A ballet dancer at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in sunny Winnipeg, Manitoba says he was kicked out of school this year when school officials found out he’d be doing pornographic videos. Because apparently ballet officials only acknowledge the appeal of sinewy bodies writhing around together if it doesn’t involve the dongs going in.
Jeppe Hansen, 22, had danced on stages around the world and studied in Montreal, New York City and his native Denmark before joining the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in September 2012.
Hansen beat out thousands for a spot and a scholarship in the prestigious dance school’s professional division.
“My identity is built on being a ballet dancer,” he told CBC News.
But earlier this year, Hansen appeared in his first pornographic video — a side project and an opportunity, he said, to express himself in a new way — and RWB officials found out.
“They told me … they didn’t have any space for me because I did porn,” he said.
According to Hansen, school administrators asked him to sign a letter stating that he voluntarily withdrew from the program.
Okay, I know we’re all busy pretending to be super enlightened and all, but let’s not act like we aren’t curious whether it was gay or straight porn.
Hansen said he left the school in late March. In April, he left Winnipeg and moved to New York City to pursue adult entertainment full-time under the screen name Jett Black.
Well at least the story has a happy ending. In any case, I braved a Google image search, and discovered that Hansen is indeed a gay porn actor who has been in two all-male productions from “Cocky Boys,” including Get Karter and Paint It Black. Seems a bit tame for porn titles, and also, isn’t calling this Hitler youth “Jett Black” sort of false advertising? Or are the gays just that much more appreciative of irony?
Hansen said adult film producers had approached him during his time in Montreal, but he declined their offers.
But he had a change of heart earlier this year, as he grew frustrated by the constraints of ballet.
“It was more important for me to be me and to do the things I wanted to do for once, and not what everyone else wanted,” Hansen said.
“Being a ballet dancer is restrictive. Everyone tells you what you have to do, how to look, what to weigh, how to perform [and] be the artist you are.”
Not only that, but you hardly ever get to cum on anyone. More like bal-LAME, am I right?
In addition to sex-only videos, the website’s owner, Emmy-award-winning producer Jake Jaxson, says he’s trying to blur the lines between mainstream entertainment and adult entertainment with films that include a plot along with sex scenes.
“The films are meant to be entertaining and sexual at the same time,” Jaxson said.
Jaxson said his films challenge what society considers to be mainstream and the kind of artists the public celebrates. [CBC]
I tend to side with the porn actors in these cases. I don’t think you get to jerk off to porn and then act like the people in it are pariahs. And if anyone should be understanding about trying to push the boundaries of what’s considered art, it should be academia. The only real difference between Paint it Black and the f*cksaw professor or any of James Franco’s projects is, let’s face it, the volume of semen. Not to mention, he’s Danish. You can’t expect people from the country that produced Lars Von Trier who’ve only been out of Denmark for a year or two to understand the boundaries of countries where you don’t get to show full bush during cereal commercials. I mean sure, he did gay porn, but at least it wasn’t this one.
[banner pic via JettBlack’s Twitter]