Bellen Woodard on Ballet Brown, Representation, and Creating Her Own Path

At just 13 years old, Bellen Woodard is leading a powerful movement—one crayon and ballet slipper at a time. In this heartfelt conversation on The Color Between the Lines, Bellen opens up about the moment she was told brown tights weren’t part of the ballet uniform—and how that led to her new book, Ballet Brown.

Host Esther Dillard dives into Bellen’s journey from starting the More Than Peach project to challenging outdated norms in dance, publishing, and education. Together, they explore what it means to create inclusive spaces where every child sees themselves reflected—in art, on stage, and in life.

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🎙 About Esther Dillard:
Esther Dillard is an award-winning journalist and host of The Color Between the Lines, a platform that spotlights untold stories, powerful voices, and issues impacting underrepresented communities. She has a passion for truth and advocacy and brings depth, empathy, and fearless storytelling to every conversation.

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Transcript

0:03

In this edition of the Color between the lines, I'm speaking with return author Bellen Woodard. The first time I spoke with her, she was nine years old and she had launched a book called More Than Peach. It was about getting crayons that were more than peach to represent different skin tones. When you're trying to draw on a piece of paper or color in a coloring book, well, that idea turned into a line of crayons and a big business. Now she's 11 and she's put out a new book called Ballet Brown and she's talking to me about that. Let's listen in. Well, your book, Ballet Brown, is really based on your own experience as a young dancer searching for ballet and a costume for your ballet, based on your skin tone. Can, you share with me what was that moment like when you realized that you couldn't find one? And what inspired you, I guess, to write about it in a story like this? So what inspired me to write Ballet Brown as a story is that. Well, I started ballet when I was 2 years old, and, at first, there weren't any dress code. There wasn't a dress code, really, because we are so tiny. But then eventually, as you get a little bit older, eventually you have to be put into pink tights and pink shoes and pink everything. And I kind of. I started thinking to myself, well, it doesn't look like my legs belong to me. Like, My legs are Pink. But the rest of me, the rest of me isn't pink. And this doesn't match. And so I was like, okay, so first of all, why, why pink? Why do we wear pink? And so I started researching why ballet pink. And that is the term that's used with the, pink tights, pink shoes. The color is ballet pink. So I started researching why, and I found out that when ballet originated in Europe, the pink was used to elongate the European dancers lines and make them look elegant and beautiful on stage. And it did do exactly that. But since then, since many beautiful colors have been added into the world of ballet, the pink doesn't give the same effect for every single skin tone like it does for the light skin tones. And so I feel like we need to evolve with. We're evolving, and so the traditions need to evolve with us. And so that's why I decided to not only name my new book Ballet Brown, but Ballet Brown isn't just my book, but it's also a new term that I have coined and a new mindset that I want to promote. Saying that, trying to normalize equivalent options for everybody and so that our spaces can be whole and somewhere where we can grow and thrive. I like your book because I got a chance to read it all the way through, and I saw that when you started to talk about this with some of your instructors, some people were not as receptive. What was that like? So that's. So it was a real experience. And, as I was saying, like, with the traditions, a lot of the responses are always just, it was a tradition. But we've grown so much since then. And, traditions shouldn't. Traditions are. There's always room to grow in traditions. And so we shouldn't just settle on something just because. And so when that one studio told me, well, it's a tradition, we can't change up the tradition, I was like, well, okay, then I'm going to find a studio who recognizes that we need to grow. And so I. And that's exactly what I did. I walked away and I found a studio that appreciated, that was willing to grow and appreciate it and was already growing and that was willing to be able to incorporate the brown and the other colors, I mean, just not even just brown, just other colors into, this world of dance and ballet. I know that more than peach, that was your first, book and project, and it's changed a lot of kids minds and adults minds on how to look at just colors and skin tones. And how has Ballet Brown I guess continued that mission of this, this, this whole More Than Peach project. So when I first started, after I wrote the book More Than Peach, after I wrote the book More Than Peach, after I started my business and after I made the crayons, because the crayons came first. But after I saw what big of an impact More Than Peach made and how many people actually listened, I was like, well, since I have this voice and people are. And people are listening and want to listen, then I want to do the same with Ballet Brown. Because I feel like this is also needed. And it's not even all just about brown shoes and brown tights. This is just about, creating equivalent options for everything and for everyone and not even just in ballet or dance, just for things across the board. And so, so yeah, creating Ballet Brown was just, I. I knew that I wanted to make this change again and since I had already made this change once, I wanted to make a new change. What kind of responses have you gotten from other kids and other parents who