Ballez

Ballez
General information
Name	Ballez
Year founded	2011
Principal venue	Brooklyn Arts Exchange Brooklyn, New York City New York, U.S.
Website	Ballez
Artistic staff
Artistic Director	Katy Pyle

Ballez is an American ballet company based in New York City. The company re-stages classical works and produces original ballets to emphasize LGBTQ representation in ballet.

History

Ballez was founded in 2011 by Katy Pyle, a lesbian and genderqueer dancer, with a focus on creating possibilities, representation, and inclusion for queer dancers within the patriarchal structure of ballet.^[1]^[2]^[3] The creation of Ballez was funded by a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange and was originally an outreach program to provide ballet classes to LGBTQ people that felt disenfranchised in traditional classical dance settings.^[4]^[5] The company aims to portray and include lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer people in ballet through their performances, public engagement programs, and classes that are open to the public.^[6]

Original takes on classical and story ballets that the company has performed include The Firebird, a Ballez, featuring a lesbian princess and a transgender prince, at Dancespace Project in 2013, Variations on Virtuosity, a Gala with the Stars of the Ballez at American Realness at Abrons Arts Center in 2015, and Sleeping Beauty & the Beast, based on historic events in queer history from the 1982 garment workers' strike to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s, at La Mama in 2016.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] Other original works by the company include Slavic Goddess, which was a collaboration with Paulina Olowska in 2017, and a pas de deux for Kyong H. Park's PILLOWTALK in 2018.^[6] In 2021 the Joyce Theatre presented Giselle of Loneliness, inspired by the ballet Giselle and the novel The Well of Loneliness.^[12]^[13]^[1]

Ballez hosts open adult ballet classes and offers free YouTube videos of ballet class for people who are not able to take class in New York.^[12]

References

^ ^a ^b Stiffler, Scott (2021-06-01). "Queering the Dance Canon: Katy Pyle's Ballez Transforms 'Giselle' - Chelsea Community News". Retrieved 2026-01-19.
^ "Katy Pyle, Ballez, and the Virtuosity of the Queer Body". Culturebot. 15 September 2015.
^ Kourlas, Gia (20 April 2016). "Katy Pyle and Her 'Misfits of Ballet'". The New York Times.
^ Kravitz, Melissa (29 June 2018). "Inside the Movement to Make Ballet a More LGBTQ-Inclusive Space". Cosmopolitan.
^ Stake, Kristen (May 2018). "Lez Dance — Ballez Artistic Director Katy Pyle on queering ballet vocabulary in Maine". The Portland Phoenix.
^ ^a ^b "Company".
^ "Katy Pyle Makes Ballez: Re-imagining "The Firebird"". www.dance-enthusiast.com.
^ Spurbeck, Elizabeth (18 August 2017). "Ballez Blazes New Path for the Diverse Future of Ballet". The Official Publication of the World of Dance Community.
^ "THE FIREBIRD, a Ballez - Katy Pyle". cargocollective.com.
^ "The Ballez - American Realness".
^ "Ballez - "Sleeping Beauty & the Beast"". 14 March 2016.
^ ^a ^b "This Queer Ballet Company Is Putting Their Classes Online For Everyone". them. 22 April 2019.
^ "Katy Pyle Is Queering Up the Ballet Canon with Her Ballez". Dance Magazine. 21 March 2018.

Dance companies in the United States
Ballet	Alabama Ballet Alameda Civic Ballet Alexandra Ballet Alonzo King LINES Ballet American Ballet Theatre American Repertory Ballet Anaheim Ballet Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Atlanta Ballet Atlanta Festival Ballet Ballet Arizona Ballet Austin Ballet Des Moines Ballet Fantastique Ballet Magnificat! Ballet Memphis BalletMet Ballet Minnesota Ballet Nouveau Colorado Ballet Quad Cities Ballet San Jose Ballet Theatre of Maryland Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Ballet West Ballez Bay Area Houston Ballet and Theatre Bay Pointe Ballet Boston Ballet California Riverside Ballet Carolina Ballet Cedar Lake Charlotte Ballet Chicago Ballet Chicago Festival Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cleveland Ballet Colorado Ballet Complexions Concert Ballet of Virginia Dance Theatre of Harlem Dayton Ballet Eugene Ballet Folsom Lake Civic Ballet Greensboro Ballet Gwinnett Ballet Theatre Houston Ballet James Sewell Ballet Joffrey Ballet Kansas City Ballet Los Angeles Ballet Louisville Ballet Miami City Ballet Morphoses Mystic Ballet National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Pacific Northwest Ballet Pennsylvania Ballet Pittsburgh Ballet Richmond Ballet San Francisco Ballet Sarasota Ballet Suzanne Farrell Ballet Texas Ballet Theater Tulsa Ballet The Washington Ballet
Contemporary	Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater AXIS Dance Company Ballet Deviare Ballet Hispanico Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company Dayton Contemporary Dance Company Dominic Walsh Hubbard Street Lar Lubovitch Martha Graham Momix Paul Taylor The Philadelphia Dance Company Pilobolus Ririe-Woodbury sjDANCEco Urban Bush Women Whim W'Him L.A. Dance Project
Other	Rangerettes Chicago Dance Crash Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater Ice Theatre of New York The LXD The Rockettes

