#Joy Womack

[lovelyballetandmore]

Dancers Joy Womack, Stanislao Capissi, Isabel Crosti and Alessandra Lenci | photo by Luigi Bilancio

[spiderliliez]

Based on the true story of ballerina Joy Womack JOIKA / THE AMERICAN (2023)

[+] TALIA RYDER [GIF Collection] 🌹 [+] ..more on “JOIKA” 🎬

[mariaspir]

Why is Joy Womak such a controversial figure in ballet?

Well...

Over the years she has ruined her reputation through various statements, actions, and ongoing behaviours.

She graduated BBA and claimed she was the first American to do that, idk how true that statement is. BBA has a reputation for taking on any foreigner who will pay, the foreigners are placed in a different class from the Russians who trained there from childhood, and they don't graduate with the same technical finesse. Joy, however, was in the Russian division, she clearly has had that level of technical ability at some point in her life. She graduated at the top of her class and went into the Bolshoi, where she expected to be a soloist from day 1. She was not. And she didn't like that, she claimed (publicly, on interviews) that she was asked to sleep her way up or pay a large sum of money if she wanted roles. I can't tell you how much of that is true, I was a kid at the time and honestly have no interest in looking that up. She left Bolshoi in 2014 (in the midst of all the Filin acid attack mess) with her name already tainted and went on to Kremlin Ballet.

I first followed her YT channel back when she was in Kremlin, before she was a soloist. She claimed she was always a principal dancer when she was a coryphee at best. I think there was some sort of agreement that her contract would be that of a soloist to sort out some visa problems, but her workload (and pay as far as I could understand) was that of a coryphee. Her "power" within the company was that of a coryphee as well, not a newbie in the corps, but definitely someone who should respect the higher ranks, and recognize their experience, talent, and seniority. She did none of that. She was constantly complaining about not getting roles while claiming she was better than other dancers who did solos, called other dancers lazy, she accused a prima of "accidentally" hitting her and making her foot bleed, she publicly called another principal a drunk, she claimed that a pianist wouldn't play for her rehearsal because she's American, and she filmed and posted company classes for years, while being told repeatedly to stop from colleagues. Eventually, she did get promoted and then continued complaining about the rehearsal studios, the pay, not getting the roles she wanted, and on and on... The thing is, Kremlin is one of the most prestigious Moscow ballet companies, in the center of Russia, who get graduates from VBA, BBA, Perm, and wherever else they want. If you don't like it, honey, you're replaceable. I don't think leaving was 100% Joy's choice, I wouldn't be surprised if some other members went up to management and had a few words.

After Kremlin, she went to Universal Ballet in Korea, where she again claimed to be a principal, barely posted anything, and left after a year. She worked as a freelancer for a while, in one of those companies that tour Europe and sleep in a bus. She then went on to Boston Ballet, where she was corps de ballet, and was really unhappy about that. Joy thinks that from some divine source she's owed the title of prima ballerina, she thinks she's the next Anna Pavlova, so when her contract in Boston was done, she went back to Russia to Astrakhan Ballet, where her wish finally came true, she was a prima, she danced all the leading roles, her genius was finally appreciated. And then Russia invaded Ukraine.

She, like many foreigners dancing in Russia, got offered a contract in Europe, in her case, a part-time corps contract in the Paris Opera Ballet. Idk if part time is the correct term, basically she was hired as an extra for a specific number of shows, I think it was Ballet Imperial and Who Cares? Anyway, POB has a "competition" (concours) to get promoted, so basically Joy had to present the selected variation (it was something from Lacotte's Paquita), which she did, and didn't get a permanent corps contract. So now she lives in Paris, her "favourite city" (a few years ago, that was Moscow) and does various projects as a freelancer.

She has had a bunch of movies about herself, an autobiography, apparently she runs some non-profit now (wtf is the Joy Womack Foundation), and has a "company" of some sort. Also she used to have some sketchy protein bar company, the Prima Bar (the obsession with being a prima continues). She was recently selected as a member of the Prix de Lausanne 2025 jury (rolling my eyes), which I find ridiculous because she's a no one in the ballet world. I mean, last year they had Darcey Bussell.

In general, I think she's sketchy, dishonest, never content with what she has, and she gives off mlm/the grind never stops vibes. Not a fan. It's insane I've been writing for an hour, and it's just an overview of the most prominent points. I absolutely have forgotten some things.

But I do live for the drama, so keep the juicy questions coming 🤣

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

I swear to god Joy Womack will be responsible for my death and not in a good way.

Does she ever just fucking stop???

