By Guillaume Côté Special to the Star
Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet recently sparked a firestorm of controversy when he said during a town hall, “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though, like, no one cares about this anymore.’ All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.” The comments went viral and, some are surmising, may cost the “Marty Supreme” star his Best Actor trophy at the Oscars this Sunday.
Here, Guillaume Côté, former principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada, choreographer and one of the country’s most esteemed artists, responds.
Dear Timothée,
I am not going to take a cheap shot and insult you. I understand that comments made on public platforms often take on a life of their own, expanding far beyond their original intention. Instead, I want to thank you.
I am a 44-year-old ballet dancer with two children. For 26 years, I had the immense privilege of performing on the stage of the National Ballet of Canada as a principal dancer and creator. It has been my home, my classroom, my laboratory, and my community for more than half of my life. After retiring last June, I made what some might call a risky decision. Perhaps even a foolish one. I chose to continue my life in the arts and begin a new chapter by starting my own company, Côté Danse.
So yes, your candid comment about ballet and opera did make me pause.
It made me question things in a very real way. If no one cares about this art form anymore, why did I leave my hometown at the age of 11 to pursue it? Why did my parents support a path that required so much sacrifice? Why dedicate a lifetime to something that, according to the cultural temperature of the moment, has somehow slipped into irrelevance?
But thank you, because as has happened many times throughout my career, a critique, even an accidental one, has struck a nerve. Your comment touched something deeper than a simple defence of ballet. It touched the idea of care.
What does it actually mean to care about an art form?
Ballet, after all, survives on famously modest resources. In Canada we sometimes joke that it survives on 14 cents on the dollar compared to other entertainment industries. Yet those 14 cents are precious. They represent people who truly care. Dancers, musicians, technicians, costume makers, teachers, donors, and audiences who continue to believe that beauty and expression have value beyond immediate profit.
That kind of care cannot be measured easily, and it certainly cannot be reduced to a trend.
I must also thank you for something else: the reaction from the arts community itself. Watching institutions rush to respond, sometimes eagerly attaching themselves to your fame to draw attention, was both amusing and revealing. Beneath the humour, it exposed something very real. Many arts organizations today live with a quiet anxiety about relevance and accessibility. There is an underlying fear that perhaps the world beyond our theatre walls is no longer paying attention.
Your comment, whether informed or not, brushed against a question many of us carry privately: what if the art form we love is no longer cared for?
After reflecting on this, I came to a different conclusion. These questions are not discouraging. They are necessary. They remind us that we must constantly renew the conversation between art and the world around it and reach young people outside the walls of our institutions.
To me, ballet remains a place of beauty, collaboration, and unity. It connects people across cultures and generations. There is something profoundly moving about dancing steps shaped by artists who lived centuries ago while creating new works that speak to our present moment.
It is a living lineage.
One day your films will belong to the archive of cinema, as all films eventually do.
But somewhere, decades from now, another generation will gather in a theatre to watch a revival of Swan Lake. New dancers will step onto the stage carrying the same passion, discipline, beauty, and care inherited from those who came before.
That chain has continued for centuries.
So, when it comes to ballet, I believe people have cared for a very long time.
They care now.
And they will continue to care for many generations to come.
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Source: https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/opinion/i-left-home-at-11-for-ballet-timoth-e-chalamet-thinks-no-one-cares-about/
