I had these thoughts yesterday and I wish I had taken the time to write them down (instead I spent most of the day on my 8w2aHaHo project.)
A very good dancer friend just shared this article about Free People and now I’m even more enraged then I was when I wrote my original “Beyond the Ballerina” post.
I had an inkling it was a publicity stunt. I was thinking all day yesterday while I cleaned about Goldiblocks and how after the drama and outrage died down it was speculated that they deliberately caused the drama to get publicity (and the Super Bowl spot). I mean, no publicity is bad publicity, right? Even drama still gets your name out there, right?
Well, frankly, it pisses me off. To deliberately alienate a group of people, people who are inherently loving, giving and selfless (you have to be to keep dancing) is just wrong.
Now they’re launching this “new” ad campaign featuring real (and beautiful) ballerinas due to the uproar a in the dance community, but I call bullshit. There is no way to throw a photo shoot together like that so quickly, it was all pre-planned. It was all a carefully devised PR scheme and it makes me hate Free People even more.
I’m not going to call a boycott of Free People for these reasons because frankly, I can’t afford their stuff anyway and if you want to waste your money on $150 ballet sippers that will probably make you fall on your ass if you try to dance in them, go for it.
What I will ask you to do, though, is to consider supporting the little guy instead, the dancers themselves. Ballet is an art of passion and only the top dancers in the top companies make enough to survive. The rest are forced to teach, wait tables, work retail or do some other unrelated job just to feed their passion (and themselves).
Some take the creative route and use their artistic abilities to create and sell items, and I ask you to consider supporting these artists instead of some commercial clothing line that cares so much about dancers it pissed us all off just to get their name out there.
Do you know a dancer who makes dance attire? If so, leave their information in the comments section and let’s forget about Free People and instead support the dance world and build each other up!
Here is one lovely dancer I know who makes custom made leotards:
I grew up dancing with Sharmaine Perea and she is now a dancer with San Diego Ballet. She is also the designer, creator and dancer behind Charms Dancewear, a line of custom leotards available on Etsy.
