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From the first song, White people are talking non stop, being ignorant. The couple behind me are drunk, criticising every move ("I hate when they can't open their legs properly!") He slurs to the English songs & gibberish to Spanish bits. I have to turn around and ask him to stop
Ok I'm back. The show was amazing! But the White devils did not let up. Peak White supremacy was during a beautiful and dramatic routine. The crowd started howling with laughter. It was so awful.
Why?
The dancers onstage were all men. And topless.
Brown & Black men. #latins
White Australians are rarely near #POC, even in Sydney, our most cosmopolitan city.
The sight of powerful Black & Brown bodies elicits laughter because by being exposed, they are sexualised by the White gaze. They are not artists. They are Other. Dangerous.
The Whites hoot.
Colonialism is a history of marking Black & Brown bodies as uncivilized. In 2013, I was lucky to see The Australian Ballet perform Vanguard. One of the three acts has all the dancers - men & women - dancing topless the entire time. Guess how many audience members laughed? ZEROpic.twitter.com/U88gJZHq1i
The dancers of Ballet Revolucion aren't given the same reverence. Instead, older White woman behind me pronounces loudly: "That got me hot!" [Laughs] The White woman two seats away from me says, "That makes two of us!" [Cackles]
How would this go if #POC behaved so audaciously?pic.twitter.com/GRbnjxyhws
Sure, for some routines, the performance plays up sensuality, at others, the dancers joke, or ask us to clap. This song was about tenderness & strength. That's why they laughed. White people can't handle complexity of men of colour, so they laugh, as they've always ridiculed us
White people are incredibly disrespectful. If you follow me on Instagram, you'd know I often share what happens to me at art galleries & shows. At the Latin Film Festival last week, White women were talking & making fun of the films
Just another day as a #POC in racist Australia
That's so awful! I can't imagine being on stage and the audience laughing at me during a serious, non-funny moment. It would be horrible.
This is exactly right. They were so professional but the entire audience, in this huge, regal theatre, was laughing like it was slapstick. I felt humiliated as a Latina watching them so poised & magnificent. So damn rude.
I just can't handle how horrible that must have been. I'd be coming out to lecture the audience at the end of the show on how inappropriate and disrespectful it is to laugh. It makes them all look like back-country yokels and will make it harder to book touring acts.
I honestly don't know how the dancers just kept going. So generous. They are so talented and were wonderful throughout.
Oh no. That is utterly hideous, racist behavior. How awful for the dancers, and for you. I’m so sorry.
Thanks Karen. I was livid then; hard to relax. Especially the people around me in the first & second rows didn't let up. I'm okay now.
I’m glad to hear. Though I understand how an experience like that never goes away completely.
Appalling!
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