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Informationen zum Autor James Whiteside (alter egos JbDubs and Uhu Betch) is a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, a pop star, and a member of the NYC-based drag posse the Dairy Queens, which also includes RuPaul's Drag Race alum Milk. He has choreographed for music videos, commercials, film, and ballet, and in 2018, he starred in Arthur Pita's dance/theater work The Tenant at The Joyce Theater in New York City. Whiteside also hosts his own popular podcast, The Stage Rightside with James Whiteside . His song and music video "I Hate My Job" has been featured in The New York Times , Huffington Post , MTV, Billboard , and more. Klappentext "To know James is to love him; with Center Center, you are about to fall in love." -Jennifer Garner "Exquisitely raw, hilarious, and fresh…Center Center shows there's a place in the world for anyone who's ever felt lost, misunderstood, or outrageously passionate." -Misty Copeland, NYT bestselling author of Life in Motion A daring, joyous, and inspiring memoir-in-essays from the American Ballet Theatre principal dancer-slash-drag queen-slash-pop star who's redefining what it means to be a man in ballet There's a mark on every stage around the world that signifies the center of its depth and width, called "center center." James Whiteside has dreamed of standing on that very mark as a principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre ever since he was a twelve-year-old blown away by watching the company's spring gala. The GLAMOUR. The VIRTUOSITY. The RIPPED MEN IN TIGHTS! In this absurd and absurdist collection of essays, Whiteside tells us the story of how he got to be a primo ballerino-stopping along the way to muse about the tragically fated childhood pets who taught him how to feel, reminisce on ill-advised partying at summer dance camps, and imagine fantastical run-ins with Jesus on Grindr. Also in these pages are tales of the two alter egos he created to subvert the strict classical rigor of ballet: JbDubs, an out-and-proud pop musician, and Ühu Betch, an over-the-top drag queen named after Yoohoo chocolate milk. Center Center is an exuberant behind-the-scenes tour of Whiteside's triple life-a raunchy, curious, and unapologetic celebration of queerness, self-expression, friendship, sex, creativity, and pushing boundaries that will entertain you, shock you, inspire you, embolden you…and maybe even make you cry. Story Locale: New York City (mostly); also Boston, MA and Fairfield, CT Leseprobe Getting Your Dream Job Is as Easy as ABT I was twelve when my first dance teachers, Angie and Steve, took me to New York City's famed Lincoln Center to see an American Ballet Theatre performance. It was early spring in 1996. The Twin Towers still stood, the premiere of Sex and the City was on the horizon, and the outrageous gentrification of New York City's grimiest neighborhoods had yet to occur. It was a magical time for the world's most vivaciously vicious city. ABT's spring gala is structured like a "greatest hits" show. It's chock-full of excerpted scenes from the company's most famous ballets: Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as American classics by Twyla Tharp, Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, and Mark Morris. The spring gala is the easiest way to understand why ABT is the most prestigious classical ballet company in the United States and why Congress declared it "America's National Ballet Company." I was struggling with ballet at the time and much preferred my tap and jazz classes. At that age, dancing to Janet Jackson is preferable to dancing to canned piano ballet class music via cassette tape. But my teachers knew I had potential in ballet, so they took me to the show in an attempt to inspire me. In those pre-YouTube days, I had no access to videos of great ballet dancers, nor could I follo...
