Students Making Change: Moselle Haney on The Truth about Ballet
Welcome back to another one of my swells. And for those of you who are new here, Hello. My name is Liora. Today, today, today, today, today, today, I'm chatting with Moselle about director at Confluence Dance Theater and a recently retired Ballerina
Moselle Eileen
@mos.elle · 1:28
And from that time of ten or eleven to about 19, I was just obsessed with ballet. And that was all I thought about. And my favorite thing about being a ballerina was being on stage and just the rush of being in front of an audience with the stage lights on you and hair, makeup, costume. The whole thing. I just love performing it's
That's really amazing. I completely understand the allure of the stage. Like I said, I'm not a dancer, but I did do a lot of theater and choirrelated performances when I was growing up, and I always loved being on on stage. It made me nervous because I'm an anxious person. But it was always so invigorating. And whenever I've seen a ballet, I've always been so in awe of just the beauty and Grace that the dancers exude
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Moselle Eileen
@mos.elle · 1:34
During those times that you're dancing, it's a hard life. It's really grueling. And I think that ultimately led me to leave the ballet world was I just couldn't handle the unrealistic expectations that were put on us to be superhuman. And all the time, that was really frustrating for me
I'm very sorry to hear that. No one really thinks about what it takes to put together a beautiful performance. There's a lot that goes into it. And from what you're saying, it sounds like the expectations for that are just way too high. I never really knew how vigorous the demands are, and I'm sure most of our listeners weren't aware either
Moselle Eileen
@mos.elle · 1:45
So I think for that change to happen, it's unfortunate, but the dancers are the ones that have to speak up in companies where dancers are speaking up, where they unionize and their unions are able to negotiate better schedules and hiring practices for them. We see change happening, but it's slow going. And this is really why I started Confluence Dance Theater was to create an environment that was healthier, where the expectations were different
I'm glad to hear the changes being made, even if it's on a small scale. Even just hearing that the dancers themselves have such an impact when they do speak up gives me a lot of hope for the future of ballet. And I realize I'm somewhat of of an optimist, but taking into account the new ideas and reforms that are becoming common knowledge, I don't think it's too much to expect that the ballet industry will follow suit
Moselle Eileen
@mos.elle · 1:51
I know that we want to do a lot of digital programming so that it's more accessible to different audience members and people who wouldn't have access to ballet. Otherwise. I know in our recruiting process of dancers, I'm seeking out dancers who are different, who have maybe not the typical ballet body type, who might have a different gender identity than what is than the binary that's so prevalent in ballet
But since ballet is so demanding, it takes up a lot of time and energy, I was wondering what new hobbies have come into your life since you left Ballet, what has become your new passion? Or Alternatively, what are some things that you're eager to try and do now that you're retired
Moselle Eileen
@mos.elle · 1:15
So now I'm just trying to find more ways of being active and doing things that I couldn't really do before. I was discouraged from doing before. Yeah
Well, that sounds great. I'm really glad that you found other things that you enjoy doing or enjoy learning about or are excited about now that ballet isn't as big of a part of your life anymore. But I also also love that it's still a part of your life through Confluence. And I'm sure you're going to do amazing things there
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:09
And it really inspired me during other pandemic because I love going out and dancing with friends and stuff, but I haven't been able to do that because of COVID and a good friend of mine who's also actually a former Ballerina, told me about something she had been doing at home called Dance Church, and I had never heard of Dance Church before, but they do classes around the country at various places, and they started doing some online once the pandemic started, and it is so freeing and such a good workout