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Body Suit : peut-on
licencier une danseuse parce que son corps a changé
?
À la suite d’une blessure et d’un arrêt
de travail, Alice Alyse a réintégré
la production de Broadway Movin' Out, chorégraphiée
par Twyla Tharp. Pas pour bien longtemps ! Elle poursuit
aujourd’hui son employeur qui, selon elle, l’a
injustement licenciée. Un article paru dans le Washington
Post.
She Grew in Her Career as a
Dancer, Maybe Too Much. Cue the Lawyers.
Alice Alyse is quite plainly a bombshell, a knockout: She's
slim, leggy and gorgeous, with long, dark hair and a great
set of cheekbones.
Also, she's stacked.
And that, she says, is why she's out of a job.
Alyse claims that her generous breast size got her fired
from the cast of "Movin' Out," the Broadway show
choreographed by Twyla Tharp to songs by Billy Joel. Alyse
was an ensemble dancer in the national tour until her bra
size "naturally increased" from a C cup to a D,
according to her lawsuit against the production company.
The growth spurt happened while she was on leave last year
with an injured big toe; the 29-year-old says she neither
gained weight nor got implants. When she returned to the
show, she needed new bras sewn into her costumes, and for
this, she alleges in her 42-page complaint, she was sexually
harassed, verbally abused and wrongfully dismissed.
Let's leave aside, for the moment, questions about what
other factors might have been behind Alyse's dismissal (which
we can't really answer, because the show's management won't
tell us its side) and whether a woman can continue to develop
well past puberty. Musical theater is an entertainment outlet
that routinely depicts women as sexpots, curvy dimwits and
window dressing -- so if you believe Alyse's account, the
hypocrisy is evident.
Allegedly getting fired for the prudish-sounding sin of
busting out of one's costume is even more surprising given
that Tharp's all-dance spectacular bumps and grinds from
start to finish. With Joel's rock-and-roll framing a Vietnam-era
loss-of-innocence tale, the show rides on an orgy of go-go.
But the dance world doesn't necessarily view such firing
decisions as hypocritical; they are merely business as usual.
The Body Police enforce specifications that have nothing
to do with the ability to perform. Some women have resorted
to breast reduction to conform with the slim standards of
ballet. Anastasia Volochkova, a leading ballerina at Moscow's
Bolshoi Ballet, made headlines two years ago over a similar
issue, when she was fired for being too fat (at a reported
weight of 110 pounds). She sued for damages and was unsuccessful,
though she did get her job back.
Alyse is fighting back with a $100 million lawsuit that
names Tharp, the production stage manager and the show's
producers among the defendants (though not Joel). And if
the dollar amount weren't attention-getting enough, Alyse
has hired onetime Washington gadfly Larry Klayman, a notoriously
combative attorney who, judging from his record, relishes
a scandal. Klayman, founder of the conservative watchdog
group Judicial Watch, became famous for suing the Clinton
administration over numerous alleged coverups and conspiracies.
More recently, he has taken on top Republicans, including
Vice President Cheney, over his secretive energy task force.
Klayman, 54, who moved here a few years ago to run (unsuccessfully)
for the U.S. Senate, now works in private practice and has
focused his attention on Alyse's case. The dancer met him
in a restaurant when she was out with a friend; she was
on leave from "Movin' Out" with her injury, living
with her mother. Later, Alyse says, when problems collecting
workers' compensation got in the way of scheduling surgery,
she called Klayman.
Alyse, a classically trained ballerina who left the San
Francisco Ballet to try her luck in other forms of theater,
calls her attorney "a blessing from God" -- the
man who she believes will help her win justice for a wrong
that she says baffles her to this day.
"I lost my job for reasons that weren't my dancing,"
she says. "When they hired me I wasn't flat-chested.
I mean, a C means -- ya got boobs."
The producers have filed motions to dismiss the case or
proceed through arbitration. Though none of them would comment
for this article, Joel has weighed in. Shortly after Alyse
filed suit in March, he told the New York Daily News: "Under
no circumstances would I ever have anyone fired for having
breasts that were too large."
To which Klayman replies: He'll have to be deposed, since
"he's insinuating he was involved in hiring and firing
decisions."
The real targets are "Movin' Out's" deep-pocket
backers, among them veteran Broadway producer Emanuel Azenberg
and owners James and Scott Nederlander and Clear Channel
Entertainment. Going up against them is just like fighting
the White House, Klayman says. "They're powerful. And
their arrogance is unlike anything in Washington."
Asked whether it isn't also arrogant to demand $100 million
as payback for Alyse losing her $130,000-a-year job (yes,
Broadway jobs are considerably plummier than the average
dance gig), Klayman says: "The only way you prevent
this from happening again is to hit them in their pocketbook.
A hundred million dollars from these owners is like a quarter
in our pocket."
