We Need to Talk About the Kendall Jenner "Ballet" Video for Vogue Spain

September 18, 2016

Well, this is…confusing. Vogue Spain just posted a video featuring Kendall Jenner—and it is very, very facepalm-y.

Why? Because they decided to dress Jenner up in tutus and legwarmers and have her “do ballet,” though she’s clearly not ballet trained. In the voiceover, she talks about “loving being a kid” and missing childhood; the video is, apparently, a sort of little-girl fantasy on ballerina-ness. Which, OK. But to our eyes, the whole thing reads as pretty disrespectful to the artists who devote their lives to this demanding craft.

Oh dear.

This makes us especially sad because the Vogue family is usually SO GREAT when it comes to ballet. They feature beautiful dancers all the time—goodness, Teen Vogue did a whole video series about School of American Ballet and Miami City Ballet School students. They know better. And this could easily have been a lovely video: Just put Jenner—who is a truly gifted model—in some gorgeous ballet-inspired fashion, and then surround her with top-level dancers. Everybody wins!

What do you all think? Discuss.


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