Each year around Christmas, American families flock to productions of George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker.” It’s become a tradition for a reason. Pick any production around the country, and you know what you’ll get: glittering sets, exquisite dancing, and the dramatic strains of Tchaikovsky’s score. But this year, Seattle families hoping to enjoy “The Nutcracker” may be shocked to see a male Sugar Plum Fairy pirouetting across the stage. For the second year in a row, Pacific Northwest Ballet has cast Ashton Edwards in traditionally female roles in its Nutcracker production, The Daily Wire has learned. Edwards — a 21-year-old man who uses the pronouns “they/them” and identifies as “non-binary” — is on a mission to “un-gender” the very-structured, very feminine, world of ballet. He has danced in the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Harlequin, Green Tea Cricket, Candy Cane, and Dewdrop in Nutcracker productions in the past, according to the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Edwards is “part of a rising generation of gender nonconforming dancers questioning ballet’s rigid gender roles,” according to a 2022 New York Times profile. “I definitely want to be an activist for the next generation, and I also want to be a light for them, to show them that it gets easier on the other side,” Edwards told the Times in 2022. That profile noted that ballet has “become synonymous” with a “fairy-tale ideal of femininity,”  pointing out that “gender roles have been enshrined in its technique, particularly with pointe shoes (women dance on pointe, men don’t) and partnering (women are lifted, men do the lifting).” Edwards and others hope to change that.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by En Face Magazine (@enfacemagazine) Pictures and videos reviewed by The Daily Wire show Edwards dancing in the Nutcracker during the 2023 Christmas season, dressed in feminine leotards and skirts, wearing a crown. He is known for dancing in women’s roles en pointe, meaning on the very tips of his toes, a challenging technique that requires extensive practice and is usually performed by women. “Until recently,” the Seattle Times reports, “the idea of a man dancing on pointe was a rarity, mostly restricted to comic effect in narrative ballets like Frederick Ashton’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ or the all-male dance comedy troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. In a world engaged in conversation about gender and inclusivity, however, things may be changing in ballet, just a bit.” Screenshot, Instagram. Screenshot, Instagram. The Pacific Northwest Ballet has not posted all of the dancer assignments for the Christmas season, but on Saturday, Edwards appears to have danced as “Harlequin” and “Green Tea Cricket,” a new addition to the ballet intended to “counter stereotypes of Chinese culture” and to dispel “anti-Asian hate.” The Pacific Northwest Ballet did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the matter. Edwards also did not respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment. Some of the pictures that Edwards has promoted on his social media show his 2022 “Sugar Plum Debut,” in which he is seen dressed in a purple tutu, dancing with a matching prince. The Sugar Plum Fairy’s dances in The Nutcracker are widely regarded as the “pinnacles” of the renowned ballet, and the Sugar Plum Fairy is the queen of the Kingdom of Sweets. The New York Times previously described Edwards as “an extraordinarily gifted and versatile performer” who is “setting an important precedent.” He is, according to the Times, “an artist assigned male at birth working routinely on pointe in a classical ballet company.” Edwards reportedly convinced the Pacific Northwest Ballet’s artistic director Peter Boal to let him study “pointe” at the ballet school in August 2020 — a conversation that resulted in both the ballet school and the company removing gender designations from some classes and allowing students to train under the gender identity they align with. “Sometimes you need a catalyst, and in this case that was Ashton,” Boal told the Times. “We’ve been going through our whole handbook to really ungender much of what we offer.”

South Korea’s parliament voted to defy President Yoon Suk Yeol’s late Tuesday night by lifting his “emergency martial law” decree. One hundred ninety members of South Korea’s 300 National Assembly members quickly gathered for an emergency session in which all 190 voted to block the move. Woo Won-sik, the chairman of the National Assembly, called on Yoon to “immediately lift the emergency martial law” following the vote. The vote came after the military declared that “all political activities, including those of the National Assembly, local councils, political parties, and political associations, as well as assemblies and demonstrations, are strictly prohibited.” The decree from Yoon, who has seen his approval ratings plummet in recent months, comes after the country ended its military dictatorship in the 1980s. The New York Times noted that the conservative president won his election by campaigning on being tougher toward North Korea and calling for strengthening the country’s alliance with the U.S. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Yoon declared martial law in an attempt to bring an end to the paralysis in operating the government that was caused by the National Assembly being won by the opposing party, the country’s Democratic Party, earlier this year. In a speech, Yoon said that the political opposition inside the country had paralyzed the government’s ability to operate by initiating 22 impeachment proceedings against government officials over the last six months in addition to nearly a dozen more that were planned. “This is a situation that is not only unprecedented in any country in the world, but has never been seen since the founding of our country,” he said. “It is paralyzing the judiciary by intimidating judges and impeaching a number of prosecutors, and it is paralyzing the executive branch by trying to impeach the Minister of the Interior, the Chairman of the Communications Commission, the Chair of the Board of Audit, and the Defense Minister.” He said that the country’s security was being weakened by members of the National Assembly who had “undermined the essential functions of the state” by cutting key measures from the country’s national budget. He added that the country’s Democratic Party had a “legislative dictatorship” that it was using “as a means of political struggle.” He said the National Assembly had turned into a “den of criminals” that was committing “obvious anti-state act[s]” and plotting “insurrection.” Yoon said martial law was needed “to defend the free Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect the free constitutional order.” CNN said that the South Korean public was upset over the way Yoon handled a tragedy after he was elected when more than 150 people were crushed to death at a Halloween party. The report said there was also a controversy involving a designer handbag that his wife, Kim Keon See, was accused of accepting valued at more than the $750 limit.

For many people in the United States, it’s just about that time of year. Yes, there are the holidays to celebrate. But amidst all of the holiday cheer, there are also lots of final assignments due as the school semester comes to a close. More often than not, this includes final exams… but does that always have to be the case? Someone named Linda G on social media is challenging her professor on that. I know what you’re probably thinking: There is no way for a student to get a professor to cancel an exam. Lucky for Linda, who is taking a marketing class, she chose the right professor to challenge. But how did she do it? By utilizing what they’ve been taught in class. Check out the email Linda sent in the screenshot below. TikTok While it would be nice for Linda’s professor to simply cancel the exam with nothing in return, it only makes sense that she’d offer some sort of alternative. In this case, Linda asks that the exam be canceled if a photo of this adorable dog (presumably her own) reaches a certain number of likes. The exact number, however, is up for her professor to choose. This may seem like an unlikely deal, but much to Linda’s surprise, her professor agreed! With some caveats, of course… Marketing Professor Agrees to a Clever Final Exam Challenge TikTok First of all, he decided that the image must reach 15,000 followers rather than a certain number of likes. Most challenging, however, he said that Apple must leave a comment, too. According to this professor, the odds of this happening are very low. But that isn’t going to stop Linda, or the thousands of folks who have seen her post, from trying! After all, the professor didn’t specify what he meant by “from Apple” in his email… “I work for Apple, does this count?” someone asks in the comments, with another adding, “I have an apple orchard, are we gathering enough apples posts yet???” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Student Proposes Canceling Final Exam — So Professor Responds With A Challenge appeared first on InspireMore.

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A post on X claims that Russian authorities sentenced a man to 14 years in prison for burning a copy of the Quran. ☪️?? BREAKING: RUSSIA has sentenced a man to 14 YEARS IN PRISON for BURNING the QURAN. pic.twitter.com/UzRKmgE3LO — Legitimate Targets (@LegitTargets) November 26, 2024 Verdict: Misleading The already incarcerated man received a […]

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