In contrast to centuries of silence, today there are people speaking up against sexual abuse. Even the ballet world is part of this change, as seen in the recent lawsuit against New York City Ballet dancers. These events are opening up an ugly truth within ballet companies, and an issue that traces its roots to the professionalization of dancers. In early eras of ballet, sex trafficking was a huge problem.
In this paper, I address the role of gender roles in ballet and how sexual abuse and exploitation have been overlooked, even by dancers themselves.
I will shed light on these issues by looking at three points: the history of prostitution in ballet in the nineteenth century, mainstream media conveying stories about ballet dancers in sexual ways, and the recent scandal at New York City Ballet. Sexual abuse and exploitation in ballet are not new developments, as these issues have been intertwined within the workings of ballet at least since the Paris Opera Ballet became so popular in the early nineteenth century.
At this time, most of the dancers in the Paris Opera Ballet, were dirt poor and hoped to get up in the world by being dancers. As a result, they served as prostitutes to the wealthy men who subscribed to the Paris Opera performances.
Even the architecture allowed for a warm up room for the men to ogle the dancers. Unfortunately, these impoverished girls were forced to let these wealthy men sexually exploit them for future economic stability.