[kitikos]

Джой Уомак всего 29, а про неё уже сняты документальный и художественный фильмы. Хороший повод задуматься над своим поведением.

Фильм «Джойка» я ждала с самого анонса. Так долго ждала, что успела про него забыть. Надеялась, что будет что-то интересное — ну серьёзно, такая биография у человека.

Но уже по одному только трейлеру можно играть в бинго по клише плохих балетных фильмов. Есть даже битое стекло в пуантах — самим-то не надоело?

[balletroyale]

Joy Womack is at Paris Opera Ballet?

Lol I guess? I try not to think about her.

[tikitania]

Why is Joy Womak such a controversial figure in ballet?

Ah, the Joy Womack story. So many others have discussed her online persona and disappointing career trajectory. But to sum it all up, she’s got a very over-inflated sense of self importance and keeps fluffing up her bio despite repeated failures and missteps.

Her sustaining narrative is that she dreamed of being a Russian Prima Ballerina and was well on her way, but corruption at the Bolshoi stymied her career. It rings a bit hollow….like a poor craftsmen blaming his tools. You can read all about her in the bunheadsnark subreddit.

[mrepstein]

The official verdict was misadventure. A lot of people have said that Brian had committed suicide, and you know how rumors tend to spread. I will never believe that, for though Brian and I were not very close, I did feel we were friends. He had too much to live for to take his own life. He was a lonely person in many ways, but the Beatles were his pride and joy, and I know he would have lived for them, if not for himself.

Mal Evans on the death of Brian Epstein (Living the Beatles Legend by Kenneth Womack) // The quote is from Living the Beatles’ Legend: Or 200 Miles to Go - Mal’s unpublished manuscript.

[ballet-symphonie]

what's the deal with joy womack ? I got into ballet after the whole scandal at the bolshoi and i've always heard bad things about her but I don't really know the story. Also she apparently lied about her position at POB?

Ooof I'll try to do the quick version based on what I remember, she is basically one drama after another, she tends to...misrepresent information. She left BT after saying she had to pay or even sleep with someone to get soloist parts. This was disputed by some, and confirmed by others.

After she went to work i the Kremlin Ballet Theatre of Moscow, she became a leading soloist with them, despite often calling herself a principal. There was some tension here as she was making vlogs filming class despite her coworkers asking her not to and occasionally sharing some no-so-nice information about her coworkers, things got messy when she divorced her ex and she left, even after she got promoted to principal.

After Kremlin, she won a prize at Varna in 2017, did some unsuccessful company auditions, and did short stints at Universal Ballet in Korea and guesting around Bulgaria and Poland. At one point she was going back Russian State Theatre Arts Ballet Pedagogy and Choreography (GITIS) for higher education in pedagogy. She has repeatedly expressed disdain for both the American and Russian systems, and there is a lot of speculation that this, along with her desire to be a principal *asap* hindered her career.

She was at Boston Ballet for a short period, but didn't like the setup, said she preferred being in Russian/European companies where they provided more individual coaching and often more benefits (housing) and with low layoffs...yet she has also repeatedly complained about the low pay/exchange rate when she was working in Russia. She left here when COVID happened.

After trying a couple of times, I believe she got a "contractuelle" position at POB, where you're generally hired for specific productions (eg, something with a huge corps, or for a specific choreographic nice that a dancer excels in). POB, with its extremely involved hiring and promotion systems/competitions, takes a while to move dancers into the corps sometimes. I'm not sure if she was offered a corps contract and didn't take it, or didn't get one, but regardless, she's no longer working with POB.

And now, if you go to her website she's starting a foundation and a school and company....? This is in addition to her freelancing around and the project prima bars that I think no longer exist and some film work. She's just a lotttttt and does not portray herself as the most self-aware or humble person.

As far as my personal interactions with her go, I know she came to audition at my company before I started my professional career and was not accepted. I took a couple classes with her in NYC by chance, the diva attitude was overtly present.

I didn't do much googling here, of course open to corrections of this mass of speculation

[elegantballetalk]

Why is Joy Womak such a controversial figure in ballet?

I have no idea, sorry. All I know about Joy Womack is from that New York Times short documentary. Then, more recently, while watching Ballet with Isabella, I saw she had an interview with her. Honestly, it was really awkward—Joy Womack kept trying to promote her foundation, almost like some strange ballet version of a pyramid scheme.

[lovelyballetandmore]

Joy Womack | Stanislao Capissi | photo by Luigi Bilancio

[brokenbluebouquet]

George Villiers 1st Duke of Buckingham in Fiction - a partial summary

CW: discussions of biphobia and homophobia in historical fiction and current historiography.

