Ballet Dancer / Porn Actor Kicked out of Royal Winnipeg Ballet

CBC News reports that an accomplished twenty-two year old male ballet dancer was forced out of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for appearing in gay porn movies. The school won’t comment other than to say that they have a code of conduct for all students. The code does not appear to say anything about the moral expectations of their students, but there is a clause that requires permission to do any performing outside of the school program. Is the Ballet suggesting porn movies are an artistic performance?

The dancer, Jeppe Hansen, seems to think so. He claimed the adult film work allowed him to “express himself in a new way,” without the restrictions of the ballet program. And his producer seems to agree, claiming that he’s striving for a more artistic approach to porn. I’m not sure how seriously to take any of this, other than to acknowledge that performers always benefit from publicity. I would not be surprised if the school reverses their decision due to the publicity. Meanwhile, the film producer, Jake Jaxson, makes a valid point about the acceptability of mainstream movies versus porn:

“I don’t like movies that show young people’s heads cut off or their arms ripped from their body. And everyone goes and watches that … and those performers are not looked at as being outside of the mainstream.”

The standard response to this argument is that the violence is fake, while the sex is more or less real. The problem is that watching fake violence has real harmful effects on viewers. Watching sex does not, regardless of how artistic it may or may not be.