Gays In The News: Christopher Wheeldon

Watching Christopher Wheeldon in rehearsal is most entertaining. I’ve seen countless choreographers create a ballet in the studio but none so determined to dance it himself. Time and again the lithe Englishman demonstrates what he wants, and so expansive and articulate are his moves that it’s almost as if he has been transported back to the stage.

Wheeldon doesn’t perform any more. He’s way too busy and successful as a choreographer and besides, at 42, he would be facing retirement if he were still donning the white tights. Yet it’s obvious that a love of the academic language is still firmly rooted in his body, which is why he’s so good at making ballets that feel contemporary and classical at the same time.

He was a reasonably good dancer in his day, first at the Royal Ballet where he began his career in 1991 and then at New York City Ballet, which he joined in 1993. But he grew up to become a sensationally good choreographer and one of the very few artists in the world who can be trusted to make ballet relevant and entertaining in the 21st century.

Not only is he king of Covent Garden, having given the Royal a string of critical and box-office hits over the years, he is also, thanks to the musical An American in Paris (which he directed and choreographed), the toast of Broadway. And when An American in Paris comes to London next year, if all goes according to plan, he could add the West End to his hit parade too... 

The Times.

Nope, I'd never heard of him before either.

Still, good to see a gay bloke doing well in the notoriously heterosexual and homophobic world of ballet.

Who Dares Wins: Man Up

STANDING on the edge of a 100ft cliff and being urged to step into the unknown, Anthony Selwyn is screaming at the top of his lungs.

In front of him a burly bloke in fatigues is shouting: “Get on with it, pick up your balls and jump.”

The incredibly tense scene is part of a TV series starting tonight that takes ordinary people and puts them through the most gruelling interview on earth — the SAS selection process.

Ant, 23, who describes himself as “a bit of a princess”, is far from his comfort zone as a ballet and West End dancer.

He is shaking with fear. He has hardly slept, eaten little and is living in fear of another part of the show, the next hooded interrogation.

He says: “I’m scared of heights and I just couldn’t get my body to do it. He was screaming inches from my face." ...
 
Ant, who grew up in Sussex and recently starred in the musical Hairspray, was bullied at his all-boys’ school when he came out as gay aged 14.

He says: “It was difficult but it made me who I am. When I saw the advert for the show it said, ‘Are you up to it?’.

“I suppose I wanted to know the answer.” ...

The Sun.

Barely hidden subtext; 'Like a dog walking on his hind legs, it is not done well, but you are surprised to find it done at all,' Samuel Johnson.

Bolshoi Ballet: Domino Dancing

Admittedly I know nothing about the internal machinations of the Bolshoi Ballet, its artistic director Sergei Filin, the world of ballet in general, or indeed, anything really, but if you ask me this bizarro story stinks of gay.

The Daily Telegraph: Nutcracker

"Throughout western Europe, despite much official counter-effort, there is a strong and persistent association of ballet with homosexuality. Like many such notions, this one is unexamined and misleading: my proposition is that, although the audience of connoisseurs may contain a high proportion of gay men, the roll-call of male dancers presents another story. Insiders explain it to me like this.
"Being in constant intimate contact with beautifully honed and tensile bodies, stimulated by music and choreography of sensual intensity, and excited by the adrenalin rush of performance, ballet dancers are not surprisingly creatures who spend much of their professional lives on high sexual heat. However great the artistic spirituality involved, what we are talking about here is an animal process of courtship and arousal.
"The result is obvious: to put it bluntly, dancers, male and female, are in such a state of readiness that they will grab at anything in a skirt or trousers, leotard or legwarmers, to relieve their itch. Labelling the male-on-male contacts as homosexual or bisexual is missing the point.
"This has not penetrated the consciousness of the man on the Clapham omnibus, where the popular prejudice in relation to male ballet dancers remains a staple of stand-up comedy and schoolboy sniggers.
"Not so in Russia, where ballet is considered a noble profession and the male dancer is honoured and respected...
"Under the communist regime, homosexuality carried the risk of prison or the gulags and was, therefore, simply not discussed, publicly or privately. Strict censorship also meant that any vulgar jokes about bulging pink tights and mincing gaits never had channels through which to circulate..."

Rupert Christiansen, Why Nobody Is Sniggering At Russia's Men In Tights, The Daily Telegraph.
This is a textbook example of how journalist's so often get away with writing absolute nonsense.
Every single sentence can be followed by the comment; "Bollocks!"
Mr Christensen seems to be suggesting that ballet dancers are practically rutting onstage.
While this may be true - and I'll have to take his word for it - it doesn't explain why so many male dancers from Nijinsky to Nureyev are gay offstage, when they're not "on high sexual heat."
And the assertion that there were no anti-gay jokes under the Soviet regime is, well, laughable.

The Most Incredible Thing: Incredible?

"Pop legends Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant aka the Pet Shop Boys... Incredible, indeed - for better and worse... Campy" - Variety
"Synth-pop's wryest and most enduring exponents... A treat... enjoyable" - The Telegraph
"Electro-pop duo... Good fun... A bit baffling" - The Evening Standard
"Relentless" - The Guardian
"Electro-pop duo Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe aka the Pet Shop Boys... Often loses its way" - The Stage
"The world's favourite electronica duo... Sometimes things just don't work... an ambitious, sometimes clever project, fatally undermined by waffling choreography" - The Independent
"Electronic pop duo... ultimately fails to live up to its title" - The Times
"Two musicians... Medium-level fun, off-kilter, camp musical theatre" - The Arts Desk

Some distinctly mixed reviews of The Most Incredible Thing, Pet Shop Boys and Javier de Frutos's ballet at Sadler's Wells.
Interestingly, most reviewers were most disappointed by the actual ballet dancing bit.

• Best correction; "This article was amended on 23 March 2011. The band in question are called Pet Shop Boys, not the Pet Shop Boys as we originally named them" - The Guardian.
This mistake was repeated in every other review - still "pop legends" Pet Shop Boys have only been doing this for 25 years...

Update: "PET Shop Boys have conquered the ballet world with their new show The Most Incredible Thing... an enchanting triumph and one of the most accessible dance productions ever staged" - The Daily Star!
If they put this on again, whether or not to put that quote on the posters will give Dame Nelly Tennant such a headache.