Now is the time… … to reveal why Chloé Lopes Gomes was not alone and how media lies are working

Just yesterday Staatsballett Berlin published a statement: that there is a “structural racism” in “society” and that Staatsballett  belongs to „society“. But what has this to do with specific allegations against a specific person in ballet? Is everyone a racist because of “structural racism”? Staatsballett Berlin does not make a difference between brutal Nazis on the one hand and internationally working artists on the other. This is strange. One of these artists is the ballet mistress that is accused by the black corps ballerina Chloé Lopes Gomes of being a racist. Every insider in the ballet world knows exactly the name of this ballet mistress, because there is only one with Staatsballett Berlin working steadily with the classical girl group Chloé is part of. This ballet mistress obviously wants to protect herself by saying nothing. Maybe the wrong way. But: She is the only true victim in this structure of Staatsballett Berlin that has much more a “mobbing” structure than a racist structure. There are proofs against Chloé Lopes Gomes and against her brother Isaac Lopes Gomes in Paris, but no proofs against the ballet mistress she accuses. Some dancers who like Chloé say she must be right. But others that have worked with her say that she is lazy, often tired, without concentration – and that she was ranting during the performances in the backdrop. Indeed she is the worst classical dancer I have ever seen on stage with Staatsballett Berlin. For me it never was a question that she was only under contract because of her dark skin. This is so trendy in Berlin! Because of her, now Staatsballett Berlin agrees in doing workshops to be re-educated from racism. But in fact, Chloé Lopes Gomes  could not be in time with the others, and her leg in the arabesque on stage was mostly not high enough for 90 degrees. In a row of girls this does not look fine at all: The others are perfect and one cannot handle her legs. Apart from that she was not at all the first and only non-white ballerina in Germany, not even in Staatsballett Berlin. Why do so many people and even reporters believe in Chloé Lopes Gomes? Maybe because they do not know the whole truth.

So now is the time to tell.

First it is true that Isaac Lopes Gomes is the brother of Chloé Lopes Gomes, and he is dancing as “Quadrille” in the ballet of the Opéra in Paris.

Second it is true that he in October 2020 started a big media discussion about so called racism in the opera house in Paris. He did not name his sister and she did not name him.

That was just few weeks after Chloé Lopes Gomes was fired by Staatsballett Berlin.

And it was only few weeks before she told the German magazine “Der Spiegel” that she was attacked by this racist ballet mistress in Berlin in 2018 and 2019.

The main attack in Berlin was supposed to be a question of white make-up.

There are photos that proof that Chloé is a lier.

She told the whole media world that she was forced for whitefacing by this ballet mistress.

But in Berlin there was only one rule for all girls.

Before Chloé came, they all – ALL FEMALE GROUP BALLERINAS – had to use white make-up for group scenes with white ladies like in “Swan Lake”, so that they look extremely white. They had to look pale! The reason is not racism but their roles: They play magic swans or Wilis or Bayadères, so they should not look like normal women but like fantastic creatures with a spiritual and ghosty touch.We do have photos from the years 2014 to 2018 where this is to be seen.

Chloé came in 2018 and said that she does not want to use white make-up. So Johannes Öhman who was the boss of Staatsballett Berlin in these days decided that no woman any more should use white make-up. That’s it!

From then on all girls used a more natural make-up.

Have a look at these pictures: All girls from 2018 on have a natural teint, although they are swans or ghosts. Before 2018 they all used pale white make-up when dancing a ballet blanc.

It is indeed a question of artistic taste weather you like it or not. It is more comfortable for the ballerinas not to use so much make-up of course. But do you like it? It’s up to you to decide!

And for sure this has nothing to do with racism!

But Chloé Lopes Gomes spoke with a lot of journalists to sell herself as a victim.

She refused answering the critical questions of Ballett-Journal.

But she never told all the journalists she talked with that her brother also just now made a career as diversity glamour boy in Paris.

