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Toledo Ballet
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By Orange Rogers
Guest Column
Toledo was treated to a
beautiful, original production of the classic Alice in
Wonderland by Toledo Ballet at the Valentine Theater on
March 28-29th. The two originally scheduled shows were sold
out and a third performance added.
Clearly, Toledo Ballet is
a strong player in our local culture scene. As well as
reaching thousands of Toledoans of all ages through their
lovely staged productions, Toledo Ballet continues to be a
major educational force through its school, enculturating
students from age three on up.
Alice
was a gorgeous show flawed only by the perfection of the
damaging stereotypical portrayal of black males. It was
here that the show’s originality failed; there is nothing
original about recycling stereotypical characters that have
been around for 150 years.
In this post-Ferguson,
post-Staten Island, post-Dayton Walmart, post-Cleveland city
park awareness that “Black Lives Matter” and that those in
leadership positions in our society need to figure out the
issues, that sensitivity did not make it to this stage.
Three excellent
African-American dancers were featured in this
production—all of them male. Three African-American male
character types were assigned in the production: the Sambo ,
the Drug Addict, and the Violent Murderer. Hmmmm.
Put into the role of the
Sambo to the character of the Knave, Sam Gandy was arguably
the most gifted dancer in the show. He hand sprang and back
flipped across the stage at multiple points in the show,
while embodying a graceful ease and the smooth musicality of
a Fred Astaire or Bill Robinson.
“The Knaves Pas de Deux”
followed by “Who stole the tarts?” showcased Gandy’s ability
to cross genres seamlessly, incorporating hip-hop, jazz,
contemporary, gymnastics and classical ballet. These were
highlights not only of the second half, but of the whole
show.
Apparently envisioned as a
day laborer, throughout the show Gandy juggled a 4x6, while
clad in plaid shirt, overalls, and straw hat. This portrayal
was clearly built on the antebellum Happy Sambo. While it
did not diminish the beauty of Gandy’s performance, it did
make this audience member squirm.
In case the cultural
reference wasn’t clear, this masterful dancer’s “Who stole
the tarts?” was set to a musical number piece reminiscent of
a down-South hoedown which immediately brought to mind the
infamous “crows on a wire” scene from Disney’s Dumbo.
To the production’s credit, the character ate no watermelon
and did not stroll across the stage selling loosies.
Playing the role of Drug
Addict to the character of The Caterpillar, Domonique Glover
performed with the elegant grace of the experienced
professional dancer that he is. To be fair, the character
of the Caterpillar was blue, so the race of the dancer was
not immediately apparent to the audience. However, Glover
is a mainstay of Toledo Ballet, with a strong and
recognizable style, well known from other roles.
As readers of Carroll’s
Alice will recall, the Caterpillar lounges languidly
smoking a water pipe and dispensing bits of confused advice
to the little girl trying to make her way through the
garden. In the ballet, Caterpillar and Alice perform a
brief, beautifully executed pas de deux before Alice
goes on her way. In its update of Alice with all the
artistic license it took, it would have been great if Toledo
Ballet could have left out the hookah and given Cat a whole
different character—whether keeping him blue or not.
Finally, what
stereotypical treatment of black men would be complete
without a Violent Murderer? Toledo Ballet took advantage of
the Carroll role of Executioner to cast this part. The
multitalented Antonio Winfree played the role well,
exhibiting excellent acting technique and stage presence,
and bringing to this ghoulish part a dancer’s grace.
However, Winfree’s talents
could have been put to use in several other roles in the
story, most obviously that of Bill the Lizard which would
have allowed him to share much more of his dancing ability.
The Executioner’s part was small, and though Winfree did a
fine job, it could have been done by many different
dancers—unlike, it can be argued, the parts of Knave and
Cat.
It was an interesting and
unfortunate choice, then, for the producers to put one of
the three black men in their company into this role, when
any thinking person in 2015 should realize they should think
twice before carelessly coupling violence and black. The
producers then emphasized blackness and physicality by
costuming this character shirtless . What were they
thinking?
Of course some will say as
a critic I am looking for racism. Well, duh!! The point is,
that it is so very easy to find—and actually, I wasn’t
looking for it nor expecting it, though I do look at the
world through a lens critical of racism.
Indeed, the racist casting
was subtle enough to my mis-educated mind simply to make my
enjoyment of the production just a little less complete
while the show was on. But hours later it woke me up in the
middle of the night, my dream life having worked out the
tripartite characterization, showing me in dreamy diagrams
how neat and complete the job was and forcing me to get up
much earlier than I had intended and to type this column.
The only thing that gives
me hesitation in sending it off is that I would not want the
three dancers identified to feel in any way criticized. But
I am fairly certain that they, being the clearly thoughtful
young men that they are, have already recognized the roles
in which they were cast—or is that caste?
Let me be clear: the
performances by Gandy, Glover, and Winfree were outstanding
and there is no fault to be found with them. And I am quite
sure that these intelligent young men also recognize
themselves as kindred spirits and culture warriors with the
performers who have gone before them—Bill Robinson, Sidney
Poitier, Paul Robeson, and other—achieving artistic and
social greatness while working in racist industries.
But do their fellow
dancers know this? Do the students in Toledo Ballet know it?
Do the children and adults in the audience know it? We can
hope they do, but culture is so subtle, so omnipresent, that
if they aren’t being taught to think critically about the
creations they make and enjoy, probably they do not.
Meanwhile, the unacknowledged racism of our U.S. culture
continues to wreck havoc.
While beautiful and clever
in many, many ways, sadly, the Toledo Ballet production must
overall receive a big thumbs down. Indeed, its cleverness
and beauty make it even more insidious: it is tempting to
brush off the depiction as accidental, inconsequential in
the face of the accomplishment of the production. But we
cannot be mistaken: it has consequences.
Orange Rogers is a freelance journalist and patron of the
arts living and learning in the southeast Michigan/northwest
Ohio cultural corridor. |
