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This spring, Bowdoin College welcomes Katy Pyle, the Artistic Director of “Ballez” which revises the heteronormative rules of ballet to design dances that celebrate queer experiences.

Ballez was conceived in 2011, when Pyle received a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange for which she began teaching “Ballez” class, a place to re-imagine ballet class for queer bodies. Since then, the Ballez company has created four ballets including Firebird (2013), Variations on Virtuosity (2015), Sleeping Beauty & The Beast (2016), and Slavic Goddesses (2017).

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Katy Pyle working with students at Bowdin [Photo by Ann Basu]