This is just weird. I'd always thought ballet was pretty gay, but according to the founder of Queer the Ballet, the ballet world has strict gender roles and a narrow definition of femininity. “Ballet likes to put people in boxes, and gender is a very specific box that ballet likes to define. And it’s women and it’s men, and the women look a certain way, dance a certain way, behave a certain way,” said Adriana Pierce, who founded Queer the Ballet in 2020 to help promote LGBTQ representation and visibility in professional ballet.
I'd also never considered that there was a scarcity of ballerinas. It wasn't something that kept me up at night.
At the dance organization Queer the Ballet, LGBTQ performers challenge the expectations of traditional ballet while creating work all their own. https://t.co/ELJn4ug7TG
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 16, 2026
Jillian Eugenios reports:
“In ballet, I wish there was more space for gender expansiveness, because I feel like I have to separate the two parts of myself,” said Ayla O’Day, a nonbinary lesbian soloist from Carolina Ballet and a dancer in Queer the Ballet’s coming show. “I have to be a dancer, which is a very specific version of myself, and I have to be a queer person, which is a very specific version of myself.”
…
Challenging expectations in ballet has been hard-won for queer dancers, who have reported feeling isolated and unsure before they came out, fearing their identities would put roles or promotions at risk. In response, LGBTQ dancers have been building their own communities outside traditional ballet over the last several years, mostly online and through their own organizations. In addition to Queer the Ballet, which was founded in 2020, there is Ballez, an organization for “all the queers that ballet has left out,” which genderqueer lesbian choreographer Katy Pyle founded in 2011.
But what about the scarcity? Newsweek never actually touches on that, even though it's their headline.
Thank god for this organization. Normally, it’s very rare to find ballet that is gay inclusive. 🤡
— Mr Bad Example (@MrBadExample15) April 16, 2026
— FactsHurtFeelings (@PatriotAzorean) April 16, 2026
Yeah… lol…. Nobody would EVER suspect a professional ballet dancer of “being gay”! lol. How “brave” they are for breaking those “social norms” of (checks notes) straight professional dancers dominating the field.
— Esteban (@ncslumdawg) April 16, 2026
This article is two years old.
— GumSlinger (@GumSlinger) April 16, 2026
I noticed that, but they reposted it this week. Apparently, Queer the Ballet hasn't been able to address that scarcity of ballerinas.
— Kyle J (@KyleJoh81148192) April 16, 2026
Gays challenging the gayness of something very gay.
— Appalachian American (@AppalachianMudd) April 16, 2026
You should be embarrassed to call yourself a News organization. No one gives a fuck about this.
— Stevedabos (@Stevdabos) April 16, 2026
Well, NBC News does have its NBC OUT and NBC BLK verticals to fill. I'd thought they'd shut those down with layoffs, but apparently not. Then again, they're recycling this story from two years ago, so it's possible.
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