Berkeley Ballet says dancers disinvited from performing in show after concerns about brownface

Some students with the Berkeley Ballet Theater found themselves out of an exciting opportunity to dance with a major international ballet company last week, following an uncomfortable exchange the East Bay dance company says it had with the Mariinsky Ballet over the latter’s staging of “La Bayadère” in Berkeley.

After the Mariinsky Ballet announced it would be performing “La Bayadère,” a 140-year-old ballet classic at Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, some students were invited to perform alongside the professional dancers in two scenes.