With the current brouhaha about Harvey Weinstein, it's been interesting to see men (both straight and gay) letting people know that they were victims of male-on-male sexual harassment. In addition to Angyal's eye-opening article, I heartily recommend the following:
- Opera's Sexual Assault Secret, published by Dan Kempson on Medium.com.
- What Happened When I Reported Workplace Sexual Harassment Is Why People Choose To Stay Silent, published by Jose Alonso Munoz on Huffington Post.
- If You’re Surprised By Terry Crews’ Harassment Admission, Then You Don’t Know Terry Crews, published by Matthew Rozsa on Salon.com.
In 2015, the producers of So You Think You Can Dance rose to the challenge of commissioning an emotional ballet from choreographer (and former SYTYCD contestant) Travis Wall for two of its male contestants: Alex Wong and Jim Nowakowski.
The New York Times recently published a major piece by Gia Kourlas entitled When Two Men Fall in Love on the Ballet Stage, and Why It Matters. Earlier this year, Bobbi Jo Hart's superb documentary about Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo entitled Rebels en Pointe appeared at numerous film festivals and is due for general release.
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A poignant new documentary by David Barba and James Pellerito about American Ballet Theatre's principal dancer, Marcelo Gomes, is now working its way around the festival circuit. A Brazilian dancer who was born in Manaus and grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Gomes was a prizewinner at the 1996 Prix de Lausanne. |
| Marcelo Gomes (Photo by: Enrico Nawrath) |
While Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer covers the usual territory of dancers coping with injuries, icing their aching feet, enduring constant travel and the never-ending struggle to meet their own high artistic standards, it also includes candid moments such as a visit to Marcelo's old dorm room in Florida and a discussion with the young artists studying at Miami City Ballet.
During his two decades as a professional dancer, Gomes has been hailed for his solid technique and strong stage presence. However, his partnering skills (as well as the grace with which he puts the needs of his ballerinas above his own ego) have made him beloved by many dancers. While the women he has partnered (including Julie Kent, Diana Vishneva, Polina Semionova, and Misty Copeland) all speak glowingly of his attentiveness and intuitive support, Gomes speaks candidly of the craft and responsibilities involved in partnering as well as how ballet has helped him learn how to be a better man. With a strong paternal instinct, he looks forward to getting married and raising children some day.
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| Marcelo Gomes |
Throughout the film, Marcelo's inherent warmth is visible in the spontaneous and affectionate body language he shares with friends, family members, and professional colleagues. A visit to the famed Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in Saint Petersburg captures moments of awe upon seeing costumes worn by such ballet legends as Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov when they were on the brink of major international careers.
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| Marcelo Gomes (Photo by: Paula Lobo) |
Gomes doesn't hesitate to discuss the loving support he received from his family (including an uncle who died of AIDS) as well as the sense of loss he feels in the wake of his parents' divorce and his father's failure to come to New York to see his son perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. And yet, from footage of his earliest years studying ballet to rehearsals and taped performances showing Gomes as a principal dancer, it's impossible to ignore the wealth of empathy that underpins his technique (a characteristic that rarely shows up in dance documentaries).
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| Marcelo Gomes (Photo by: Robyn Cosio) |
In addition to testimonials from the women Marcelo has partnered, Anatomy of A Male Ballet Dancer also features commentary from such male colleagues as Leonid Sarafanov, Kevin McKenzie, David Hallberg, and Alexei Ratmansky. As he nears 40, Gomes has been branching out from performing as a principal dancer with ABT and guest artist with international companies to start choreographing new works. In 2011, he began work on a project entitled Kings of the Dance, which has allowed him to create new ballets for some of the world's leading danseurs. The following clip shows them working in a dance studio and discussing what the experience means to them (one of the dancers, Guillaume Côté, also composed the score for this new ballet).
Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer (which is being shown at a benefit screening during the 2017 San Francisco Dance Film Festival) is currently making its rounds on the film festival circuit. To get a true sense of the love and respect for the artistry of Marcelo Gomes shared by the public and his professional colleagues, take a few minutes to enjoy this footage of Marcelo's curtain call for the performance of Giselle (with Christine Shevchenko and Stella Abrera) on May 30, 2017, that celebrated his 20th anniversary as a company member with ABT.
In addition to showing that a career in ballet is a viable option for young boys who dream of becoming classical dancers, Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer offers audiences another kind of inspiration. In a world where heroic figures are increasingly depicted as football players risking chronic traumatic encephalopathy to score a goal -- or musclebound action heroes who fight violence with violence -- male ballet dancers are shown to be strong and intelligent athletes devoted to using their bodies as a form of artistic expression.
Not only does Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer telegraph the message that ballet is an art form where gay men can thrive (as well as a place where, based on their talent, they will be welcomed with open arms), it shows that they will be able to work in an environment relatively free from homophobia. In short, they can lead a fully-integrated lifestyle in which they love what they do, are challenged to excel, get to work with extremely talented people, and develop close friendships.
