The latest Vogue Spain issue was released along with a video of Kendall Jenner modeling ballet attire while frolicking around a dance studio. There has been much backlash from the dance community about how disrespectful the shoot is because Vogue didn't use a professional ballerina to wear the clothes.
Speaking as a dancer, I was not offended by Kendall Jenner posing as a ballerina for her Vogue Spain shoot. And no other dancer really has a reason to be, either. The shoot was for Vogue, NOT for a ballet company, dance wear catalog, or to promote Kendall as a professional dancer. The art of dance is about expressing yourself. It's about being free to be who you want to be. Dance has no restrictions, no boundaries, and no limitations. Vogue and Kendall were simply expressing themselves and their artistic ideals through something that we, as dancers, know to be years of technique training and lots of broken toes. No one is saying dance is easy, Kendall Jenner included. She was simply doing her job.
Speaking as a college student with a fashion major, I understand what goes into producing a magazine as well as advertising, promotion, and business merchandising. The purpose of a fashion magazine to sell and promote clothes. Vogue is the most coveted fashion magazine in the world. They're smart enough to know what effective ways of advertising are and if they thought that putting Kendall Jenner in tights would be influential, so be it. I highly doubt Vogue thought that she would offend actual dancers. Kendall is on top of the world right now; Vogue used her because they knew it would be the ultimate business move.
Some people have compared this Vogue shoot to FreePeople putting their models in their dance wear line. A handful of dancers were offended by that because the models were clearly not professional dancers. And honestly that did rub me the wrong way. Why? Because they were trying to sell dance clothes on non-dancers. Where as in this situation, Vogue is not trying to sell dance clothes. They're trying to sell high fashion. Ballet just so happened to be the concept of the shoot. What difference does it make if a kid plays dress up and spins around in a tutu compared to if Kendall Jenner does? I'm sure someone will find a reason to argue with me on that specific statement but you know I'm not wrong...
Maybe Vogue should have used a real dancer for a ballet themed photo shoot. But the shoot wasn't to promote ballet. It was to promote someone's high fashion line and to promote Kendall as a model and to appeal to the fashion industry's target audience. Dancers, don't be offended. This shoot wasn't done to insult you or your art! It was done to celebrate a collaborative beauty between art and fashion.
