These Two Female Royal Ballet Dancers Will Change the Way You View a Duet
While ballet may feel female-dominated in that there are plenty of onstage opportunities for women, key behind-the-scenes roles like choreographer and artistic director are still largely held by men—a point that is increasingly being raised and questioned in the dance world thanks to female choreographers like Crystal Pite and Charlotte Edmonds. Also helping to break that mold is rising female choreographer Kristen McNally, who not only choreographed a recent duet for CNN Style, but also paired two women to bring it to life.
In the short film, which features McNally’s choreo and is directed by Andrew Margetson, Royal Ballet first soloist Beatriz Stix-Brunell and principal Yasmine Naghdi changed the expectations on gender roles in ballet—and the end result is awesome. Nearly identical in appearance, the dancers’ movements and lines also mirror each other throughout the piece, even when dancing in canon. Even more impressively, McNally told CNN Style, “The dancers and I did two rehearsals and then we shot the film.”
Check out the full duet for yourself, below.