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At a time when homophobia and fear of "the other" are on the rise, another movie reminds viewers what it was like when gay men risked their lives simply by acknowledging their sexual fantasies and carnal desires. A video clip from the relaunch of Will & Grace features Ben Platt as a clueless young gay man with no sense of history.Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer depicts art as a gateway to professional fulfillment, personal pride, and public acclaim while this new biopic depicts art as a way out of an oppressive lifestyle that stifles the soul and forces unhappy men to lead rigidly compartmentalized lives. Tom of Finland tells the story of a mild-mannered illustrator who achieved international fame after filling his graphic art with a hypersexual style of male eroticism that helped millions of repressed men shed the shame of struggling to articulate their fantasies and embrace their sexual identity. In his director's statement, Dome Karukoski writes:
"This is the story of a man ahead of his time, who bravely fought for his right to be who he was -- a gay man with gay fantasies. I hope the film shows how one person can create change in the world, even with something as simple as an artist’s tools. It is a long-overdue portrait of a celebrated artist but it is also, at its heart, a love story. Touko Laaksonen lived a truly incredible life that I am honored to share with the world."
Written by Aleksi Bardy and directed by Dome Karukoski, Tom of Finland takes viewers back to World War II, when homosexuality was still "the love that dare not speak its name" and Finnish society was so repressive that gays were often vulnerable to entrapment and arrest. Although Laaksonen's erotic drawings were scandalous to many Europeans, he eventually managed to get his work published in California, where his sketches of muscular sailors, cops, and men in leather served as tacit signals of a man's interest in BDSM the same way introducing someone as "A friend of Judy's" worked in other circles.
As the sexual revolution of the 1970s continued to blossom (with the Village People and Castro clone offering popular icons of gay male fantasy figures that had a much more visceral appeal that Mattell's neutered Ken doll), Laaksonen became a cultural hero to a growing culture of leather enthusiasts emerging from the closet. A description of Tom of Finland on ArtNet.com states:
“Tom of Finland, a moniker of Touko Laaksonen, was a Finnish illustrator best known for his distinctively stylized homoerotic drawings. An influential aesthetic force in late 20th-century gay culture, his illustrations were rendered in grayscale graphite and often featured uniformed men with exaggerated musculature and genitalia either performing or implying sexual activities. 'I almost never draw a completely naked man,' he once explained. 'To me, a fully dressed man is more erotic than a naked one. A naked man is, of course, beautiful, but dress him in black leather or a uniform -- ah, then is more than beautiful, he is sexy!' Both the content and militaristic style of his work was informed by the artist’s time spent serving in the Finnish armed forces, and he originally began creating his erotic drawings for his own entertainment."
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| Niklas Hogner as fantasy figure Kake in a scene from Tom of Finland |
“The critical reception of his work has shifted in tandem with changing political landscapes. Prior to the 1970s, Laaksonen's art was either censored or rejected by mainstream culture, whereas after the end of the 20th century, his illustrations have been championed by gay activists and fine arts institutions alike. In 2013, the exhibition Bob Mizer & Tom of Finland held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles offered a comprehensive survey of his work. Finnish national stamps featuring Laaksonen's drawings were released in 2014. Born on May 8, 1920 in Kaarina Finland, the artist died in Helsinki, Finland on November 7, 1991.”
While many people in the gay community are familiar with the art of Tom of Finland, few people have seen Touko Laaksonen portrayed as a character onscreen. A documentary directed by Ilppo Pohjola entitled Daddy and the Muscle Academy: The Life and Art of Tom of Finland was released in 1991 (the same year (the artist died in Finland at the age of 71 from a stroke induced by his emphysema). This new biopic (blessed with a score by the Icelandic cellist, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and some wonderful cinematography by Lasse Frank) delves into Laaksonen's early awareness of his homosexuality and how his drawings pulled him out of the closet by offering him a way to entice men interested in his sexual fantasies. Pekka Strang gives a quiet, restrained performance as Laaksonen, with Jessica Grabowsky as his sister, Kaija (also an illustrator).
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| Lauri Tilkanen (Nipa), Jessica Grabowsky (Kaija), and Pekka Strang (Tuoko) in a scene from Tom of Finland |
Lauri Tilkanen shines as the closeted, insecure dancer who first met Touko during a late night tryst in a public park, answered an ad to rent a room in the artist's home several years later, and was Laaksonen's lover until he succumbed to throat cancer in 1981. Seumas Sargent and Jakob Oftebro appear as two gay men who helped the artist get his work published in America. The film ends with Touko in Los Angeles as he sees his fantasy come to life at a pool party with muscular gay men living openly and without fear of being arrested. The artist enthusiastically greets them with the film's final words: "Hello, boys!" Here's the trailer:
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