Before stepping onto the stage, professional dancer, Amber Merrick reached for a bottle of foundation to apply to her pointe shoes. As she adjusted her tights in the mirror, the color didn’t match her skin tone, it was too orange, too pale, never quite right. Frustration washed over her.
 

“I always pancaked my shoes; it was just something we had to do,” said Merrick a former trainee dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem in 2002.
 

The practice known as “pancaking” is applying makeup to a shoe to match a dancer’s skin tone, CNN reporter Kaitlyn Schwanemann said.
 

For centuries, dancers have worn pink tights and pointe shoes to maintain uniformity. However, dancers of color had to conform to an attire that was not designed with them in mind.
 

“The carriage of the Black dancer is not classic. It’s the position of the spine. The litany of bodily excesses and deficiencies lay at the ready to exclude the Black body from miscegenation within the white body or corps de ballet: critics rhetorically constructed and essentialized the black dancer as possessing a too-stocky bone structure, protruding buttocks, and feet that were too flat and too large,” Oliver Smith, director of American Ballet Theatre, told The New York Times in 1975.
 

Since Ballet has historically been European, Black dancers in earlier times experienced significant discrimination.
 

According to Robinson, in 1955, Raven Wilkinson became the first Black woman to receive a contract to dance full-time with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
 

“While dancing with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Wilkinson faced racism while touring throughout the United States. While in Montgomery, Alabama to perform, there was a Ku Klux Klan convention at the same hotel at which Wilkinson was staying and due to the unsafe and hostile environment, she was unable to perform,” said Robinson.
 

In 1952, Janet Collins became the first Black prima ballerina for the Metropolitan Opera Company, said Robison.
 

“However, Collins’ career did not last long because she was told that she had to perform wearing white make-up to make her skin lighter and she refused,” said Yael Lewin in Midtown: Wesleyan University Press.
 

In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first African American woman to be a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, according to CNN reporter Matt Marshall.
 

While she broke barriers, she faced challenges.
 

“I’ve experienced, you know, difficulties being a Black woman when you stand out, especially in the corps de ballet when it’s supposed to look uniform, and everyone kind of in the same tones wearing pink tights, which represent the color of your skin. And that wasn’t always the case,” said Copeland in an interview with Marshall.
 

Ballet, at its roots is “essentially an incontrovertibly European,” writes Marion Kant in The Cambridge Companion to Ballet.
 

The art form originated in the Italian Courts of the Renaissance in the 15th century.
 

Brands introduce more skin-tones in dancewear

In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, major dancewear company Capezio introduced a wider variety of skin-tone-matching clothing and shoes for dancers of color. This change was started with a petition on Change.org, where members of the dance community called for more diversity in dancewear, writer for CNN Alaa Elassar said.

While this move was a step towards change, some dancers say more work needs to be done.
 

Merrick, a dancer who has studied at Miami City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and American Ballet Theatre, believes she faced prejudice by her teacher in high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts.
 

“I think there was this misconception that Black girls shouldn’t or can’t do ballet. There was some resentment because of how naturally talented I was at ballet,” she said.
 

She said another incident occurred during her time at the American Ballet Theatre Summer Program, where she was one of the only Black dancers in her level. After a performance, the teacher congratulated everyone except her.
 

“He just skipped over me and didn’t acknowledge me at all, he moved on to the next person,” Merrick said.
 

Representation in ballet expanded beyond her treatment in the studio, she said.
 

Pancaking her shoes became a tedious process in her routine.
 

“The first time I was introduced to brown shoes was at The Dance Theatre of Harlem. We wore pink at BSA which was challenging, and it was hard to find tights that are your color and not like a weird orange or pale tan because we come in all different shades,” she said.
 

Merrick explained her frustration about the time-consuming pancaking process.
 

“It’s tedious, right? Like I have to buy my shoes and then I have to go home and do more work,” she said.
 

According to Yahoo Finance, the dancewear industry is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2030. In this competitive market, dance companies have adapted to meet demands for diversity. Bloch International, founded in 1932, expanded its market share by introducing skin-toned pointe shoes in June of 2020.
 

Jennifer Watson, owner of Dancers’ Boutique in Williamsburg, Va., has seen the evolution of dancewear since buying her store in 1994. She sources products from several wholesalers, including Bloch (Australia), Capezio (U.S.), Russian Pointe, Nikolay, and Grishko (Russia), among others.
 

“There have always been diverse tights, ranging from dark skin to light skin tones. But now, instead of having three or four shades, we have 50 shades from one company,” she said.
 

She explained that Danskin, an activewear company, was one of the first to offer a variety of shades for different skin tones, about 30 to 40 years ago.
 

Watson saw a shift in how dancers embraced inclusive dancewear.
 

“It wasn't until recently that more people started saying, ‘Yeah, I’m this shade,’ and it’s just a pattern and trend right now,” she said.
 

Inclusive leadership is key
 

As a dance educator, Merrick believes inclusive leadership is essential in the dance world for representation.
 