Therefore Isaac Lopes Gomes and four black ballet colleagues published in October in Paris a so called “manifeste”. This is about racism in the opera in Paris. But this paper seems not to be written by dancers. It seems so be developed by very professional writers with a very professional strategy.

The things in Berlin also seem controlled by media professionals.

Chloé lies on pointemagazin.com (USA) that she was fired in October. Indeed it was September when she was told to leave in summer next year.

Her first reaction was to write a hard letter to Christiane Theobald who is the actual ballet boss with Staatsballett Berlin. Chloé said in the letter that she was attacked by this ballet mistress in 2018 and in 2019 in a rassistic way.

But this did not help: They did not renew her contract.

So then her brother could help her!

Isaac Lopes Gomes and his friends startet their campaign in Paris with this very professionally written “manifeste”. They did not accuse someone special, but they talked about discrimination through ballets that were made in 19^thcentury.

Obviously, Isaac and his colleagues wanted to find out how medias would react.

We all know that racism is an important theme since the awful death of George Floyd and the international movement “Black Lives Matter”.

But Racism is also a favorite theme in medias actually – without thinking about the abuse of it.

The funny thing is, by the way, that Isaac Lopes Gomes on his Facebook account has only posted very white and very blonded sexy ladies, looking like pin-ups that are photographed in a quite sexistic way. But of course – because he is black – he never can be a sexist.

So he and the other four black dancers looked around to find something against the famous opera house in Paris.

It is important that they could not accuse someone specific.

But they got the signatures of 400 other (migrant) employees of the Paris Opera (from nearly 2000 employees working there) who all want to improve their work situation.

It seems that none of them names one single specific actual racism!

But: They found out that there is a room name in the opera house that is not politically correct without knowing where it comes from. It is an anachronism, an oldfashioned word with  “little negroes” („negrillons“) in the title. This refers to the black children dancing in the historical ballet called “La Bayadère”.

And the name of this room is history, too: It was already changed for years into „Carré des Cariatides“!

But was there anything else in regard to racism at the opera house in Paris? Obviously not.

And even one of the complaining young ballet dancers in Paris is dancing with a contract as a “Sujet”, on a good way to become a soloist.

So why should she be a victim of racism?

No proof at all, I guess.

Nevertheless in Corona times, journalists are glad to have a theme like this instead of all the lost premieres.

They are looking like hell for sensations nowadays in cultural journalism!

So the wellknown paper “L’Humanité” told the readers that these black dancers in Paris want to “take the racial question out of the silence that surrounds it within the opera”.

“L’Humanité” made this quotation from the “manifeste” that was published by Isaac Lopes Gomes and his colleagues. But excuse me: This very poetic and lyrical style for sure was written by a professional journalist and not by a dancer who has spent nearly his whole life since his childhood in a ballet studio.

The journalists working for “L’Humanité” had no problem with quotating. They did not ask who was the true author.

Today, people want to make money with “diversity” themes and also with political scandals and sensations. In Europe this is standing on the steady schedule.

So of course a lot of people were quite happy to present Chloé’s story.

But why didn’t she mention her brother?

Was she told not to do?

In Berlin a lot of talented writers are living, even famous gay copywriter Frank Stauss who has worked for politicians like Klaus Wowereit, Olaf Scholz and Michael Müller (mostly political friends with Klaus Lederer) and also for ÖVP in Vienna (Austria).

These people also do have connection to important chief editiors and magazines, of course. The whole pr scene in Europe is like a big family in high society. But they do not always say what they do.

So why did Chloé Lopes Gomes did not say that her brother started this discussion in Paris?

Is she a pretender? It cannot be a coincidence that Isaac just started his campagne when she urgently needed it because she was thrown out!

After everything went fine in France with this Isaac’s racism suspicion towards the opera house, Chloé could start her own media campagne in Berlin.

They now knew: the medias will take it!