Feeling both inspired and outraged in equal measure by the upcoming Mary&George series, and having been fascinated with this remarkable man since forever, I have decided to post this partial overview of portrayals of George in fiction. The ones in bold are the ones I have read. Feel free to add to the list.

The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas 

The Honey and The Sting, Elizabeth Freemantle 

My Queen My Love, E.M Vidal 

Cavalier Queen, Fiona Mountain 

The Dangerous Kingdom Of Love, Neil Blackmore 

The Fallen Angel, Tracy Borman

Wife Of Great Buckingham, Hilda Lewis

Darling Of Kings, P J Womack

The Queens Dwarf, Ella March Chase

The Smallest Man, Frances Owen

The Spanish Match, Brennan Purcell

Captain Alatriste, Arturo Pérez-Reverte

The Cardinal and The Queen, Evelyn Anthony 

Earthly Joys, Philippa Gregory

Myself My Enemy, Jean Plaidy

Charles The King, Evelyn Anthony 

The Young And Lonely King, Jane Lane

The Fortunes Of Nigel, Walter Scott 

The Crowned Lovers, E Barrington

The Minion, Raphael Sabiniti 

The Murder In The Tower, Jean Plaidy 

A Net For Small Fishes, Lucy Jago 

The Arm and the Darkness, Taylor Caldwell

Les Gloires et les perils (?), Robert Merle

And a few I’m not so sure about where George is mentioned in passing: . 

Viper Wine, Hermionie Eyre

John Saturnalls Feast, Lawrence Norfolk 

Rebels and traitors, Lindsay Davis

The Assassin, Ronald Blythe 

Some observations, in no particular order:

Novels set mostly in James reign often have George as a rival to Robert Carr and will attempt to foreshadow how much worse he will be compared to Carr.

The ones that feature Henrietta Maria as Protagonist or at least POV character, where George is normally a baddie trying to sabotage HM and Charles I's relationship, and his death is often portrayed as some sort of salvation for HM. In these books George will often be lamed for things which were IRL Charles's fault such as the expulsion of HMs French household in 1626.

Three Musketeers is practically a category in its own right due to all the film/tv adaptions but has had relatively few clones or imitators in English which is something of a surprise

George is only a protagonist in one of these books (Darling of Kings, P J Womack) in the rest he's a cameo or a villain

Rumours that I suspect authors know is nonsense are repeated verbatim such as Tracy Borman's baseless speculation about G offing the Manners brothers, king James, and his rumoured involvement with the occult.

Georges relationships with James and Charles respectively are mentioned but not meaningfully explored. neither are any other personal relationships he had.

The insights and shifts in terms of post 1970s revisionist and post revisionist scholarship esp. Roger Lockyer's bio of George have not found their way into any fiction set in this era. Georges capability as an administrator and manager of patronage is more often than not totally absent.

the general view of George and why he's often shown in such a negative light is pretty much "well, he was willing to god knows what with that dirty old man James; who knows what other depravities he was capable of" and its female authors who really seem to lean into this, which I find fascinating and disturbing.

EDIT (can’t believe I forgot this) George’s murder in 1628 is always the result of some sort of aristocratic conspiracy rather than the act of terrorism it was IRL. I do get why authors do this - the amount of world building and foreshadowing needed to make it seem plausible rather than random in universe. However making it the result of personal grudge rather than ideological violence detracts from why it was so shocking and important.

[mariaspir]

What do you think of the Prix de Lausanne?

Oh boy where do I begin...

Let's start with the positive, PdL is one of the few respectable competitions that focus on true technical ability and expression, instead of just tricks (ahem, YAGP).

I appreciate the fact classes are graded as well as the performance, I appreciate that the competitors have 1-1 time with choreographers and coaches, and they can learn and gain something even if they don't make it to finals.

I also approve of the fact that contemporary has mandatory solos, because when the choreography is free in other competitions (ahem YAGP) people just do rhythmic gymnastics.

And the translators are something all international competitions should have, no one should be expected to speak English fluently, and their performance be affected by their language proficiency.

Aaaand... that's about it.

I find it an incredibly elitist and classist competition, based solely on the amount dancers need to pay to attend. It's 175 Swiss franks to apply, and an additional 200 to register if they're selected to compete. That's over 400€ on just the application, not including travel, accommodation for a whole week (Lausanne is an expensive city in an expensive country), costumes, shoes, and paying for a parent or teacher to come with you (I don't think any parent would leave their 15-17 year old to travel for a week all alone).

