to be apparent in their movement.
Marie Taglioni, the first person to wear the newly designed pointe shoe. Seen here as Flore in Charles Didelot's ballet Zephire et Flore. Hand colored lithograph, circa 1831.
Most people today will agree that there does appear to be ‘magic’ in the ‘anti-gravity’ way that ballet dancers move. Some of that ‘magic’ developed through impassioned training and the purposeful effect of maximizing length in the trunk and limbs. But, some of the signature ‘magic’ developed by systematically eliminating normal human shapes and emotions from the vocabulary and creating ideals that ensure that ballet is not a dance for everyone.
I’d say, ballet is more accurately, "The foundation of upper-class, light white-skinned, able-bodied, young, slim, hetero-normative, patriarchal, hyper-mobile, perfectionistic, European dance."
Ballet-derived dances (and their influence on our pole dancing legs) are not the only styles that build "technique." Saying so de-values countless other forms. One does not have "dance technique" when they stiffen their legs, plantarflex, and get their distal phalanges (toes) to flex (curl) without 'clenching'; no, they have demonstrated a ballet-derived technique.
The preference for bodies that demonstrate a high arch has permeated the general consciousness so much that even the common internet troll can quickly identify when someone is a 'bad' or 'ugly' dancer because they don't point their toes--even when intentionally done by an expert.
Yvonne Smink, master of purposeful non-pointery
For many pole dancers, if they want to convincingly show their families videos of pole and say, "Look, it IS art!" Quite often, the videos they choose feature dancers with extensive ballet training. They must. Otherwise, they won’t be heard.
Ideals about beauty in dance are ideals about the body. As discussions of the past month have reiterated, some of the most common notions about what makes a body beautiful are actually control tactics operated by the capitalist, white-supremacist culture that we commonly lived in.
Historically, ballet’s ‘beauty’ was related to its narrow-scope of ‘perfection’. For the audience to believe in the perfection of the form, they had to believe that to be natural was to be grotesque. These choices made centuries ago in Europe and then Russia, regarding what is acceptable for our feet, are still a guiding cultural inheritance, today.
The pole dance audience is a subset of the general dance audience. The general dance audience comprises people who recreationally participate in dance or simply enjoy watching dance, but are not particularly cognizant of dance history, dance research, or racism/appropriation/oppression in dance. The general dance audience likes movement based on how it looks to them. The general dance audience loves extreme and virtuosic uses of the body. The general dance audience has preferences that are highly influenced by their somatophobia (fear of the body, parts of the body, and specific uses of the body). The general dance audience also like dances that leave them 'emotionally stirred'-- in an understandable and agreeable way, that is. You may have a different relationship to dance, but the tastes of the general dance (and pole dance) audience remain as described.
Accordingly, there is little wonder as to why this hasn't been a hot topic. When people, especially women, let their feet fully 'express' (whether barefoot or in shoe), those watching may feel uncomfortable. Challenging the necessity of pointed toes challenges the foundation of what many believe makes someone worthy of being called a dancer. Some resistance is to be expected.
Chinese-American dancer Yin Yue. Photo by Quinn Batson
It can be difficult to see the peculiarity of toe-point superiority if it’s all you have ever known. Imagine if ballet's positional legacy was, instead, applied to our arms. What if we all derived our sense of perfection and sex appeal from locked elbows and perfectly sculpted scoop-shaped hands?
(Please take a moment to move around like that and assess how it feels.)
It may be hard to fathom that people would choose to move with such rigidity, but dance styles are distinguishable by what parts of us are allowed to move— and in what ways. Localized immobilization of body parts for the sake of asserting power or beauty is hardly unique to dance or ballet (look at the brass collars of the Padaung tribe of Southeast Asia and foot binding traditions of China).
Since being a 'successful' pole dancer (most often) still means fitting what the general pole dance audience believes is beautiful, I do hope the pole audience at-large can begin expanding their awareness so that a much-wider variety of bodies and purposeful movement choices are viewed as not just acceptable, but worthy of praise and reverence.
While this isn't a new message by any means (to those who’ve already put in work to change this, thank you), I hope that what I've shared lends something valuable to the effort.
Moving forward, I’d like teachers and leaders to stop making harmful, judgemental statements about people who aren’t ‘pointing their toes’ or don’t have bodies or body parts that fit their ideal. There is no need to use oppressive language to make oneself the authority. I want pole teachers to realize they can pasionatley teach people how to pursue straight-legged, pointed-toe lines and, with respect to safety, offer people the agency to choose how they wish to use their feet and the rest of their bodies.
As I hope this article has illuminated, the roots of toe-point *supremacy* are entwined with roots of white supremacy and patriarchal assertions about the roles and values of women. Everyone in pole dance can still point their toes and love it. We can still pursue new levels of artistry and expression. We can still teach with safety in mind. But, let’s soften our stance on any single way being ‘right’ and work together to keep oppressive trappings out of our places of pole dance.
