JUST STOP.
HIRE DANCERS.
MODELS DOING BALLET started as a satirical Instagram page calling attention to a repeating pattern: models being asked to do ballet or something adjacent and often illogical. Led by ballet dancers and comedians Katie Malia and Suzanne Jolie, the project has grown into an ongoing digital archive and conversation with the global ballet world.
From major fashion houses to small campaigns, editorial shoots, or viral moments, nothing is off limits. This is not about critiquing models. This is about calling out a system that continues to draw from dance while leaving dancers out of the frame.
Our tone is direct, sometimes absurd. Often funny. Underneath all of this sits a deep respect for the form and for the people who have spent years building the technique, strength, and specificity that ballet requires.
You do not need to reduce ballet to an aesthetic.
You can hire dancers.
SOS. EVEN THE PRESS IS ASKING — WHY?
READ IT:
With 105K organic followers and growing, MODELS DOING BALLET reaches across the ballet world, from dancers and teachers, choreographers, brands, and people who just really, really LOVE ballet.
The ballet world has plenty to debate, but we share a deep respect for the years of training, technique, strength, grace, and somewhat unreasonable commitment the form requires.
Complicated history, flaws and all, we love ballet.
If you want to talk to the ballet world, you’ve come to the right place.