The Rockettes: Out of Step with the Times - An Inquiry into the Legality of Racial Discrimination in the Performing Arts
![handle is hein.journals/cjla9 and id is 359 raw text is: The Rockettes: Out of Step With the Times?
An Inquiry Into the Legality of Racial
Discrimination
In the Performing Arts
By GREGORY J. PETERSON
Introduction
The Rockettes are a dance troupe consisting of thirty-six women.
Their precision dancing is world famous and has attracted over 255
million patrons to Radio City Music Hall over the past fifty-two years.
More than five thousand women have danced with the group since it
was created in the 1920's, every one of them white.' The New York
City Ballet has a roster of 108 classical dancers. There are only five
minority dancers in the troupe and none of them is ranked among
the company's principal dancers.' The Metropolitan Opera has only
one non-white male lead vocalist on its roster of 111 basses, baritones
and tenors.'
This Note will examine the racially exclusive hiring practices of the
Rockettes and other performing arts institutions including those
which present classical ballet, opera and legitimate theater. It will dis-
cuss the pervasiveness of racial discrimination in the performing arts
and suggest a test to determine whether the racial characteristics of a
performer may justify excluding him or her from employment, and
analyze what influence the unique exigencies of the performing arts
have upon their relation to the anti-discrimination laws of Title VII
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I. Equal Employment in the Context of the Performing Arts
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19645 is one of the many fed-
eral and state constitutional and statutory provisions which reflect
1. See infra notes 24-30 and 50-75 and accompanying text.
2. See infra notes 31-38 and 76-110 and accompanying text.
3. See infra notes 39-40 and 112-30 and accompanying text.
4. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e (1982) [hereinafter cited as the Act].
5. Id.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cjla9&div=28&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Rockettes: Out of Step with the Times - An Inquiry into the Legality of Racial Discrimination in the Performing Arts
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