Russian Ballerinas Dance in Blackface, West Screams RACISM!, Russia Shrugs

Russians despise self-righteous virtue signalling. The mulatto American prima ballerina having a fit, Misty Copeland, is muscular to the point of ugly weirdness (see below video). So its true when they say that black women have far more testosterone than white women. 

Transcript:

The Bolshoi Theater was accused of racism. A prima of the American ballet considered the stage images of the troupe as discrimination. She was outraged that, during the rehearsal of La Bayadere, the girls put on brown makeup.

Denis Alekseev found out how the theater management reacted to the hysterical outrage.

In the traditional theater, particularly in the ballet, it's called blackface. It's when a white person applies makeup to portray a black person. All of a sudden, the famous La Bayadere has become a symbol of world racism.

And this is the reality of the ballet world. Seeds of doubt that art at the Bolshoi Theater has gone beyond political correctness were planted by Misty Copeland, the first black prima ballerina of the American Ballet Theater posting a photo of the Bolshoi's young dancers in makeup and in black gloves and tights. The wave of negative responses was growing in the comments below the post of the American dancer.

“This is unacceptable. I can't believe I'm looking at it. How does this happen in 2019?!”

“Disappointed, but I'm never surprised by racism in our world.”

Proponents of real art, not the art of inflating scandals, point out an important detail — historically, there's also a golden god in La Bayadere. The performer of this role is painted gold from head to toe.

Nikolay Tsiskaridze: “This performance has been going on since 1877 and it's performed like this. Just like other plays in which there are characters of different colors. There are only Russian classical dances in the world. There's no other classic. They use our repertoire, mercilessly mutilating it and disfiguring it. They must adhere to the rules of the culture they took the performance from.”

Supporters of so-called "tolerant" art propose to replace the painted dancers with black actors. They've got no complaints about golden characters. Probably for now.

Evgeniy Malikov, critic: “Is there any racism from the point of view of the Bolshoi Theater? Of course, not. It's a cultural tradition. Art is always a convention. Why does anybody need to look for black performers?”

It seems that Western cultural tradition is to reproach the Russians, and not only them, for discrimination and racism. They say the topic is sensitive for African Americans.

Armen Gasparyan, political analyst: “This has reached the point of absurdity. A phrase about the "damned Dutchman" is cut out from Treasure Island because it can offend modern European readers. Now we can't apply makeup. At the same time, the same people say that Russia has the audacity to celebrate May 9th. Great Britain and France celebrate the victory in the Great War, which is what they call the First World War, and this is fine for the Americans. Everything that happens in Russia is perceived through the prism of racism and chauvinism.”

The Bolshoi Theater, which is now preparing for a summer tour in the United States, was surprised at such a backlash. This is the first time for the century-old ballet.

Vladimir Urin, General Director, the Bolshoi Theater: “The La Bayadere ballet has been held in this edition thousands of times in Russia and abroad, and the Bolshoi Theater won't get involved in such a discussion.”

Not everyone supported the topic of racism in the black ballerina's Instagram. A lot of subscribers already regarded her behavior as the bullying of the kids. After the link to the Bolshoi's dancers was published, they all deleted their accounts.