Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing between Intention and Impact (2020)
Who would have guessed that one short conversation with New York City Ballet Artistic Director Peter Martins would change the course of how we approach America’s favorite holiday ballet, and serve as a catalyst for changing how we talk about race in America?
Phil Chan, arts advocate and co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, chronicles his journey navigating conversations around race, representation, and inclusion arising from issues in presenting one short dance—the Chinese variation from The Nutcracker. Armed with new vocabulary, he recounts his process and pitfalls in advising Salt Lake City’s Ballet West on the presentation of a lost Balanchine work from 1925, Le Chant du Rossignol.
Chan encounters orientalism, cultural appropriation, and yellowface, and witnesses firsthand the continuing evolution of an Old World aristocratic dance form in a New World democratic environment. As a storyteller, Chan presents a mix of dance and Chinese American history, personal anecdotes, and best practices for any professional arts organization to use for navigating issues around race, while outlining an essential path American ballet must take in order for our beloved art form to stay alive for a growingly diverse 21st century audience.
Reimagining the Ballet des Porcelaines: A Tale of Magic, Desire, and Exotic Entanglement (2022)
In September 1739 at the château de Morville near Paris, a group of elite amateur artists staged a ballet pantomime known as the “Ballet des Porcelaines,” and sometimes also as “The Teapot Prince.” Written by the comte de Caylus, with music by Grandval, it tells the story of a prince who searches for his beloved on a faraway island ruled by an evil magician. The magician has turned the island’s inhabitants into porcelain, an event the audience witnesses in the form of a male and female singer who spin around on stage until they transform into vases. Aside from the libretto and the score, nothing survives of the Ballet des Porcelaines. The costumes and choreography are unknown. Although it inspired later famous ballets featuring sleeping beauties and porcelain princesses, it seems to have been staged only twice: first in 1739 and again two years later on the grounds of the estate, next to a lake encircled by vases and an illuminated arch suggesting a nighttime performance. The château’s owner served as France’s foreign minister and promoted trade with Asia. We can assume some kind of chinoiserie imagery and context for the ballet, which can be interpreted both as a standard fairy tale love story and as an allegory for the intense European desire to know and steal the secrets of porcelain manufacture. The ballet is an example of the deep intertwining of visual and performing arts in eighteenth-century France, and to an enchantment with Asia embodied on stage and in life by porcelain goods. The plot’s animation of porcelain also relates to a period understanding of the permeable boundary between persons and things manifested in a variety of cultural forms. The ballet exemplifies the profound sense of magic, mystery, and desire that porcelain instilled in European viewers (who referred to it as “white gold”), an effect that is lost on many museumgoers today.
Banishing Orientalism: Dancing between Exotic and Familiar (2023)
Opium dreams, nodding geishas, feisty harem slavegirls, seductive temple dancers. . . .Performances on the great European stages often depicted "exotic" peoples, places, and plots, expanding the European imagination and providing innovation in opera and classical ballet. The outdated portrayals in traditional masterpieces no longer work for diverse contemporary audiences, and yet canceling them is not a good answer. In Banishing Orientalism, Phil Chan shows us that applying a dash of creativity improves cultural representation and eliminates cultural appropriation—allowing us to lovingly shepherd these works into the 21st century for diverse audiences.
Advance Praise
"Through a thoughtful examination of ballet history, peppered with touching personal anecdotes, witty humor and candid--but never judgmental--observations, Chan provides a look at how classical ballets that have historically relied on Orientalism can be reimagined beyond harmful tropes. Banishing Orientalism is a glimpse into a more equitable future for the quickly diversifying world of ballet, making this an essential read for anyone invested in the art form." - Pointe Magazine
"This work has been game changing and enlightening for the ballet world." - Susan Jaffe, Artistic Director, American Ballet Theatre
"The ballet world is perennially anxious about its future, its relevance, and its ability to gain funding and new, younger audiences, and yet, our most frequently danced works perpetuate harmful, wrong--and downright ridiculous--stereotypes. In his eye-opening second book, Phil Chan deftly guides us through how these outdated tropes came to be. Do beloved works need to be cancelled? What about all the beautiful music and dancing? Chan proposes ways today's most creative companies can keep the best from our history while finding new and exciting ways to tell stories--in the process, taking art for 'all of us'" - The Philadelphia Inquirer