All Ballet Dancers Do Cocaine
The Daily News has its dance belt in a bundle upon the arrest of New York City Ballet principle dancer Nilas Martin, son of balletmaster Peter Martins, for possession of cocaine. Though we're more ABT fans than NYCB, a little perspective is needed. Namely, that pretty much every single ballet dancer includes cocaine in their nutritional regimen of Diet Coke and cigarettes. How else could Martins, at age 40, and with a history of excruciating bone spurs, maintain his ballon? How else do these ballerinas—jostling for a place on stage in an extremely cutthroat environment—maintain their weight and self-esteem? Clavicles like that don't define themselves on pure grit alone, people.
Cocaine and the ballet have a long history together. Anyone who has read Gelsey Kirkland's memoir Dancing On My Grave recalls her prodigious consumption of the stuff. In 1988, ABT star Patrick Bissell died of a cocaine overdose.
Perhaps Nilas' greater crime is being such a putz trying to hide the baggie as a Saratoga Springs cop walked by his Beemer. I mean, Skidmore is right there. Cops are used to seeing baggies in Beemers. Just be cool, man! But given that Nilas is a 40 year-old dancer, working in his father's company, while younger danseurs come up the ranks, ready to push him down the stairs like so many Nomi Malones, can't we forgive him a half of a gram of snow?
