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Everything is beautiful at the ballet. And everything was extra-beautiful at the New York City Ballet Annual Luncheon, assuming one had a predilection for watching supple chaps in tights sashay their stuff sans distraction by a bunch of pesky ballerinas. After all, Ballet is Man–Too! (thus the headline of the afternoon), yet a masculine form of the word ballerina doesn’t even exist. Gynophobic balletomanes have long bemoaned the tutu set’s overall propensity for hogging the limelight. Alas, true gender parity is a long way off, even in the 21st century.
In order to redress this blistering inequality at least for a day, the female-heavy audience at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center—including Sex and the City inventress Candace Bushnell and 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl—were treated to a delectable lineup of male-only performances culled from George Baldachine’s timeless choreographies, followed by a panel discussion with NYCB Master in Chief Peter Martins and a few of his hung … oops … male ballerinas (for lack of a better term), followed by a tasty luncheon at the Theater’s Promenade.
Yes, real food was served as well.
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