It was a criticism about her Afro-braided hair that led Ruth Essel to create what she calls a safe space for Black dancers. 

正是对她的非洲辫子头发的批评促使露丝·埃塞尔为黑人舞者创造了她所谓的安全空间。

The founder of Pointe Black Ballet School in London said when she was a child, teachers and others all but punished her for not following the traditional ballerina way. 

伦敦黑角芭蕾舞学校的创始人表示，当她还是个孩子的时候，老师和其他人几乎都因为她不遵循传统芭蕾舞演员的方式而惩罚她。

“I’ll never forget my first time about to dance on a West End stage,” said Essel. That was the time the 10-year-old wore her hair braided at dance practice. Her mother had spent her last $120 to get her hair done. 

“我永远不会忘记我第一次在西区舞台上跳舞，”埃塞尔说。那时，10岁的女孩在练习舞蹈时把头发编成辫子。她的母亲花了最后 120 美元来做头发。 

Her happiness disappeared when her teacher pointed at her in an almost all-white group of dancers. The teacher told her to take out her braids because it looked like “a mess.” 

当她的老师在一群几乎全是白人的舞者中指着她时，她的快乐消失了。老师让她把辫子拔掉，因为它看起来“一团糟”。 

That was just one of several times Essel was made to feel bad about being different. “These are all things that happened before I was 16 years old, and I didn’t know any better,“ she said. 

这只是埃塞尔数次因为与众不同而感到难过的事件之一。“这些都是我16岁之前发生的事情，我当时不知道更多，”她说。

These difficulties led Essel to establish Pointe Black in 2020 at the age of 26. 

这些困难促使 Essel 在 26 岁时于 2020 年创立了 Pointe Black。

“I wanted there to be a Black environment. I wanted there to be people who looked like me. I wanted there to be a teacher that looked like me,” she said.

“我希望有一个黑人环境。我希望有人看起来像我。我希望有一位像我一样的老师，”她说。 

She said it felt like she was given power when she could finally wear black clothes and shoes rather than the traditional pink color for ballerinas, “because it was closer to my color.” 

她说，当她终于可以穿黑色的衣服和鞋子而不是芭蕾舞鞋的传统粉色时，感觉就像被赋予了力量，“因为它更接近我的颜色。” 

Ballet has expanded across the world with famous ballet dancers from Asia, South America, and Cuba. But many still think of ballet dancers as light skinned. And classical ballet companies try to have a similar look for dancers in classical works like Swan Lake. That makes it harder for dancers of color. 

芭蕾舞已扩展到世界各地，来自亚洲、南美和古巴的著名芭蕾舞演员也纷纷加入。但许多人仍然认为芭蕾舞演员肤色较浅。古典芭蕾舞团也试图在《天鹅湖》等古典作品中为舞者打造类似的造型。这让有色人种舞者变得更加困难。 

Some 2.2 percent of dancers at the top four ballet companies in Britain are of Black ancestry. That percentage is in line with the country’s Black population at 3 percent, said Sandie Bourn of Britain’s Society for Dance Research in 2017. 

英国四大芭蕾舞团的舞者中约有 2.2% 是黑人血统。英国舞蹈研究协会的桑迪·伯恩 (Sandie Bourn) 2017 年表示，这一比例与该国 3% 的黑人人口比例一致。 

A spokesperson noted that keeping diversity is important to everyone at The Royal Academy of Dance, saying “Dance is for everybody.” 

一位发言人指出，保持多样性对皇家舞蹈学院的每个人都很重要，并表示“舞蹈适合每个人。”

But Essel wants to speed up change by introducing new ideas. She said her shows use African dances and music. And dancers wear different hairstyles, including twists, rolls and afros. She added, “… it’s really just about celebrating the person no matter where they come from.” 

但埃塞尔希望通过引入新想法来加速变革。 她说她的节目使用非洲舞蹈和音乐。 舞者有着不同的发型，包括麻花、卷发和爆炸式发型。 她补充道，“……这实际上只是为了庆祝这个人，无论他们来自哪里。” 

Maya Beale-Springe is a 10-year-old student at Pointe Black and another ballet school. She enjoys exploring different kinds, or types, of ballet. 

玛雅·比尔-斯普林格 (Maya Beale-Springe) 是 Pointe Black 和另一所芭蕾舞学校的 10 岁学生。 她喜欢探索不同种类或类型的芭蕾舞。 

“I get to experience different types of ballet, different music,” she said after a perfect practice for an upcoming show. 

“我可以体验不同类型的芭蕾舞、不同的音乐，”她在为即将到来的演出进行完美练习后说道。 

Essel teaches all the classes in her school. She said, “Everything about my school is what my younger self would have wanted.” 

埃塞尔教授学校的所有课程。 她说：“我学校的一切都是我年轻时想要的。”