 Hannah Bressler: Have you read Maggie Nelson before? What drew you to this book?
Tara Miller: I hadn't read her work before, though I'd heard Bluets referenced many times and had it on my list. Then I kept seeing links to reviews of Argonauts popping up on newsfeeds and in literary mags, so I was intrigued. As a queer woman and avid reader and writer I feel like I'm always starved for literature about queers. There seriously is not enough out there. I'm also always drawn to genre-bending work, so the combination of queerness, genre-bending, and critical acclaim (and your suggestion to do this piece) combined to form a magical ball of motivation. How about you? Had you read Maggie Nelson before?
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 by Aiano Nakagawa AFO Staff  Surviving the ballet world is no small feat, even for light skinned, “classically” beautiful dancers. Ballet is seen as a touchstone for European culture, directly reflecting traditional European ideals of gender, beauty, and femininity. If Misty Copeland is the darkest, most curvy, and most muscular professional ballet ballet dancer, you can see not many people fit the bill.
A Ballerina’s Tale gives historical and cultural context of Ballet, from its emergence in the late 15th century Renaissance court culture of Italy, to the modern phenomenon of the skinny dancer which can be dated back to 1963 when George Balanchine began creating ballet and ballerinas to his own ideal. While ballet is one of the most romantic and romanticized art forms, this film shows it for what it is and how antiquated this art form truly is. |