If this letter has triggered sensations of defensiveness in you, consider pausing. If your body is telling you that I have attacked your dance, your history, or your beliefs, you are likely feeling heat, tension, and constriction in your body. Notice it.
If you feel that this article is doing something ‘dangerous’ or divisive, you may feel jittery and anxious. Witness it.
Ask yourself how might it feel in the body of someone who is perpetually harmed by white body and white cultural supremacy, day after day. How would it feel, in your body, if you came to pole hoping to find community and acceptance, and instead were told that you don’t belong? How would it feel in your body if you lived in a society that reminds you, constantly, that you are not acceptable to that society? Then, when you are ready, I invite you to read this letter again. If possible, read without focusing on your own experience. Consider what it may offer to those who don’t fit the body ideals we are most familiar with.
Maybe you noticed, this letter is not really about toe-’pointing’, after all. It’s about the necessity of questioning our beliefs and looking into our roles in oppressive systems. I believe it is healthy to question the foundation of things we love. The questioning will either fortify the relationship or it will promote growth in a different direction.
Moving forward, since pole competition judges have to assign numerical values to people’s performances, and much of that value is derived from loosely-defined ‘technique’, I believe there are ways for competitions to be clearer about what they wish to prize. If the highest values will only be awarded to balletic forms, that should be explicitly said. Different competitions provide the opportunity to value different things in movement.
Lastly, as individuals, I'd like us not to feel the dark haze of shame when we choose to let the twenty-one joints of our feet move according to their structure—and our feelings. As members of a young and rapidly changing industry defined by non-conformists of all kinds, I believe that we can learn to be more conscious of the way we shape ourselves and one another.
Thank you for reading.
With love,
Marlo
I leave you with a quote from Christine Caldwell (page 171 of her book Bodyfulness):
“In this type of oppression, specific body parts, postures, gestures, movements, use of space, eye contact, voice tone, body size, body shape, and other markers of the body are signaled out as evidence of being a member of a non dominant group, and that evidence is used to lower status and physical safety, diminish rights, and exclude the othered from resources. For instance, when the norm is a thin, young, fit, light skinned, symmetrical body—clearly marked as male or female—that moves the way the dominant group moves, then anyone who doesn’t fall into these categories will experience some kind of exclusion...Some of the less lethal and ongoing results of this exclusion likely involve a lifetime of self-criticism, work to control one’s body appearance and activities, chronic health issues, projecting one’s “deficiencies” onto others and exhausting attempts to either fit in or resist the dominant body narrative.”
Note:
As I mentioned, I have a lot to share on this topic. It's been an area of interest for many years, but I always saved it for rapid-fire in-person rants. I realize that many questions will likely arise, so I may expand on it. Would you be interested in learning more about things like:
The biomechanics and safety of 'pointing' and other foot positions
Why ‘pointing’ is actually NOT the longest leg/foot position
How rigidifying a joint influences the kinetic chain (makes you overall stiffer)
How to teach 'pointing' in a more conscious and context-based way (including why I keep putting quotation marks around the word pointing)
Strategies for reflective and critical thinking in the pole dance classroom
How to start listening to, and with, your feet
How to broaden your ability to assess and appreciate dance safety and artistry
How competitions can be clear about what aesthetics they wish to prize.
Editor: Kenneth Kao
Note#2:
6/27: In the original version of this text, I used the phrase ‘Captain Hook’ hands (along with a Captain Hook image) to draw a parallel between the hook-shape of ‘pointed’ feet and rigid/curved hands. It was brought to my attention that using Captain Hook, an amputee, as an example alongside text saying this is likely an undesirable way to move for to most, could be, and was, hurtful and insensitive to real-life amputees. My intention was to call upon a familiar image for visual impact, but I failed to consider the ableist implications of that particular example. I am grateful to the individual who brought it to my attention, as avoiding hurtful language while teaching is what this discussion is all about. I offer a sincere apology for initial using that reference, as my intention was to uplift those who’ve been harmed by insensitive cues. Though i wrote the article, I am not above the issue. I too am learning to deeply examine words, beliefs, and privileges that I’ve been unaware of.
References and further reading:
An Anthropologist Looks at Ballet as a Form of Ethnic Dance
Oppression and the Body : Christine Caldwell and Lucia Bennett Leighton
The Black Dancing Body as a Measure of Culture
The Performance of Gender in American Dance
Dance as Activism: The Power to Envision, Move, and Change
Bodyfulness by Christine Caldwell
Authoritarian Pedagogical Practices in Dance Teaching and Choreography
This is Why Ballet must be Decolonized
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