With the same routine like in France it happened in Germany. Racism in ballet? Wow!

Most journalists are flashed by this!

The German magazine “Der Spiegel” was soon convinced to make an interview with Chloé Lopes Gomes. They bought all her fakes!

They did not ask hard and critical questions.

They did not talk – like I did – with a lot of dancers and dancer colleagues who know the ballet mistress and the girl who accuses her.

They did not ask for example in what language the accused ballet mistress was talking with Chloé. If they would have asked, they could find out that this ballet mistress only talks German and Russian and Chloé only speaks French and English.

At work in the ballet studio several dancers translate when the showing of the ballet mistress is not enough. They come from round about 30 different nations. Their job is talking with the body and without a language – dance is mostly a silent art.

Are these dancers now the helping friends of Chloé Lopes Gomes?

Do they lie without knowing just because of their bad German and English?

It is a shame, all in all.

In fact this ballet mistress is wellknown in ballet scene for being extremely helpful, friendly, motherly to the dancers. She even is not a typical ballet master!

For sure she never had an interest in acting against a single ballerina, if black or white!

With ballet professionals like this ballet mistress only power counts. Not the colour of the skin.

“Der Spiegel” could have found out by asking people who have worked with this ballet mistress. They could have asked her colleagues and other dancers.

But they only spoke to the dancers Chloé names them.

And after “Spiegel” just the next paper came up with the same story. And the next and the next.

This is the snowball effect, it even works with fake news.

No one of these medias (papers, magazines, radio and tv stations) had an interest to show doubts.

Racism in a noble ballet company! They just love it! It is such a great story! And so easy to write!

I guess “pointemagazine” is especially to blame. They brought up this fake thing internationally, naming a lot of wrong facts.

Normally as a journalist you have to have your ears everywhere, not only on one side of the flood. But in cases like this they do not want to hear the truth. They do not want to see the connections between step one and step two. They are flashed all over. They want to win the battle with this faboulous story.

They do not want to say “no, this might not be true”.

We remember that Konrad Kujau once could sell worldwide obviously faked books as pure Hitler diaries. It just worked because they all were flashed tremendiously by the idea of earning a lot of money with it.

Chloé Lopes Gomes is not Konrad Kujau. But she also sells a fake, a fake story, spelled by her brother who did the first step by himself in Paris.

Do you think it happend just by chance, that this brother Isaac Lopes Gomes started his discussion about Paris Opera first and then Chloé came after it just few weeks later?

In October 2020 the discussion in Paris was spread around, in November the discussion in Berlin began. By the way: In September Chloé was told that her contract would end.

You can read this also in “Spiegel”. But you cannot read in “Spiegel” that she has this brother!

So the point of time when her brother started this discussion was exactly the point of time she needed his help.

Brother and sister, both black and both dancers, are just fooling us.

It is obvious.

And Staatsballett Berlin does not make a good figure any more.

It is all like an obscure witch-hunt. Christiane Theobald herself is inviting all the dancers to tell in how far they are victims of racism or sexism. And of course quite a lot of people want to say something! It is just like with inquisition. People who find themselves in trouble or at the early end of their carreer say that all this is the guilt of the evil ballet masters.

But has there ever been a real racist attack with proofs? No!

That’s why they now take even jokes as sign for discrimination.

They want to save their own carreer by that.

Dancers of course live in a steady anxiety of loosing their job, just like a lot of “normal” people in “normal” jobs, too.

So now they can say that they are hurt in a racist way without any proof and they are heroes. Everybody will listen to them. They are stars within the Staatsballett Berlin. But not by dancing!

They can be heroes just like Chloé Lopes Gomes was a hero. 

In fact especially in Germany, Austria and in France people try to make classical ballet small and smaller – and tell around that classical ballet was not good for democracy neither for children.

On the homepage of the Berlin re-education troup “Diversity Arts Culture” who is doing the workshops with Staatsballett Berlin in order to Senat we find an interview with a freelance black dancer who exactly tells us that he feels a love-hate relationship towards ballet.

