DOS_patos
Unverified Legion of Trill member
Maybelline Fit Me foundation is Nia Parker’s preferred method for dyeing her pointe shoes — it comes in a wide range of colors and you can get it cheap. “We all go for drugstore [brands] because we don’t want to get a $40 foundation for our feet,” the Hiplet Ballerinas dance captain explains.
In traditional ballet, dancers extend the visual line of their legs and feet using pink tights and shoes. But very few Hiplet performers are pink, hence the need to dye them a different hue.
Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center artistic director Homer Hans Bryant developed and trademarked the dance style (pronounced “hip-lay”), which marries hip-hop and other contemporary genres with classical ballet on pointe. The innovative creation earned the group national attention in 2016 after some social media posts led to press from Buzzfeed and appearances on "Steve Harvey" and "Good Morning America."
Then, inevitably, came the backlash — from critics who said the form bastardized both classical ballet and real hip-hop, and that the dancers looked unsafe in their pointe shoes. This latter criticism in particular roils Parker.
“You have to start with traditional, classical pointe training before you even think about Hiplet,” she says. Parker, a 20-year-old Chicago native, studied pointe under Bryant for four years before starting Hiplet. “You need to be able to train your body and muscles to align your bones in a certain way that you prevent injuries and have a long career,” she says. Parker says this training never stops — which is essential for the complicated blends that occur in a typical Hiplet performance.
Hiplet Ballerinas
© DANIELLE LEVITT/AUGUST
“You have to learn how to essentially cut your body in half,” she says. “My arms can be doing classical movements but my legs could be doing hip-hop or Latin. You see elements of African, Latin and modern within 32 counts sometimes. Hiplet’s like a big rainbow of everything.” Even to the untrained eye it’s hard to miss the range of emotions Hiplet dancers evoke in the span of a single song — pride, elegance, sass, grace, funk, and above all, confidence, owning your space. (Parker, 5-foot-10 barefoot, walks tall at 6-foot-2 en pointe.)
Big names like Jamila Woods, Thom Yorke and Nordstrom have hired the ballerinas as performers and models since they went viral. “A theme with a lot of the projects we’ve worked on is an undertone or an overtone of innovation and modernization,” Parker says. Last fall, the dancers went on tour, while alumni have gone on to work at Broadway in Chicago, teach ballet academically or perform on actual Broadway in New York.
One of Parker’s favorite performances was for a video the group did alongside the American Ballet Theater for the brand Rag & Bone. “When we went viral, a lot of people didn’t fully comprehend that we weren’t entirely just messing around en pointe,” she says. “The second the American Ballet Theater dancers saw us doing what we were doing, they were like, ‘That is not easy. We don’t know how you all are doing that.’” Their input was gratifying, Parker says. “A lot of people were trying to oversimplify the style and re-create it, even though it took years of practice to really get up and do it.”
While Bryant and co. brushed off much of the criticism they received as dance snobbery mixed with prejudice against brown bodies and culture, under the spotlight they saw opportunities for improvement. “We noticed that we needed to work on our synchronicity as a unit,” Parker says. “Before, we were in our basement by ourselves on Friday nights having a good time.” As Hiplet becomes more popular, in addition to working on the cohesion of the dancing, Parker says that Bryant wants to standardized how it’s taught. “We want the younger dancers who come in to manage their expectations of when they can actually do Hiplet. It’s been like creating an official curriculum and not a word-of-mouth curriculum.”
Parker thinks part of Hiplet’s higher profile has to do with a larger conversation about black ballerinas — plural (quick, how many can you name who aren’t Misty Copeland?). “A lot of ballet companies say that they’re looking out for us and diversity, but they’re just bringing in like one or two to say that they have one. But there’s a lot of us out here.”
She also thinks Hiplet has struck a chord because its ballerinas, who range in age from 14 to 32, don’t fit a particular physical mold. “We don’t discriminate on body type here,” Parker says. “As long as you can do pointe safely, we’re fine with that.”
hipletballerinas.com
In traditional ballet, dancers extend the visual line of their legs and feet using pink tights and shoes. But very few Hiplet performers are pink, hence the need to dye them a different hue.
Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center artistic director Homer Hans Bryant developed and trademarked the dance style (pronounced “hip-lay”), which marries hip-hop and other contemporary genres with classical ballet on pointe. The innovative creation earned the group national attention in 2016 after some social media posts led to press from Buzzfeed and appearances on "Steve Harvey" and "Good Morning America."
Then, inevitably, came the backlash — from critics who said the form bastardized both classical ballet and real hip-hop, and that the dancers looked unsafe in their pointe shoes. This latter criticism in particular roils Parker.
“You have to start with traditional, classical pointe training before you even think about Hiplet,” she says. Parker, a 20-year-old Chicago native, studied pointe under Bryant for four years before starting Hiplet. “You need to be able to train your body and muscles to align your bones in a certain way that you prevent injuries and have a long career,” she says. Parker says this training never stops — which is essential for the complicated blends that occur in a typical Hiplet performance.
Hiplet Ballerinas
© DANIELLE LEVITT/AUGUST
“You have to learn how to essentially cut your body in half,” she says. “My arms can be doing classical movements but my legs could be doing hip-hop or Latin. You see elements of African, Latin and modern within 32 counts sometimes. Hiplet’s like a big rainbow of everything.” Even to the untrained eye it’s hard to miss the range of emotions Hiplet dancers evoke in the span of a single song — pride, elegance, sass, grace, funk, and above all, confidence, owning your space. (Parker, 5-foot-10 barefoot, walks tall at 6-foot-2 en pointe.)
Big names like Jamila Woods, Thom Yorke and Nordstrom have hired the ballerinas as performers and models since they went viral. “A theme with a lot of the projects we’ve worked on is an undertone or an overtone of innovation and modernization,” Parker says. Last fall, the dancers went on tour, while alumni have gone on to work at Broadway in Chicago, teach ballet academically or perform on actual Broadway in New York.
One of Parker’s favorite performances was for a video the group did alongside the American Ballet Theater for the brand Rag & Bone. “When we went viral, a lot of people didn’t fully comprehend that we weren’t entirely just messing around en pointe,” she says. “The second the American Ballet Theater dancers saw us doing what we were doing, they were like, ‘That is not easy. We don’t know how you all are doing that.’” Their input was gratifying, Parker says. “A lot of people were trying to oversimplify the style and re-create it, even though it took years of practice to really get up and do it.”
While Bryant and co. brushed off much of the criticism they received as dance snobbery mixed with prejudice against brown bodies and culture, under the spotlight they saw opportunities for improvement. “We noticed that we needed to work on our synchronicity as a unit,” Parker says. “Before, we were in our basement by ourselves on Friday nights having a good time.” As Hiplet becomes more popular, in addition to working on the cohesion of the dancing, Parker says that Bryant wants to standardized how it’s taught. “We want the younger dancers who come in to manage their expectations of when they can actually do Hiplet. It’s been like creating an official curriculum and not a word-of-mouth curriculum.”
Parker thinks part of Hiplet’s higher profile has to do with a larger conversation about black ballerinas — plural (quick, how many can you name who aren’t Misty Copeland?). “A lot of ballet companies say that they’re looking out for us and diversity, but they’re just bringing in like one or two to say that they have one. But there’s a lot of us out here.”
She also thinks Hiplet has struck a chord because its ballerinas, who range in age from 14 to 32, don’t fit a particular physical mold. “We don’t discriminate on body type here,” Parker says. “As long as you can do pointe safely, we’re fine with that.”
hipletballerinas.com