For Klayman, whose hourly rate tops out at $600, the case
is something of a populist crusade. He declined to discuss
his fee arrangement, but says, "I've never written
a complaint that detailed in my whole life." (It's
on the Web at Movinoutlawsuit.com.) In the suit, he reconstructs
the alleged comments of production stage manager Eric Sprosty
when he first saw Alyse outside the wardrobe fitting room
after she returned to the show. Such as: "We hired
you at a size C and now you're a [expletive] D! . . . You
need to lose those boobs now!"
(Through an attorney, Sprosty declined to comment.)
"He was screaming at me and I was apologizing,"
Alyse says of her run-in with Sprosty, her forehead crinkling
at the thought. "I was being apologetic that I had
boobs. I thought, 'I'm going to lose my job -- and I'm still
skinny!' "
Appearance Is All
"It's a virtue to have bigger breasts on Broadway,
in my expert opinion," Klayman observes one balmy evening,
over dinner with Alyse at a seaside restaurant called Bongos.
It certainly seems to be a virtue to have them in Miami:
The city is awash in well-endowed women wearing tight-fitting
tank tops and cleavage-baring camisoles.
Yet big breasts cannot truly be said to be a virtue for
a dancer, unless her routine includes thigh-high boots and
a pole. The Ziegfeldian hourglass shape has flattened out
over time. On current stages, in the view of many directors
and choreographers, a B cup might be just sexy enough, while
a D may be too much. From ballet companies to Broadway,
the preferred look is slender, long-stemmed and minimally
jiggly. Especially when we're talking about fitting into
a group, whether a kick line or the corps de ballet.
God forbid anyone should stick out. Prevailing theater wisdom
warns that an ensemble dancer must not distract, and in
many shows, that means buxom chorines no longer need apply.
A D cup, according to Roberta Stiehm, a musical theater
veteran, could commit the major no-no of pulling focus.
"I want to stick up for this girl," said Stiehm,
a Maryland ballet and Pilates teacher who had featured roles
in "Cats" and "A Chorus Line." "But
I have to tell you, what if Pamela Anderson were a great
dancer? You couldn't use her.
"You should be able to say, 'I don't care how big your
breasts are, you should be in this show because you're a
fabulous dancer,' " Stiehm said.
"But in reality, there is a look that has to be maintained
to fit in with the whole cast."
Maintaining the look is especially key in a Broadway show,
where casting can be highly restrictive. A Broadway show
sells only one image and auditions are famous for their
cruel specificity -- if the part calls for a woman who's
5 feet 8, those an inch off the mark need not try out.
Showbiz jobs hang on a director's whim. In a perfect world,
variations in body type would be no more remarkable than
eye color. Yet as much as popular culture prizes a womanly
figure, as much as breasts are objectified and magnified
in magazines, on TV and in Hollywood, the dance field sees
too much flesh as a flaw. Alyse is up against more than
just the folks behind "Movin' Out" -- she is battling
an industry-wide prejudice.
Alison Crosby trained as a ballet dancer, winning scholarships
to prestigious academies such as the School of American
Ballet, the New York City Ballet's training ground. But
with a generous breast size on a petite 5-foot-3-inch frame
that tended toward softness rather than leanness, she was
never offered a job with a classical company. She once considered
breast-reduction surgery as a way to land a contract.
"Sometimes I'd look at myself in the mirror and push
my breasts out of the way to see what a difference that
would make, what would that do to the balance of my body,"
Crosby said. "Would that mean I'd be awarded a job?"
Crosby turned to modern dance, a realm that she found less
restrictive in terms of physique. For nearly 20 years, she
has danced with several small Washington area companies.
She says that as much as she loves dancing, she could not
accept surgically altering her body for it. But, she says,
a dancer friend with similar proportions did go under the
knife -- and ended up with a successful New York dance career.
Meeting up with her recently caused Crosby to question her
own decision years ago: "I was envious."
Some choreographers are more apt than others to welcome
the terrific dancer who deviates from the norm. Bob Fosse
"loved to take all body types, even though he's famous
for the long-legged American beauty," said Ann Reinking,
the famed Fosse exemplar, Broadway star and choreographer.
Among his favorites were exquisite movers like Barbara Sharma,
whom Reinking described as "a beautiful little dumpling,"
and Louise Quick, who was "round and voluptuous . .
. like a series of circles."
Absent Fosse's unconventional tastes, matching the standard,
generic body type -- slim, long legs, with moderate bounce
upstairs -- makes being a dancer that much harder, Reinking
said. You've got to have the talent and the right physique.
"But that's why you're in it," she said. "We
were all in an audience one day and saw a beautifully slender,
tall woman and that's what we bought in to. It was our choice."
'A Shock to Me'
Alice Alyse grew up in Milwaukee as Alice Lewitzke, the
only child of a Nicaraguan mother and a father from Wisconsin
of German heritage. She started dance lessons as a toddler.
Her parents divorced when she was 11, and she moved with
her mother to Coral Gables, Fla.
She attracted attention early on for her dancing, winning
numerous talent shows and competitions. Offered scholarships
to study at schools affiliated with major companies across
the country, she accepted one at the Joffrey Ballet School.