have paid picked up this book and know about your, Your mission, especially with Ballet Brown? I've been promoting the idea though for months and all of that. But, I've gotten responses saying like, when I first started my child out in ballet, I didn't know the pink actually had a history. I thought. And that's. That's a common misconception. Misconception that the pink is just a cute little color for the kids to wear. But it's really interesting to see how to see the response to saying, oh, well, I actually learned something new and I'm so excited to start my little girl out in the. In the brown or skin color tights. Because now I do know the history. And that's. That's definitely. That was my. That's definitely something that's. Let's. That shows what changes is already making without the book even being out. Because when I start, like people my age when they start, they didn't know about it and they didn't know about this history. And so now going into the new generations and hopefully they start out with this knowledge. I'm wondering when you went back. I'm just going back in the story. And how when you were given the option by, someone you picked up the tights that were a different color and you had to change them, you had to actually color them. How did that all go? Come about? How did. What did you learn about that process and was that difficult and, and just kind of bring me through that whole process of doing that. So that process is called pancaking. You actually do it to your shoes because the brown tights, I mean a lot of they're available for other dance styles too as well, but the ballet shoes are specific for ballet. So a lot of the time and professional ballerinas do this a lot, but they do something called pancaking, which is where you take a makeup, or make a sponge, whatever you need, and you put foundation on it, your foundation color, and you dab it on the shoes. You basically paint the shoes and yourself. And and when I first did that, I did that to my first pair of pointe shoes because they didn't have the brown available. So I had to kind of make my own pointe shoes. I just got a pink pair and painted over it. But, I ended up actually ruining my shoes because I didn't know how to do it. And point shoes are not something you play about. And by the time I ordered a new pair they were too small because they came so late. And it's just so it's, it's still kind of amazing to see how it's still not that accessible even as we've grown so much. And like you can walk in easily and buy a pair of pink shoes, but the, the brown shoes are kind of like a needle and haystack sometimes and kind of like a hit or miss. You never know if, when you go into get fitting, if you're actually going to find your pair or actually going to leave for the pair. So do you think that manufacturers should go in on doing a deal with Bellen and do a ballet brown line? I think that, I think that's perfect. I mean I've seen there's, there are like, brands that do have like separate lines of the ballet shoes. But I feel, but not every brand has, has the color, the different colored ballet shoes And that's something we need. You know, I'm thinking about it. You know, I'm kind of like always try to think outside the box and you know like, you know how some people pick the, the, the, the color and they pick a chiclet of the color on online and you can pick exactly what you want. That was an availability for someone. Then they could pick the exact tone and then order it and then get whatever tone that they want and it like makeup, you know, you could pick up your own, your tights and it's so hard because like, there's so. There's so many different foots, like, you get when you get point shoes, you get fitted. And my feet are very weird. And so it's so hard to get my perfect fit. But only. But different brands have different types of shoes, if that makes sense. So not every brand will fit your foot. And so it can be difficult when even the brand that does fit your foot doesn't even carry skin color, different skin tones. So, yeah, it's difficult. What's your overall message for this book to other readers and what do you want them to come away with? So, I think it's really important that the parent starts their kid out in ballet on the right foot because it just creates. No, there's no disconnect from the very beginning. And when they go to their first little ballet recital, then they can already feel, have the same effect of the elegated or elegant elongated lines and never have to even question, why do my legs not look like they belong with me? So, So, yeah, I think it's very important to just make sure they start out feeling, feeling, like, included. Yeah, feeling included and feeling like they look good on stage You don't have to stay. Like, the most powerful thing you can do is walk away. And that's exactly what I did. Because there. There is somewhere waiting for you that will welcome you with open arms and somewhere that is willing to grow. And that's exactly what I got when I walked away. Now I'm at a studio and I love my studio. And, it's continuing to grow. And, Yeah, and of course, no, nowhere is perfect, but, you know, they're. They realize that and they're ready to. They're ready. So, yeah, so you don't have to stay and don't have to accept it just because. And really challenge your curiosity. Because if I hadn't started researching why we wore the pink tights, maybe I was still being pink tights to this day. And so, yeah, challenge your curiosity and really challenge that, pushing that status quo. I want to say congratulations on your new book. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bin. Thank you so much. I was so. This was such an amazing experience. If this conversation moved you, I invite you to subscribe to the Color between the lines podcast on YouTube, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts.