Episode Details

It was a criticism about her Afro-braided hair that led Ruth Essel to create what she calls a safe space for Black dancers. 

正是对她的非洲辫子头发的批评促使露丝·埃塞尔为黑人舞者创造了她所谓的安全空间。

The founder of Pointe Black Ballet School in London said when she was a child, teachers and others all but punished her for not following the traditional ballerina way. 

伦敦黑角芭蕾舞学校的创始人表示，当她还是个孩子的时候，老师和其他人几乎都因为她不遵循传统芭蕾舞演员的方式而惩罚她。

“I’ll never forget my first time about to dance on a West End stage,” said Essel. That was the time the 10-year-old wore her hair braided at dance practice. Her mother had spent her last $120 to get her hair done. 

“我永远不会忘记我第一次在西区舞台上跳舞，”埃塞尔说。那时，10岁的女孩在练习舞蹈时把头发编成辫子。她的母亲花了最后 120 美元来做头发。 

Her happiness disappeared when her teacher pointed at her in an almost all-white group of dancers. The teacher told her to take out her braids because it looked like “a mess.” 

当她的老师在一群几乎全是白人的舞者中指着她时，她的快乐消失了。老师让她把辫子拔掉，因为它看起来“一团糟”。 

That was just one of several times Essel was made to feel bad about being different. “These are all things that happened before I was 16 years old, and I didn’t know any better,“ she said. 

这只是埃塞尔数次因为与众不同而感到难过的事件之一。“这些都是我16岁之前发生的事情，我当时不知道更多，”她说。

These difficulties led Essel to establish Pointe Black in 2020 at the age of 26. 

这些困难促使 Essel 在 26 岁时于 2020 年创立了 Pointe Black。

“I wanted there to be a Black environment. I wanted there to be people who looked like me. I wanted there to be a teacher that looked like me,” she said.

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