Dancing has been one of the oldest and most popular ways to express feelings. People in different countries have different dance forms which are used to convey messages in society or simply as a form of entertainment. Each dance style has its own identity. The unique outfit, shoes and expression are very diverse. Ballet is a dance form, where dancers have to mandatorily wear pointe shoes to perform. An 18-year old student shares her experience of receiving the best gift ever. Scroll down to know what it was and why it made such a difference to her.
Kira Robinson, an 18-year-old ballet student, received ballet shoes in her own skin color
You do know that one of the major things that are required to perform ballet is the shoes. While wearing pointe shoes, each ballet dancers performs on the stage. Most commonly the shoe colour that one can find is either white or pink. You do get different coloured shoes which come paired with a costume. So, when Kira Robinson, an 18-year-old ballet student at the University of Oklahoma, did receive a pair of ballet shoes in her skin colour, she was overjoyed.
To share her excitement, she quickly made a video on TikTok. The video quickly went viral, with 440.2K likes and 1.4m views.
@kiraelonYAYAYAY i’ll show you guys how they look on later ##fyp ##CleanTok ##blackballerina ##blackgirl ##dancer ##pointe ##pointeshoes ##suffolk ##VisionBoard ##dance♬ original sound – kira <3
Robinson posted another celebratory video, showing off her new pointe shoes
After her second video was up, she started receiving requests from followers to upload a new video dancing in her new shoes.
POC dancers can now look forward to more representation from big companies
She revealed, that when she didn’t have these shoes, she would use makeup on her white or pink shoes to make them match her skin tone. Robinson also said that it used to be a long and messy process.
Diversity and representation are very important, especially in the dance world
Her video went viral and so she was invited to the Good Morning America show. She shared that a lot of support and good wishes were given on her TikTok video. “Sometimes it’s frustrating and annoying, but it’s just how it is. The dance world is slow to accept POC dancers, and I’ve just had to deal with it and do what I need to do to perform.”
Recent global events have inspired change on a grander scale
According to the student, there was a major shift in the market due to Black Lives Matter movement. “A lot of people were fed up with companies’ lack of effort in diversifying their brand and it has taken a long time to see that change,” she said during the interview. “Many have signed and sent petitions to ballet brands to create more colors in their products, and Suffolk was one that heard our plea and started making those changes.”
Supportive comments were quick to follow