It annoys me that there's so many talented kids all around the world who just don't have the means to do that. I personally know one such kid. 9 out of 10 times the people winning scholarships were already paying the scholarship amount to some school. Not to say they don't deserve it, but if your parents are already paying 10k+ a year to JKO, Princess Grace, etc., it's because they can afford it. The talents who would excell in such a school if they had the opportunity and financial aid to go there, are the ones that can't afford the competition.

There is supposedly, some sort of financial aid, but in the rules and regulations it says that's to be determined on a case by case basis. I know my family could never pay 400€ to apply, hoping to be approved for financial aid and get refunded later, there is NO 400€ to spare in the average family, or the average family with a kid in ballet, at least in my country.

My other big issue the past few years, is how skinny all the participants are, especially the girls, but it happens with boys as well. Yes yes, bodyshaming and all that, but you can't just ignore the fact this is THE biggest student competition in the world. Or the most well known, the most prestigious for sure. And all the girls competing have that one specific body type, that can't be a coincidence.

The same way the all white jury members is not coincidence. I could talk about that for hours, but I think that's the most discussed issue of PdL, and I don't have anything to say that hasn't been said. Also, I am white and European, so probably not the person who needs to be heard the most on this.

I did think it was a joke when I saw Joy Womack on the jury, though. Like wtf. If I were a teacher I would seriously consider pulling my student out after that announcement.

On a sillier note, I find the "contemporary" they do hilarious, especially the classes. My classmates and I were laughing at the combinations last year, because it's literally ballet combinations. It's not Graham, it's not Limon, it's not Release (the most current). It's closest to Cunningham, but you can tell most candidates have very little experience with it, and it not having a clear style doesn't help them.

Plus, the moment the put pointe shoes in contemporary variations I stopped watching. That's not contemporary, that's neoclassical. That bleeds into all the contemporarys, not just the pointe ones. I miss the times with Rossini Cards and Sacre du Printemps, where there were actually technical solos, which is really not the case the past couple of years (again, especially with girls). Even prize winners have major technical mistakes (like not dropping the head I inversions, thus holding tension in the neck, very dangerous), there doesn't seem to be a focus on technical clarity.

I think that's it, that's all I can think off the top of my head, I'm sure I will continue yapping in the notes, so please feel free to comment 🤣

ETA: I don't go out of my way to watch it, I don't look for videos, or for the livestream. Idk, I get tired of watching variations one after the other, especially the coaching, I could sleep. I'd rather watch a full ballet. I did watch a bit more last year, there was a candidate from my city (WTF HOW INSANE IS THAT), my teachers know him, have taught him, and I feel like the entire ballet community was rooting for him. I was in a couple of classes with him after Lausanne, and holy fuck he's amazing, I hope he has a splendid career.

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Can Joy Womack just stop already? It’s so embarrassing.

[asloangraphic]

Today I listened in on Ytasha Womack's speech at the Spring Convocation. Womack is the author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture. Through-out her speech she talked about how creative and bright-minded people of color are because of how we transform anything that we are encountered with. During her speech she tied what she does for a living back to what our ancestors did for a living which made her speech a lot more heartfelt. One quote that stuck with me was "In this moment I said I am going to find a beauty in this period, because there are people before me who have been in tougher times and I am not going to take that for granted. Im going to build upon the lessons and find the joy" -Ytasha Womack.

[marcmarcmomarc]

Happy one year anniversary to The Super Mario Bros Movie.

In honor, here’s my predictions for the cast for the upcoming follow-up movie announceed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Chris Meledandri for Mar10 Day.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Marcus De La Vega (@marcmarcmomarc)

Starring:

Chris Pratt

Charlie Day

Anya Taylor-Joy

Jack Black

Keegan-Michael Key

Jack Dylan Grazer

Seth Rogen

Ginnifer Goodwin

P!nk

Fred Armisen

Kevin Michael Richardson

Eric Bauza

Danny Trejo

Neil Patrick Harris

Khary Payton

Juliet Jelenic

Sebastian Maniscalco

Cassandra Lee Morris

Mae Whitman

…and Kevin Afghani

Also featuring:

Jessica DiCicco

Karan Soni

Rino Romano

John DiMaggio

Brian Hull

Denis Leary

Frank Todaro

Tru Valentino

Anna Brisbin

Richard Ayoade

Wallace Shawn

Carlos Alazraqui

Cristina Vee

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan

Kdin Jenzen

Christina Aguilera

Ice-T

Rosario Dawson

Terry Crews

Zac Efron

Maurice LaMarche

Ben Diskin

Brian Tyree Henry

Scott Menville

Grant George

Nate Bihldorff

Dee Bradley Baker

Frank Welker

Todd Womack

Jason Liebrecht