Name: Think ballet is too froo-froo? The amazing James Whiteside will turn your head.
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Think ballet is too froo-froo? The amazing James Whiteside will turn your head.

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It’s a tired stereotype that all male ballet dancers are gay. (Heck, it’s even the plot of the 2000 coming-of-age dramedy Billy Elliot). But James B. Whiteside is using his platform to show the true complexity, challenges and satisfaction he has experienced professional ballet dancer. He currently works as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.“The art form is so delicate and beautiful, and people are afraid of it,” the 37-year-old dancer said. “I don’t think people understand the rigor involved in classical ballet. Our job is to make it look effortless, but the reality is, it’s damn hard.”He started practicing dance at age 9 and became a professional at age 17. He now rehearses about 7 hours a day, getting only 5-minute breaks at the top of ever hour (and no lunch break). He has always been out as a performer, but that doesn’t mean his career hasn’t had its challenges.His 2021 memoir — Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost-Memoir of a Boy in Ballet — offers an unflinchingly honest yet fantastical look into his experiences with dance, drag, sex, partying and pain. He also released about 28 podcasts of The Stage Rightside, a comedic yet informative podcast with various stage-dance professionals “brought to you live from James’ dressing room, backstage at the Metropolitan Theatre.”Whiteside has used his alter-ego, JB Dubbs, to combine hard-hitting hip-hop and ballet with flamboyant flair that he can’t always share on the professional stage. One of Dubb’s music videos, “WTF”, is a response in favor of the #MeToo movement’s shakeup of sexual harassment in the dance world.Whiteside was in a 12-year relationship with Dan Donigan, a performer better known as Drag Race alumn Milk. Together, they performed alongside three others — Skim, Jugs, and Linda Lakes — as Milk and the Dairy Queens. Whiteside’s persona in the group was YooHoo, named after a brand of chocolate milk.He and Donigan have since amicably parted, though Whiteside has also occasionally performed in drag around New York City as Ühu Betch.“Classical ballet can be really rigid,” he said in . “In order to accept queerness into ballet, there have to be queer stories being told. I dance for a very classical ballet company, and our bread and butter are the classics.”He that, outside of all the heteronormative princes he has played, he has been able to give an effeminate interpretation to his villainous roles, like the wicked sorcerer von Rothbart in “Swan Lake” and the villain Iago in “Othello.” But he knows this can play into the harmful gay-villain trope.“My greatest wish for ballet is to start telling more inclusive stories,” he said. “I’m a cis-gay man, and I want to play a cis-gay man in a role at some point before I retire.”Whiteside once performed live for at her birthday party and he is also a model represented by Wilhelmina Models.&nbsp;View this post on Instagram&nbsp;&nbsp;View this post on Instagram&nbsp;&nbsp;View this post on Instagram&nbsp;&nbsp;View this post on Instagram&nbsp;&nbsp;View this post on Instagram&nbsp;Subscribe to Queerty for a daily dose of #life #ballet #jameswhiteside stories and morePlease to add your commentNeed an account? *It's free and easy.This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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It’s a tired stereotype that all male ballet dancers are gay. (Heck, it’s even the plot of the 2000 coming-of-age dramedy Billy Elliot). But James B. Whiteside is using his platform to show the true complexity, challenges and satisfaction he has experienced professional ballet dancer. He currently works as a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre.“The art form is so delicate and beautiful, and people are afraid of it,” the 37-year-old dancer said. “I don’t think people understand the rigor involved in classical ballet. Our job is to make it look effortless, but the reality is, it’s...

Think ballet is too froo-froo? The amazing James Whiteside will turn your head.

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