Ballet companies
Africa	Cairo Opera Ballet Company Cape Town City Ballet
Asia	Ballet Manila Ballet Philippines Guangzhou Ballet Gwangju City Ballet Hong Kong Ballet Iranian National Ballet Company Israel Ballet K-ballet Korea National Ballet National Ballet of China New National Theatre Tokyo Philippine Ballet Theatre Seoul Ballet Theatre Shanghai Ballet Company Singapore Dance Theatre State Ballet of Georgia Tokyo Ballet Universal Ballet
Europe	Ballet Cymru Ballet Ireland Ballet Romand Ballet Zürich Les Ballets Persans Ballets Russes Barcelona Ballet Bayerisches Staatsballett Béjart Ballet Berlin State Ballet Birmingham Royal Ballet Bolshoi Ballet Charleroi Danses Cork City Ballet Royal Danish Ballet Donetsk Ballet Dutch National Ballet Eifman Ballet English National Ballet Finnish National Ballet Royal Ballet of Flanders Sukhishvili Georgian National Ballet Grand Kyiv Ballet Greek National Opera Hamburg Ballet Hungarian National Ballet Kyiv Ballet Kyiv City Ballet Kyiv Modern-Ballet La Scala Theatre Ballet Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet Mariinsky Ballet Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Moldova The Monte-Carlo Ballet National Opera and Ballet of Bulgaria Northern Ballet Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Novosibirsk Theatre Ballet Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre Original Ballet Russe Paris Opera Ballet Perm Theatre Ballet Polish National Ballet National Ballet of Portugal The Royal Ballet Rambert Dance Company Russian State Ballet of Siberia Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre Scottish Ballet Spanish National Dance Company Stanislavski Ballet Stuttgart Ballet Royal Swedish Ballet Théâtre du Silence Turkish State Opera and Ballet United Ukrainian Ballet Company Vienna State Ballet
North America	Alabama Ballet Alberta Ballet Company Alexandra Ballet Alonzo King LINES Ballet American Ballet Theatre American Midwest Ballet American Repertory Ballet Anaheim Ballet Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Atlanta Ballet Atlanta Festival Ballet Ballet Arizona Ballet Austin Ballet BC Ballet Des Moines Ballet Fantastique Ballet Hispanico Ballet Magnificat! Ballet Memphis BalletMet Ballet Minnesota Ballet Quad Cities Ballet San Jose Ballet Theatre of Maryland Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo Ballet West Ballez Bay Pointe Ballet Boston Ballet Les Grands Ballets Canadiens California Riverside Ballet Carolina Ballet Charlotte Ballet Chicago Ballet Chicago Festival Ballet Cincinnati Ballet Cleveland Ballet (1935 · 1972 · 2014) Colorado Ballet Complexions Contemporary Ballet Cuban National Ballet Dance Theatre of Harlem Dayton Ballet Greensboro Ballet Houston Ballet Joffrey Ballet Kansas City Ballet Los Angeles Ballet Louisville Ballet Moscow Ballet (United States) National Ballet of Canada National Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico New Jersey Ballet New York City Ballet Oklahoma City Ballet Oregon Ballet Theatre Orlando Ballet Pacific Northwest Ballet Pennsylvania Ballet Pittsburgh Ballet Royal Winnipeg Ballet San Francisco Ballet The Washington Ballet Tulsa Ballet Wonderbound
Oceania	The Australian Ballet Ballet Theatre of Queensland Queensland Ballet Melbourne City Ballet Royal New Zealand Ballet West Australian Ballet
South America	Ballet Municipal de Lima Chilean National Ballet Colon Theater Ballet National Ballet of Uruguay

History

References

Further reading