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Critics must protect high art

from cancel culture
6-7 minuter

As cancel culture and the PC police creep closer to high art,

where are the critics prepared to stand up to the Twitter
mobs to save everything we have loved for generations
from a fire of political purity?
Recently, The Guardian published an article entitled
“Blackface and Fu Manchu moustaches: Does Ballet Have
a Race Problem?” The article included comments from
creative figures in the ballet field, with mixed opinions,
including indications that political correctness is already
restricting creative freedom.
Problems of racial casting and creative interpretation are
particularly important in plays, ballet and opera, which are
not fixed as literature and art are. Interpretation in ballet
can come in many forms: from casting, costumes and sets
to removing scenes and characters. Lots of classic ballets
feature foreign settings and non-white, non-European
characters. If a production is to create an authentic
atmosphere – however incomplete – then it is justifiable to
use props, costumes and make-up to achieve that. 
This enters the territory of “cultural appropriation,” which
is a particularly poisonous identity-politics concept that
states no member of a national or ethnic group can use
culture from another group without demeaning and
devaluing it. Even adopting fashion, music and food can
instigate online mob shaming.
A lot of art deals not in realism but in symbolism, symbols
acting as shorthand. Sometimes the shorthand is comic and
presents stereotypes for humorous effect. Added to this,
ballet is far from naturalistic. When we demand that art
forms with highly simplified and heightened expressiveness
match reality we hit the insurmountable barrier of

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impossible expectations.

Policing appropriateness
While many of us pride ourselves on empathy and
engagement with world cultures, we lack empathy for
creators and audiences of 100 years ago. 
When viewing a work of art from another era, too often we
are unable to absorb and respect a different outlook. We
fail the art by being unwilling to relinquish our egos for a
few hours. Why should the creators’ humor and outlooks
conform exactly to our current view point? It is
monstrously vain to expect that.
When (on our behalf) self-proclaimed authorities start to
arbitrate what is appropriate and not, we give up our
autonomy to decide for ourselves. We allow others to do
our thinking for us and permit gatekeepers to treat us in
patronizing, infantilizing ways.
Also on rt.com Disney+ recuts own classics: Why do
corporate gatekeepers think we will turn racist if they don't
censor content?
There is a darker side. Often the attempt to protect other
people’s feelings is a convenient cover for control. In the
eyes of the elite, they have a duty to use their influence to
protect weak people. This is the vanity of the elite seeking
to curb other people’s speech. 
The elite are so convinced of their moral righteousness that
they never doubt that they have the right to control both
creators and audience. This restricts creative freedom and
free speech; it also limits the potential of our imagination.

Cultural consulting or cultural control?

‘Song of the Nightingale’ (1920), with music by Stravinsky,
choreography by Balanchine and costumes by Matisse, is a
ballet that has proved tricky to revive in America because of
its depiction of the Chinese. In a recent production, the
American company took instruction from Chinese
Americans. An organization called Final Bow for Yellowface
has been formed to restrict depictions of Chinese in ballet
productions across the USA. It is a sign of the way identity
politics has taken grip of the arts in the USA, where self-

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appointed representatives of groups act as authorities,

controlling how others can depict groups. Production
companies have proved remarkably fragile when put under
pressure by lobbying groups. The accusation of committing
“Orientalism” (Western stereotypes of Asian and Arab
cultures) is enough to frighten administrators into
apologies and cancellations. Refusing to stage productions
of “offensive” works is pre-emptively censoring what the
audience is allowed to experience.
Yes, it is fair to adapt performances to our sensibilities, but
that cannot extend to falsification. If Nutcracker’s “Arabian
and Chinese [dance] variations were imaginative guesses”
on the part of the composer and choreographer, then so be
it. Attending a production of ‘The Nutcracker’ won’t turn us
into slur-using mean-spirited racists. Credit us with more
independence.

A critic problem
So, does ballet have a race problem? No, we have a critic
problem. We lack critics (in all areas) who have the
thorough grounding and clear insight that would allow
them to battle the creep of cancel culture. 
If we do not stop cancel culture, it will entirely
consume everything we love in a fire of political
purity.
If critics do not realize that, then they are a problem along
with race activists and their “good allies” among venue
administrators, then we will make little progress. 
Working as an art critic for almost 20 years, I have seen
terrible art go uncriticized by complacent critics. During
that time, standards in art have slipped badly. If more
artists, curators and writers had been shamed for their
incompetence then that descent would have been less
dramatic. Far from being isolated snobs, critics can be
champions of the informed audience, holding to account
timid venue managers and pretentious creators. Critics are
the first line of defense against fads; we need them to be
better informed and braver.
By Alexander Adams, a British artist and writer. His
book ‘Culture War: Art, Identity Politics and Cultural
Entryism’ is published by Societas.
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mainstream media won’t tell you.

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