Why is this published in the homepage of a re-education troup payed by Klaus Lederer, the senator of culture and Europe in Berlin?

There are people with ugly prejudices against classical ballet. At the same time these people prefer contemporary dance and want to replace ballet by contemporary dance.

And then: It is so easy to tell the people that there is a big racism problem all over! But of course not in contemporary dance, only in ballet!

But back to Chloé and Isaac Lopes Gomes: They really made fools out of Staatsballett Berlin. 

Will they learn something out of it?

Or maybe next year someone will tell us that ballet world has a big pedophile problem, because the women are so skinny. Just like in fashion and in movies an in commercials the girls are skinny – but of course in ballet this will be a bigger problem for some people.

Klaus Lederer will love it!

And then, of course, someone will find out that there are only very few classical ballet roles for gender people! Oh my dear. Not enough roles for transvestites?

Do we have to say goodbye to our culture just because it comes from a time when nearly no black people lived in Europe?

And what about Mozart? He did not use African percussion in his work. So let’s burn him down?

What about Beethoven? Did he like homosexuals? And what will we if we find out that he did not?

Chloé Lopes Gomes started insulting her ballet mistress with the help of her brother in Paris. She made a media career with that. Who is responsable for this working of a fake?

Christiane Theobald, the actual leader of Staatsballett Berlin, did not act like a responsible person. She did not have the power to say what is wrong and what is right.

She just wants to stay boss of the Staatsballett Berlin.

So she pretends now for the audience that she wants to improve Staatsballett Berlin with workshops and program changes – but indeed she knows that there is no racist problem so far.

But: She did not help the ballet mistress that was wrongly accused. That was her big failure.

Can we trust a highly payed leader of a Staatsballett when she is able to sacrify one of her best ballet masters without any proof?

There are people in Staatsballett Berlin knowing Chloé Lopes Gomes as “arrogant” and “not shy at all“, als „lazy“ and „not able to give a good classical performance“.

Does Theobald not know this?

So why could she believe in wrong accusations just after this young lady was fired?

Because there is a structure of “mobbing” (a German word!) in Staatsballett Berlin, not a structure of racism.

Hey, Mr Lederer! This is the best time now to change the leadership of Staatsballett Berlin.

And who is to blame?

For sure not this ballet mistress!

And the future?

In Paris, Isaac Lopes Gomes became famous with his “manifeste” about racism at Paris Opera. In interviews he claimed that black still means “exotic” in classical ballets. But this ist just normal, because these classical ballets come from 19^th century when black people indeed were very seldom and exotic in Europe.

When I have a look at old African or South American culture, there is no white working woman like me in the novels. So why not? And why is there mostly black culture in it?

Well, please, do not get me wrong.

But the respect in front of people and in front of culture cannot be destroyed by confusing harmless traditions.

And then please: Let me tell you that there are wonderful black ballet stars nowadays!

We do have dynamic Osiel Gouneo in Munich, beautiful Yonah Acosta in Munich, marvelous Elisa Carrillo Cabrera in Berlin, we had supergood Carlos Acosta in London (until he retired), and we have ensembles in the USA with nearly only black dancers like Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Alonso King Lines Ballet or Dance Theatre of Harlem.

And we have lovely non-white ballet stars in Stuttgart Ballet and in Hamburg Ballet, we do have several black dancers in Semperoper Ballet in Dresden.

Of course they are not a majority in Europe. Because they do not come so often to professional ballet schools to become professional ballet dancers.

This might have several reasons. But the accused ballet mistress in Berlin for sure is not a reason of it!

All persons who like to discuss racist questions should not say thank you to the siblings Lopes Gomes!

When we think of the literature of Marquis de Sade (white culture, sorry!), we know that lying is very important to kill the good reputation of gentle people.

Today we call this “fake”.

