Last summer, my daughter, joyfully accepted the opportunity to participate in the studio training company of The Texas Ballet Theater. The sole purpose of her move to Dallas was to dance and perform. Opportunities to perform with The Texas Ballet Theater Company were promoted extensively as an important aspect of the studio training company. The potential to be a part of The Texas Ballet Theater Company's performances was a dream come true for her.
 |
"Under U.S. law, you have the right to
refuse EUAs. And you must be informed of
all that is known and unknown about
risks and benefits." Meryl Nass, MD |
Following several weeks of class, she along with a few select studio training company students, were asked to perform with the Texas Ballet Theater's professional company in the upcoming production of the Nutcracker. After accepting the offer, the students were informed of the requirement to have the non-approved FDA experimental injection, as a condition for participation. This condition was presented only after we made major decisions including her acceptance to joining the studio training company, paying fees, apartment rentals, etc. She submitted a notification of exemption per her God given right to bodily autonomy protected by our constitution.
On September 20, 2021, she received notification from The Texas Ballet Theater's Human Resources Department denying her the opportunity to participate in the Company's production of the Nutcracker, discriminating against her due to her religious beliefs and violating her constitutional right to be exempt from an experimental medical requirement.
After several abandoned attempts to compose my thoughts in writing regarding this unexpected, unconstitutional, and unethical requirement, I've decided to change my approach. I've decided not to dwell on the science, given that evidence based peer reviewed research (or lack there of) is not considered in any of the required Covid responses inside or outside of the arts community. Nor will I continue to bring to the table any discussion based on religious beliefs, as many dance companies including The Texas Ballet Theater have also made the decision to disregard any & all personal beliefs of conscience and discriminate against dancers and staff who provide notice of religious exemption.
History Repeats Itself
Instead, I'd like to share a true story of my daughter's heritage. Her great-grandparents on my husband's side of the family were performing artists in Estonia in the 1930s. Her great grandmother, Ellie Eskola was a professional ballerina. She danced with the Tallin Ballet in the capital city of Estonia. Her great grandfather, Ants Eskola was a well-known actor and singer. He was also a painter and pursued other artistic interests. The couples' flourishing and successful careers in the arts were interrupted by WWII. Their small but vibrant country of Estonia became occupied by tryannical regimes on both extremes of the political spectrum from left and right. Dictators hungry for power can come from both directions, geographically and ideologically.
Performing Arts Careers Interrupted
Ants and Ellie were well known public figures in Estonia at the time. Ants especially had enough notoriety to be recognized as an influential voice. His outspoken opinions against the world's dictators were not appreciated and landed Ants in the hands of the Soviet troops. Arrested by the soldiers occupying their country, Ants was reported to his family as dead. It was reported to Ellie that her husband had been shot and killed by his imprisoners. Along with about ten percent of the population of Estonia, Ellie and her two children fled their home country.
Housed in a refugee camp for a number of years, Ellie and her two children plus an added infant relocated to the USA in the late nineteen forties. Actually alive during those years, the truth that Ants' life had been spared was revealed much later. Details of his life in a gulag were not disclosed to his family during his imprisonment.
Having survived years of imprisonment, Ants was released from the deplorable conditions of the Soviet prison. He had like all other Estonian survivors still living in their homeland, without consent, become a soviet citizen.
"The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was a republic of the Soviet Union. The ESSR was initially established on the territory of the Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, following the occupation of Soviet troops on 17 June 1940 and the installation of a communist government backed by the Soviet Union, which declared Estonia a Soviet constituency." - Wikipedia
Survival
Celebrity status didn't confer many benefits during the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Ants was not allowed by the state to leave the country to visit his family once they rediscovered the where abouts of one another. Ants was allowed however to resume practicing his craft and began acting again. The arts were of course Soviet controlled and government centered at the time. All productions were state approved propaganda. Even within that context Ants Eskola's fame continued. He was awarded the honorary title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1964 granted to artists of the Soviet Union.
In the 1960s, still under the rule of the Soviets, Ants was finally allowed to visit his first family in the U.S. but only solo without any family members including his second wife and the family he had since established with her.
So, what's the point of telling you this story of family history. Well, here's the point - history repeats and certain human characteristics remain the same for individuals, groups, cultures, and societies.
The spotlight confers value to artists. They hold an influential position in society, especially if they are well known. Many have a personal message of insight, belief or vision to share. In a truly free system or society their message will be widely displayed and welcome. Their vision may touch some and not others. Their message may take hold, it may spark a movement in any number of possible ways; artistic, spiritual, economic, or political. In a government-controlled society such as the Soviet Union or the Third Reich and Nazi Germany, if a message is contrary to the politically powerful that message will be silenced. In the context of government overreach and tyranny, the only story given consideration or even allowed to see the light of day will be the one useful to those in positions of power. The narrative will be limited to one that promotes more power for those who desire control over the lives of others.
Human Nature Loves Power
Individuals and regimes seeking to gain power will do whatever it takes to establish and maintain it. Establishing control of the artists, what they produce and present, in a society is a well-known and very useful tool for maintaining the story line. The artists, dancers, musicians and writers provide access to beauty, to relevant questions, and to the powerful insights needed to discover truth.
Once in power, a regime in control will construct every obstacle imaginable to limit the ability to share insights most notably provided by creative individuals. No new insights allowed, no new thinking allowed, and absolutely no challenges to a dictatorial political class holding power. Only messages giving a boon to political power and death to creativity.
The lives of true artists are filled with insight and revelation. They hold historically valuable insights as well as the discovery of new approaches. Creative individuals with a unique viewpoint and an encouraging message to others to pursue individual dreams and creativity will be first on the lists targeted for repression. Demands for obedience by the state, to the state, of the messengers of individual creativity will be high.
Individual thought and unique responses to life's ever-changing circumstances & challenges will be discouraged and even outlawed. Threats to the livelihood and potentially to the very life of any rouge and successful living artist will be made.
This is in fact what has happened in the past in our world. My daughter's ancestors have only one of the many sad stories from the proliferation of tyranny around the globe during WWII. Their story illustrates that when the state grabs power over its citizens there will inevitably be loss, chaos and human suffering. We live in a unique country in all the world and our history of freedom has been unprecedented in world history. Here it was established that the government would be limited and controlled by 'we the people' not the people controlled by government. All of that is currently in jeopordy by the extensive overreach of our government; local, state and federal.
Artists Have Influence
That the arts have become a useful agent of control for those in power is obvious around the country. Arts organizations are flexing muscle as agents of governmental control. The Texas Ballet Theater is no exception. For the arts to continue as a truly creative activity of beauty and revelation; striving to elicit insight, to encourage discovery and to engender courage, arts organizations are going to have to stand up together against the desire to control the personal choices made by the artists they claim to support, not participate in it. If the organizations claiming to be for the arts cannot stand against the threats to the autonomus thinking and freedom to make personal choices without being ostrasized from community then we are already a long way down the road of only producing propaganda and not art. If there is any hope for those within the dance community with dreams of sharing their unique artistic vision it lies only with those willing to stand against the tyranny and medical segregation, we are all now experiencing.
Supporting the arts has taken on a whole new meaning. Please, join me in standing for freedom in the arts and in all of American life.
