Over the course of doing research and reading books about Nureyev, I began to see how much he had changed the course of the ballet world. As I said in my last post (if you're reading the whole saga of ballet blogs), in the beginning of ballet in France men were revered more highly than women. Women were meant to essentially just stand around and look pretty. This was mostly because their clothing was unsuited to quick movements and jumping. Men were the ones who got to do all the dancing and learn proper technique. Ballet was created for men by men, and would continue to be dictated as such. But over the next hundred or so years (in accordance with the invention of the tutu), women came to power in the world of ballet. They began to take over the big roles and the men faded into the background. Men were seen as the coat racks that held up the female dancers.
This got me thinking that a paper about gender in the ballet world could be really interesting to write. Another topic I want to explore is the implied homosexuality of male dancers in the past hundred years or so. Many people assume that male dancers are not strong, but that could not be further from the truth. They are extremely powerful (especially in their legs and core) and can perform feats that most male athletes could never dream of. I'm not totally sure yet where my paper will end up, but I know what I want to include. My tentative thesis is the following (any feedback on this is appreciated):
Rudolf Nureyev reversed the stigma, three-hundred fifty years later, for male ballet dancers and allowed them to be taken seriously again.
Both topics you talk about could lead to really interesting and thorough papers. I don't really understand from the post how exactly Nureyev changed ballet but I might have to go back and read the saga! The homosexuality stereotype of male dancers is extremely interesting and also very wrong as you said. I think you could find a lot to write about, especially since homosexuality is a very current issue in this country. From your post it seems like you know a lot about the topic and have great ideas!
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