She joined Miami City Ballet when she was 16 and the San
Francisco Ballet at 19, where she performed in classical
ballets as well as in contemporary works by George Balanchine
and Jerome Robbins. It was after leaving ballet that she
changed her last name to the softer-sounding Alyse.
Alyse says she has faced the size issue throughout her dance
career, though she was not quite as curvy when she was a
ballet dancer. Costume fittings were always crucial, she
says, so that her bodice provided adequate coverage. Beyond
that, she says, her breasts had never been much of a liability.
Choreographer Mark Morris cast Alyse in two ballets he created
for the San Francisco Ballet. One of today's most acclaimed
and sought-after dance makers, he is unusually open-minded
about body types and the variously sized members of his
own modern-dance company reflect that. In a recent phone
interview he raved about Alyse, saying she appealed to him
because she was "gorgeous and elegant and tall"
with "a fabulous legato," referring to a smooth,
unbroken style of dancing.
Asked if he remembered her as curvaceous, he said, with
typical bluntness: "Sure. She's stacked."
American culture is hopelessly confused about women's bodies,
Morris continued. Big breasts are idolized in mass media
"and yet it's naughty to look at them. . . . In our
silly culture they're treated like primary sex characteristics.
They're like genitals, almost."
Alyse says that when she joined the cast of "Movin'
Out," she was happy to see that there were other dancers
with noticeable breasts. So why, she is asked, did hers
become an issue?
"No idea," she says. "I can't answer that."
Klayman, who is always hovering within earshot during the
interviews, interjects: "You do have an idea why. There
are a number of different reasons; it was discrimination.
Sexual discrimination, national origin discrimination."
As to why her body suddenly blossomed, Alyse chalks it up
to her genes.
"My mom developed later in life," she says. "She
continuously developed. It could be that when I was off,
my hormones kind of took over."
Of several medical groups approached about this issue, only
one doctor would speculate as to what happened. Angelo Cuzalina,
a cosmetic surgeon specializing in breast augmentation at
Tulsa Surgical Arts, said that once Alyse became injured
and stopped dancing, her muscle mass may have decreased
while her fatty mass increased, "and that fat could
go to her breasts." He added that he had never actually
encountered such a case.
When she realized she had to buy bigger bras, "it was
kind of a shock to me, and I was a little embarrassed,"
says Alyse. "I think that was my ballet background.
You're self-conscious about that area."
Sending a Message
If Alyse is still shy about her body, she doesn't show it.
She dresses in a way that shows off her figure: no baggy
T-shirts, no minimizing her chest with hunched-over shoulders.
(Her Web site includes cheesecake photos of her wearing
a nightie and black stockings.) She comes across as warm
and vividly expressive, embracing both Klayman and a visitor
with quick kisses.
The next day is postcard-perfect, with a turquoise sky and
brilliant sun. Alyse shows up for lunch on a hotel terrace
overlooking the brilliant green waters of Biscayne Bay,
ensconced between her mother and Klayman, who's decked out
like Don Johnson in a sport coat and white slacks.
Alyse is wearing a pale blue camisole stretched tight over
her curves, with blue teardrop earrings to match, and a
short, filmy black skirt. Her 5-foot-7 height is accentuated
by her pulled-up ballerina posture and wedge-heeled sandals.
Under any other circumstances, she'd have a to-die-for figure,
but she is given to self-criticism.
At such times, Alyse turns to her mother, who is herself
amply equipped, for reassurance. "They put in your
head that you have big breasts, which you don't," says
Moryns Lewitzke, considering her daughter's chest with pursed
lips and shaking her head. "I don't think you do .
. .
"She's used to being a ballerina. Now she thinks, 'I
got big boobs.' . . . She says that every day: 'Am I going
to get big like you?' "
Alyse rolls her eyes and looks away. Mom adds with a shrug:
"I say, give thanks to God. A lot of women have to
pay for the big breasts."
Asked to sum up her own feelings about her body, Alyse is
speechless. "Umm," she says, looking uncertain.
Klayman has momentarily left the table; she glances at his
empty seat as if willing him to materialize and help her
out. She says nothing.
"I'll answer for her," says her mother. "She
hasn't come to realize yet that she has a great body. .
. . She hasn't realized yet: To hell with everybody."
This is, however, exactly what Alyse is trying to say with
her lawsuit. She says she is hoping to shatter the mold
of the quiet, submissive dancer who shuts up about what
happens backstage: "The way they treated me is, I'm
nothing. I don't matter. If I'm standing up, it's kind of
like for everybody."
Un article de Sarah Kaufman, publié dans le Washington
Post, le lundi12 juin 2006.
Source :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/
content/article/2006/06/11/AR2006061100966_pf.html
Retourner
au sommaire de septembre
© i-mouvance est édité
par le Regroupement québécois de la danse.
Les articles signés expriment l'opinion de leurs
auteurs et pas nécessairement celle du RQD.
Pour toute information : info@quebecdanse.org
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