Traditionalists baulk at ballet's FHM spread

By KATHY MARKS

SYDNEY - A provocative picture spread in a men's magazine of five of Australia's top ballerinas in bikinis has upset traditionalists, who say that it cheapens the art form.

Some patrons of the Australian Ballet, the country's premier ballet company, have cancelled their subscriptions in protest at the pictures in the January issue of the Australian edition of FHM magazine.

The spread, which is headlined "Unleash the codpiece, it's the Australian Ballet's sexiest", is part of a campaign to break down ballet's elite, conservative image and attract a new, younger audience.

The company's artistic director, David McAllister, said: "There are a whole lot of negative ideas that dancers are anorexic and waif-like, and I thought this was a really good way of showing the girls as athletic and strong and sexy. I feel there is a whole community out there who see ballet as slightly old-fashioned, tired and a bit dusty."

The photographs, which feature captions such as "Guys say 'so you must be pretty flexible' – wink, wink", were also defended by the ballerinas themselves.

Olivia Bell, a 23-year-old soloist, said: "I don't think it makes us look hot or raunchy. I think it's a really positive look. It's just showing everyone that these are the amazing bodies that are our tools. We're trying to break down the barrier that ballet is just for the cultured. Ballet is for everyone."

But the spread was condemned by Susan Thomson, an Australian Ballet School graduate who runs a classical ballet school in Melbourne. "It is absolutely inappropriate," she said. "It definitely cheapens it.

I think the pictures are lewd and a bit rude." She said that if young people were not going to performances, it was because the company was not putting on suitable ballets. "If they're short of customers, they should be looking at what they are doing wrong," she said.

Mr McAllister said that the company already offered a mix of classical and contemporary ballet and said that the picture shoot had been in general positively received. "I don't think beauty can be cheapened," he said.

Ms Bell warned new patrons that what they saw on stage would be different from the magazine images.

"They are going to the ballet, they are not going to a strip show," she said.

Another dancer featured in FHM, 26-year-old Renee Wright, said that it was about building the kind of recognition given to elite athletes. "Sex sells anything," she said.

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