“I think even if leadership looks like the constituents, they can consider them a little bit more. Most people don't consider things that don't affect them, so if you have diverse leadership, you can do a better job at serving a diverse population,” she said.
 

Fábio Mariano, Rio de Janeiro native and dancer at Collage Dance Collective, co-founded Blacks in Ballet with dancers Ingrid Silva and Ruan Galdino in 2020 to highlight ballet dancers of color.
 

As a dancer in Brazil, Mariano saw a classical ballet standard that excluded dancers of color. In Brazil, he said, dancers were told they couldn’t perform certain roles because they didn’t look the part.
 

“Companies have certain standards that they want to keep. They want the white swan in ‘Swan Lake’ to be a white dancer. They want the prince to have princely features, like the ones in the Disney movies,” he said.
 

In Brazil, ballerinas who wanted to perform certain roles would have to pancake themselves with white paint to appear paler on stage, he said.
 

“My teachers and fellow dancers said to be careful that I don’t tan too much because your nose is already a little wide and you can’t be too tan. Make sure you have sunscreen when you go to the beach because you can’t get darker than this,” he said.
 

Mariano said that ballet’s roughly 500-year history is rooted in a predominantly white society.
 

“At the time, there was no diversity in that group. But fast forward around 500 years later, that's not the reality of our world. Our world is completely diverse. We can't separate groups anymore. We have to accommodate all kinds of people of all backgrounds,” he said.
 

Diverse representation in ballet opens the door to all talented dancers, he said.
 

“No kid should look at a stage and say, ‘Oh my God, I wish I could do that, but I guess I can't because I don’t see anyone who looks like me. That's why it's important to showcase Black dancers,” he said.
 

Mariano said that while companies and organizations are becoming more aware and creating more opportunities for diversity, more needs to be done.
 

“We can’t stop at representation. We need to make sure there’s equity in that too. It won’t work if we keep having 50 dancers, 49 of them white, and then one Black. We need to ensure that it is changing over the years, but one step at a time,” he said.
 

Dr. Iris-Goode Middleton, Assistant Professor of Theatre at Hampton University, grew up dancing at the Dance Theatre of Harlem.
 

“What's interesting is it wasn't a thought. At Dance Theatre of Harlem, they were already pancaking their shoes and changing the color of their tights. I didn't understand why, and I thought that it was so normal to me coming up in that environment,” she said
 

Dr. Middleton explains wanting pink tights and shoes because that's what ballet looked like to her.
 

“It wasn’t until I got older, that I understood the significance of allowing the Black leg to be extended through the shoe, through the foot,” she said.
 

As the owner of The Goode Dance Project in Newport News, Va., Dr. Middleton witnessed the resistance to change of dancewear within the dance community.
 

“Once tan ballet shoes were available, I decided we were going to use them. But people didn't understand it because ballet is associated with that ballet pink. They would ask, “Why are we wearing pink?’ And I would say ‘Let's put them under the light. It's about extending the line of the body,” she said.
 

As a mother, Dr. Middleton explained the joy of buying her daughter’s first pair of brown pointe shoes.
 

“I remember finally being able to buy her tone, without painting or changing it and that was so profound,” she said.
 

Representation takes center stage at Hampton
 

At Hampton University, Terpsichorean Dance Company, a historically Black company, embraces freedom of movement and self-expression rather than following traditional ballet standards.
 

“Being here, we choose what we want to wear and don’t have to abide by any guidelines to impress others,” said Antonae Johnson, Terpsichorean member and third year kinesiology major.
 

“Black dancers and Black bodies are always being judged,” she said. Because we tend to be curvier, we don’t really fit the standards of a ballet body.”
 

Johnson, who grew up as a competitive dancer, said there were challenges in finding costumes that fit properly.
 

“As Black girls, we were more inclined to wear bulkier costumes to cover everything. We’d put shorts or pants over our leotards. Conservative costumes aren’t designed for our body types. We have to make things fit for us,” she said.
 

Beyond the costumes, finding dancewear in the right skin tone has been a struggle for Johnson.
 

“It’s harder to find our skin tone in stores. A dance costume might come with mesh, but the mesh is always pink nude. Even tights labeled nude don’t match our skin tones. We have to buy higher-quality ones, which are more expensive,” she said.
 

Even in a Black-owned studio, Johnson noticed a lack of diversity at dance competitions.
 

“We would go out to compete and be surrounded by dancers who didn’t look like us. Often, we were the only Black studio there, with maybe two or three others out of 15 studios across the country,” she said.
 

Hair was another major issue for Johnson at competitions.
 

“When you wake up a 5 a.m. and your day doesn’t end until 11 p.m., with seven different dances in between, your hair has to last. Trying to change hairstyles in 30 minutes is unrealistic. Our hair can do many things but not that fast. Meanwhile, other girls could go from a bun to curls to braids,” she said. 
 

McKenna Gresham, Terpsichorean member and third-year kinesiology major, explained the beauty standards she faced while dancing formerly at a predominantly white studio.
 

