![]() ![]() He achieved in six months what takes most dancers years. En pointe shoes, which elongate the legs, make it possible for dancers to balance and spin, creating a sense they are momentarily suspended in air.Įdwards showed immediate talent for en pointe work, says Boal. That’s because it requires strength and technique to rise from a flat foot position to standing on tip toes. We said, ‘Why not? Lead us and we will work with you.’ ”ĭancers typically train for years before they are ready for en pointe shoes that tightly encase the feet. “Ashton led us there,” says Boal, speaking of Edwards’ request to study en pointe. What is unique about Edwards, he says, is that he is a man doing serious en pointe work in a professional ballet setting. These productions have been for extreme comic effect, says Peter Boal, the artistic director for the Pacific Northwest Ballet. There are the rare men who dance women’s roles, such as the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella and the Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male drag troupe. Dances were often based on fairy tales with princesses and princes. What he really wanted to do was to dance en pointe, the technique where you dance on the tips of your toes using special ballet shoes.ĬREDIT: En Avant Photography Dancing on a glass ceilingĬlassical ballet has long embraced stereotypical ideas about masculinity and femininity. They really go hand in hand.”Įdwards spent years training for traditionally male ballet roles, but it was beginning to feel too limiting, he says. ![]() But, he says, he explained “how dance was so close to me and how I couldn’t have one thing and not the other. “I was not expecting the school to be so open and accepting,” says Edwards. Ballet is a highly structured discipline with rigid divisions between the sexes. In the past, those words would have been enough to toss a dancer out of the corps. “It took a lot of searching within myself,” says Edwards, “but I think my goals in life and in my career and who I saw myself as a person were much bigger than just one small box I was put in. What he really wanted to do was to dance en pointe, the technique where you dance on the tips of your toes using special ballet shoes. ![]() It was beginning to feel too limiting, says Edwards. He has been studying classical ballet since he was 4 - but always in male roles. Women are prized for their delicate precision and the ability to seemingly defy gravity.Īshton Edwards is an 18-year-old ballet student with the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s elite Professional Division in Seattle. Men need power to lift their female partners. The fact that he does it in pointe shoes is a rare feat.īallet traditionally has very divided roles for men and women. The way that ballet dancer Ashton Edwards leaps through the air is pure art. ![]()
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