Northern Ballet has signed the Final Bow for Yellowface pledge joining over 50 international dance companies and arts organisations in a movement to work towards creating more positive and nuanced representations of Asian people in ballet.
Founded by Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin in 2017, Final Bow for Yellowface aims to be a proactive force for change within ballet and the wider arts sector. The pledge states:
“I love ballet as an art form, and acknowledge that to achieve diversity among our artists, audiences, donors, students, volunteers, and staff requires inclusion. I am committed to eliminating outdated and offensive stereotypes of Asians (Yellowface) on our stages.”
As part of Northern Ballet’s commitment to the pledge, and to putting equity, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our organisation, the company has undertaken significant training with Phil Chan. This has spanned many areas of the company and included looking at the history in orientalism in ballet and creating positive action plans for the future.
One of these plans has also been an exciting opportunity to work with David Nixon CBE to refresh and update his seminal production of The Nutcracker. A favourite of dancers and audiences alike, David has been back in the studio with the dancers to rework what were called the ‘national dances’ into a new storytelling arc with a fresh lens. Using his trademark style, David has interwoven throughout the ballet five elements: earth, air, fire, water and quintessence which now spectacularly wow Clara during her second act dream-like sequence.
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