“For showcases at my studio, we have to wear crazy eyeshadow at the competitions. I remember wearing this electric blue eyeshadow with red lips, and it just didn’t look right.”
 

At Hampton, however, Gresham found freedom in self-expression through dance.
 

“Here, it’s different. If you want to wear an afro, you wear an afro. It’s a relief dancing here because we all understand our struggles. We know what we can do and our limitations as well,” she said.
 

Creating a space for Black dancers

At Beauty for Ashes Contemporary School of Dance, a training school located in Hampton Roads, artistic director David Riddick has been creating a space for Black dancers since opening the first African American contemporary dance school in 2009.
 

“What allowed me to create my dance studio was the need for a space where Black dance could thrive, not just as a studio or competition team but a touring company. We were the first African American touring company in Virginia, and it gave space for us to have a voice,” he said.
 

Riddick explained that when he arrived in Hampton, Virginia, there were no Black-owned dance studios.
 

“We always paid homage to Hampton University, which had Ebony Fire and Terpsichorean, but on a national and regional touring level, there were none. When we first started touring, it wasn’t friendly, and it was race-based. Some of our counterparts didn’t even like us being around,” he said.
 

Addressing the challenges of dancewear representation, Riddick, who trained in Russian and Canadian ballet, has reflected on his own experiences in the industry.
 

“There has always been a lack of options. When I was coming up, women just wore pink tights, which weren’t flattering on everyone. Some dancers were told they were too muscular or didn’t fit certain costumes. So even in ballet, it came with racial acts,” he said.
 

As a Black male dancer, Riddick said that he faced discrimination.
 

“As a Black man, I would get overlooked for roles because directors were used to casting a tall Caucasian man in certain roles. I’ve had directors speak to me differently or even tell me that they wouldn’t train me because I’m African American. They would say things like, ‘Your people are meant to do African, hip hop, and jazz.’ But when they saw my technical ability, they would always ask where I trained and for how long. That’s where it becomes an insult,” he said.
 

Despite progress, Riddick believes challenges remain, specifically in major dance companies.
 

“In entertainment, they’ll use us to sell the box office and to bring people out, but the treatment and the placement are not the same,” he said.
 

Future of dance inclusiveness

Theresa Ruth Howard, founder of MoBBallet, a platform that launched in 2015 to preserve, present, and promote the contributions and stories of Black artists in Ballet, explains the ongoing need for progress.
 

“I would love for ballet to become more reflective of itself and interrogate itself more, challenge itself more, become more avant-garde and not be as reverent, reverential of itself in the past,” she said.
 

She hopes that ballet will begin to see itself as an expanding art form.
 

“I would really love for ballet to see itself as expansive and see that expansion and evolution as a plus and to decide what its artistic philosophy is. I think that if each organization or each company decides, we'll end up with some alignment and be able to get the larger aspect of what the ethos as a field would be,” she said.
 

She explains the historical development of ballet began in the courts, then moved onto the stage, and became a nationalistic representation, especially in Europe.
 

“Royal Ballet and Opera, Mariinsky Theatre, The Royal Swedish Ballet look like the citizens, right? But then, if it’s a nationalistic representation, are you holding on to a colonizing version of yourself or for the evolving,” she said.

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References

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CNN, A. E. (2020, June 14). Brands pledge to introduce darker shades of clothing after dancers petitioned for more skin-inclusive dancewear. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/style/article/skin-color-inclusive-dance-clothing-petition-trnd/index.html

 

Kant, M. (Ed.). (2025). The Cambridge Companion to Ballet. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9U7tO1u6nU4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=The+Cambridge+Companion+to+Ballet+edited+by+Marion+Kant&ots=jFkl51hY81&sig=MN5vdtP_1h3Aw5_3fcXa65VQEks#v=onepage&q=The%20Cambridge%20Companion%20to%20Ballet%20edited%20by%20Marion%20Kant&f=false

 

Marshall, M. (2024, March 24). Misty Copeland reflects on the “generational trauma” felt by Black ballet dancers. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/24/us/misty-copeland-generational-trauma-black-ballerinas-reaj/index.html

 

Research and Markets. (2022, October 21). The Worldwide Dancewear Industry is Expected to Reach $1.6 Billion by 2030. Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/worldwide-dancewear-industry-expected-reach-094800829.html

 

Robinson, S. (2021). Black Ballerinas: The Management of Emotional and Aesthetic Labor*. Sociological Forum, 36(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12689

 

Schwanemann, K. (2023, December 27). Ballerinas of color renew the call for pointe shoes in every shade. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/27/us/ballerinas-pointe-shoes-diversity-reaj/index.html

 

Slater, J. (1975, April 27). “They Told Us Our Bodies Were Wrong for Ballet” (Published 1975). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/27/archives/they-told-us-our-bodies-were-wrong-for-ballet-they-told-us-our.html

 

Watson, M. (2020, June 7). Demand Capezio provide skin color inclusive dance clothing. Change.org. https://www.change.org/p/capezio-demand-capezio-provide-skin-color-inclusive-dance-clothing