Whether or not you've seen the recent Vogue Spain ad starring Kendall Jenner, there's something this world needs to understand: this is not okay.
The ad shows Jenner in a studio, wearing pointe shoes and clothing that somewhat mimics ballet attire to a narration by the model. She says that she "loves being a kid" and to "run around like a child and not care" about doing "stupid stuff" while she prances around in leg warmers and lifts herself up on the barres.
Nothing about this ad is okay. Clearly, Jenner did not plan to disrespect the ballet world (and probably didn't even choose this theme or those words), but that's exactly what this ad does.
I can understand why some people would support the ad. Jenner talks about the freedom and happiness she has in her life, emotions that can easily be translated into dance.
The problem comes with the execution. There are so many forms of dance that showing Jenner in a more social dance setting doing the same exact movements (such as outside in street clothes with friends or even in a club) would have easily shown the same happiness and freedom.
Ballet is definitely a form of dance that is freeing and happy. It just takes years and years of hard work, effort, discipline and understanding to truly reach that level. To just put on pointe shoes and tutus and run around saying that you're feeling these emotions is a true insult to our world, to all the hard work and pain that we go through. A common trait among all dancers is that we are perfectionists and that we are our worst critics. To see someone gaining success after not putting in even 1/100th of the same amount of work we put in every day is disgusting.
Besides Jenner not being a ballet dancer or having any ballet training, there is a much bigger and impacting problem. Her narration discusses being and acting like a kid while portraying movements that somewhat resemble (or intended to resemble) ballet.
Portraying something that people build their lives around, build their careers around, work their whole lives towards as childlike is not ok. Wearing leg warmers and weird black fluffy pointe shoes does not mean that you are properly representing ballet.
This keeps happening. From Wells Fargo to Free People, we keep getting poorly portrayed, disrespected and put down. This needs to stop. We live in a world where people don't fully respect the arts, where they think art is just a silly hobby and nothing to build a life around. Our society looks down on people who are making a living through the arts, something that constantly happens to me personally. And I'm sick and tired of it. This disrespect is the reason that the arts are dying and seem so "exclusive." In today's day and age, anyone can research and learn about anything- the exclusion comes from when people don't want to put in that effort to learn. If there's something you don't understand, do your research before you completely make a mockery of it in a worldwide campaign.
