Dune actor Timothée Chalamet is under fire for comments about ballet and opera, made in a Feb. 24 video with Matthew McConaughey in the Variety & CNN Town Hall.
“I don’t want to be working in opera and ballet, or things where it’s like ‘keep this thing alive,” Chalamet said. “Even though it’s like, no one cares about this thing.”
Chalamet’s comments about the industry aren’t just offensive. His commentary is disrespectful to those who sacrificed their minds and bodies to create the foundation of the modern entertainment industry that Chalamet is privileged to be a part of.
According to the Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet in India, ballet was created in the 15th century during the Italian Renaissance, in the form of a court dance to entertain noblemen and women.
Ballet made its way to Paris through the interest of Italian noblewoman Catherine de’ Medici, the wife of King Henry II of France. A patron of the arts, de’ Medici invested largely in the world of architecture, performing arts and painting. She brought ballet to the French court, investing in what became ballet de cour, also known as court ballet, which included elaborate productions.
In 1661, King Louis XIV founded the Paris Opéra Ballet, then known as Académie Royale de Danse, paving the way for stage performances.
While ballet started as a pastime, a creative outlet, it’s important to understand the history of exploitation that permeated the industry. Most famously, the French ballet was known for the exploitation and trafficking of young girls and women.
In the 19th century, the Paris Opera Ballet often recruited young, impoverished and vulnerable girls. Known as “petit rats,” these dancers were at the bottom of the ballet hierarchy and often were the subjects of sexual exploitation and abuse. They endured this abuse with hopes of eventually working their way into being “admitted with a good contract,” according to Sebrena Williamson, BFA in Dance and writer for the Collector.
Young women flocked to the Paris Ballet with hopes of a better life. Instead, these girls were taken advantage of by the “wealthy male subscribers of the Paris Opera—nicknamed abbonés.” An opportunity ended up being a brutal and unstable environment in which dancers were socially and sexually exploited. The “foyer de la dense” was a lavish room in the Paris Opera Ballet where wealthy guests could pay to “socialize” with ballerinas, according to HISTORY.
Edgar Degas, nicknamed “The Painter of Dancers,” is known for capturing the everyday life of these girls, depicting them as angelic and vulnerable figures, often with dark silhouettes looming near them.
Now in the modern era, we have seen the offshoot of the Paris Ballet becoming a systematic, legitimized art form. However, this does mean that ballet faces systematic issues. Neha Chowdhury of The Lewis Foundation of Classical Ballet wrote about the current inclusion-based struggles the ballet industry has faced, and is still facing.
This includes the exclusion of Black, Indigenous and people of color from the industry. Due to the ideals surrounding Eurocentric standards of beauty, these dancers were often dismissed from dances and were told they wouldn’t fit in with the ensemble due to their skin color and features. Ballet pieces set in places like India would often include racist depictions.
It was only in the 21st century that ballet shoes, tights and leotards, which are meant to match the skin color of the dancer, started being mass-produced in multiple skin colors.
Also emerging during the Italian Renaissance of the late 16th century was opera. In 16th-century Florence, a group of musicians gathered together to turn Greek dramas into musical stage productions.
Italian composer and singer Jacopo Peri composed Dafne in 1597, which is considered the first opera. This introduced the two types of opera: opera seria, or serious opera and opera buffa, comedies. Opera developed into a world of its own, with the help of the Medici family.
However, the sacrifices made by performers also add to the industry's deserved respect. Young boys often underwent “castrati” or castration before puberty to prevent their voices from deepening. Seen as a way out of poverty, the parents of these young boys often encouraged or forced them to go through this procedure in hopes of them becoming operatic royalty.
Called “Castratos,” these male sopranos or contraltos took permanent and dangerous solutions to become “super stars.”
When controversial statements like Chalamet’s rise, the immediate reaction is to defend these centuries-old artistic mediums because they have shaped culture globally. However, there needs to be a conversation on the fights that individuals in these mediums made to legitimize and reform them.
Ballet singers are no longer seen as sex workers, but as the pinnacle of respect in the dance community. The last known Castroto, Alessandro Moresichi, died April 21, 1922. Men in opera are no longer expected or forced to be castrated to rise in the industry, with several baritones who have defined the industry sense.
The idea that “no one cares” about an art form simply because it is a “slower” form of media, or because it doesn't have box office premiere numbers, shows a weak capacity for understanding art. If you believe any art is “dying” and you don’t want to be in that industry, maybe you aren’t really an artist to begin with.
Nyla Gilbert is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Nyla Gilbert about her column? Email her at ng972522@ohio.edu.