That’s what Chloé is doing: Chloé Lopes Gomes sells a fake story.

And she had her contacts into the media scene even before she came to Berlin.

Just when she started in Berlin in 2018, there was a big article about her in VOGUE: only because she was black.

It was sold as a sensation to have a black ballerina in Berlin. Nevertheless a lot of non-white dancers have danced before in Staatsballett Berlin for years!

But only Chloé was interesting for VOGUE in 2018 and for rbb and also for BZ, that are medias in Berlin. Why? Maybe because of her good contacts. For sure not because of her classical dancing style – it was bad anyway.

So why did Johannes Öhman who was the ballet boss then in Berlin made a contract with her?

Maybe because she was black. For me: for sure!

In 2017 this re-education troup named “Diversity Arts Culture” was founded by Klaus Lederer, and then they maybe thought that there are not enough black people in the ballet so that there are not enough racist problems. This troup should have work!

Now, in 2020, of course the same medias who celebrated Chloé in 2018, celebrate holy Chloé again – now as a victim. Without asking or having a doubt.

But what does it mean to be black in a ballet company today?

In New York we have great Misty Copeland, one of the most beloved superballerinas in the world. She is black. Totally black. And she does not lie about her carreer or family. Go there and ask her about racism and sexism in society or in the dancing scene. She is believable!

She says that in society there is a lot of racism in the USA. But in her carreer in ballet she found people who made her strong.

Can you see the difference to Chloé Lopes Gomes?

It must be very hard now for “Spiegel”, “Tagesspiegel”, “Berliner Zeitung“, “BZ”, “VOGUE”, even „arte“ and of course for “pointemagazin” to see that their holy little black ballet girl is just a fake story.

Maybe they still behave like Trump and just do as if nothing happened!

But you cannot ignore the now revealed facts.

And now I would like to hear that Chloé Lopes Gomes has to leave Staatsballett Berlin immediately.

Staatsballett Berlin says in it’s acutal statement: “Zero tolerance!”

Zero tolerance against whom? Against innocent ballet masters who are wrongly accused as if they were Nazis? Or zero tolerance against a ballet girl that is not good enough in ballet, but in telling around a fake story?

Now, and how would Christiane Theobald have reacted if someone would have told round that she was a racist? Would she say: “Oh, yes, of course, for sure we all are racists, I am guilty”?!

Oh no. She would have done the right thing: taking a lawyer and looking forward to win against Chloé Lopes Gomes.

But in this case it was not mighty Mrs Theobald who was accused. Just now she is accused, by me!

She did not make her job. She just was ready to do everything Klaus Lederer wants her to do. That’s not okay.

It is obvious that Chloé Lopes Gomes topped with her fake story what her brother did with vague and empty phrases in Paris.

Do you still believe in the fairytale of “racist structures” in European opera houses?

Then go out and take part at one of these workshops about racism.

But you also should find the way to a workshop against “mobbing”.

But let’s talk about diversity again!

In Berlin we do not have a lot of black people in the inhabitants, but we have a lot of Turkish people among us – and they do not come to the ballet.

So if you want to do something with diversity and ballet in Berlin: Please tell the Turkish people that opera and ballet are great culture also for their children!

Mr Lederer! Give specific workshops to the islamic people in understanding European culture, and maybe this will open the social frontiers in our society.

But do not give our money to people who make workshops with sadistic fake story tellers.

That would be a merit, indeed.

So if now you think I’m a racist – you might be a “mobber” by yourself.

I was indeed urged, I was threatened, I was insulted by friends and fans of Chloé Lopes Gomes.

So a former dancer from Staatsballett Berlin named Paulio Sovari wrote me, that he will make an end with my career. He did not say how. Is he dangerous?

So press freedom for sure is much too much for some small brains.

But maybe you try to learn something now. And please, learn also this:

You never can change the truth.
Gisela Sonnenburg

www.staatsballett-berlin.de