Practical Explanation: Why There Are So Few Women Ballet Choreographers

“Male dancers simply aren’t as busy as their female counterparts, who, on top of everything else, are trained from a young age to be obedient and to not step out of line. In modern dance, composition is part of the training, but in ballet there is a lack of structured choreographic training. Most ballet choreographers emerge from companies, and most — including today’s pre-eminent ballet-makers Alexei Ratmansky, Christopher Wheeldon and Justin Peck — begin creating works while still performing.”