Cover David McAllister performing in a ballet production (Photo: courtesy of David McAllister)
David McAllister performing in a ballet production (Photo: courtesy of David McAllister)
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In ‘Ballet Confidential: A Personal Behind-the-Scenes Guide’, David McAllister takes us behind the curtains and shares how the dance form is evolving beyond gender stereotypes, and embracing diversity and body positivity
Why do ballerinas stand on their toes? Do male ballet dancers wear jockstraps? What happens when an injury sidelines a performer? These are questions that might occur to ballet enthusiasts—and those who are ballet curious.
To answer these and more, David McAllister has written a book titled Ballet Confidential: A Personal Behind-the-Scenes Guide, which got published in July last year. McAllister knows what he’s talking about—he’s the artistic director of West Australian Ballet and before that he was the artistic director of The Australian Ballet for 20 years.
On March 8, Hong Kong audiences can hear from the former ballet dancer himself as he’s taking part in a conversation with Hong Kong Ballet’s artistic director Septime Webre as part of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival.
Ahead of the talk titled Life Behind the Curtain with David and Septime, McAllister spoke to Tatler about all things ballet.
Read more: Hong Kong Ballet's artistic director Septime Webre on reimagining Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet
What are some of the most commonly asked questions about ballet that you’ve answered in your book?
Usually after performances, and probably after a few drinks, people get bold and ask you some of those more personal questions. One of the things that people always ask about are jockstraps—the garments that male dancers wear under tights. There’s a myth that ballet boys wear jockstraps to make them look endowed, [which is not the case].
I looked into its history: in the old days, men used to wear tights as part of their streetwear but they always had sort of these pantaloons that covered the crotch area. It was Vaslav Nijinsky, who is the first dancer not to wear the pantaloons [and just wear the tights instead] and this caused a huge sensation. [Wearing tights with jockstraps] then became the norm.
As for ballerinas, how did dancing on-point become the norm?
It’s a very unnatural thing to do. Women dance on their toes because in the old romantic ballets, women were often seen as spirits, fairies or otherworldly beings. One of the ways to make them look different from the men and [ordinary] humans was to have them dance on their toes, as if their bodies had no weight and they were just hovering on the stage.
But very rarely do male performers dance on point—if boys dance on toes, it’s usually for comic effects.
Above David McAllister on the opening night of his production of “The Sleeping Beauty” (Photo: courtesy of The Australian Ballet and Kate Longley)
David McAllister on the opening night of his production of “The Sleeping Beauty” (Photo: courtesy of The Australian Ballet and Kate Longley)
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Gender is an interesting subject in ballet, because while it began as a male-dominated dance form, it became associated with women for a long time. Do you think that there’s been a shift in this thinking in recent times?
When King Louis XIV started ballet in the court, men danced in both male and female roles, like in Shakespeare’s plays [where men played both genders]. After a while, his queen decided that she wanted some women to do ballet. With the rise of the pointe shoe and the evolution in the Romantic period of ballet [mid to late 1800s], women took over to the point where by the end of the 19th century, there was very few men in ballet companies. Women took on men’s roles too.
It’s a more balanced undertaking in the 21st century. There are non-binary people who want to be able to perform on both sides of the gender divide. So it’s really a very interesting time for ballet, where we can look at 19th-century ballets [with their clearly defined gender roles] in a new light.
Is Australian ballet going in this direction too?
We’re all coming to grips with how we do that. At The Australian Ballet, the team has taken gender out of the way they address the company. They just say dancers. We used to have men’s classes and women’s classes; now they say pointe-based class or flat shoes-based class. Still, there will be times when in a certain repertoire, the characters are performed by dancers of the certain gender.
What are some other changes that you’ve seen in the ballet world?
There was a time, not so long ago, when it was very Anglo-focused. There was a bit of body fascism going on in which certain types of bodies were not seen as “right” for ballet roles. But we have gone through rapid reformation around this.
Now we’re realising the great diversity [that there exists] around the world in terms of ethnic, physical, emotional and non-binary conditions. When it comes to identifying a good dancer, we [aren’t looking at whether the dancer] is tall, short, muscular or curvaceous.
What is your audition criteria then?
Talent. I’m looking for [people with] the ability to dance and to be able to progress within the technical requirements of the company.
Tell us about your company’s new or upcoming productions.
We [West Australian Ballet] are doing a piece at the Quarry [amphitheatre] in Perth, Australia, called Metamorphosis. It was created online originally during the pandemic, and it’s about the dislocation that everyone experienced during that time, but also the hope of coming together.
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
