ROGERS PARK — For a longstanding Rogers Park authentic Polish music and dance troupe, Lira Ensemble, the tradition of presenting performers as "cute, darling Polish" dolls has endured for 50 years.
To do it, general manager and founding member, Lucyna Migala, says she's not interested in hiring "fat" women who could jeopardize the group's "doll" image.
"We only have costumes in certain sizes, so therefore we cannot take a chubby woman, or a very tall woman, even if they are the greatest singers in the world, because how would we dress them?" Migala said.
"So therefore the largest size I think we have is a 14, so everyone has to be a size 14 or smaller. But most of them, like the dancers, are all size 8."
Linze Rice says many performers experience similar rejections:
The group, which consists of about 8 to 12 core choral singers, 12 to 16 traditional dancers and an orchestra, says it has promoted Polish culture by performing professionally for "audiences nationwide and worldwide." Musicians and singers play original Polish music that they write, along with the country's classic folk songs, at various cultural events and festivals alongside other traditional folk ensembles.
Lira says it both promotes diversity by opening the auditioning process to any ethnic or racial background, but also cites "uniformity" and "appearance" as reasons for restrictions on size.
"We have accommodated singers and dancers of all shapes and sizes," said Marlena Dzis, a Lira singer who also acts as a marketing and public relations assistant for the group. "However, the standard in the performing arts community is evident in theater, opera, and dance. There are physical limitations even for people that are 'skinny.' 'Looking the part' is frankly a part of the business."
Migala said the group's biggest challenge through its five-decade history has been financial, since the costumes are costly to produce.
Dzis said the costumes are all handmade, true-to-form Polish garb that shows off beautiful and diverse colors and patterns. Each dancer is responsible for the maintenance of their costumes and directed on how to take care of and clean each garment between shows, she said.
However, Migala said even if funds were available to commission a larger variety of costume sizes, she wouldn't invest in them: "We don't really want to because, I mean it's very expensive number one ... number two, even if we had the money, we want to be all cute, darling, little Polish dolls, both our singers and our dancers," Migala said.
"[Performers] all have to be, you know, a certain size. You don't have to be really skinny, you just can't be fat. Unfortunately that's true in many performance companies," she added.
Performers say informal appearance guidelines are common
Ewa Kowcz-Fair, a Polish-born Lira singer, said she's been with the group for nearly 20 years and has seen its women women go through some physical changes, including many Lira performers who have children.
In that case, she said "pregnancy vests" and elastic additions to skirts are used to help hide pregnant women in the group and allow them to still perform comfortably.
Still, it might elicit a "look" from Migala, Kowcz-Fair explained: "... Let's say you just birthed a child, she would kind of give you that look but would never say, 'Oh you're too fat,' or 'When are you going to go back to shape?' She'll just squeeze you into ... pregnancy vests because lots of us who have been longer with the company, we have children, and we all survived the pregnancy vests and then we go back to shape."
Lira singers performing while the group's orchestra plays authentic Polish music in the background. [Lira Ensemble]
Paulina Pieniazek, a 23-year-old dancer with Lira, said from her experience as a dancer she doesn't believe "being big is a problem" when it comes to ability, but said endurance is key for intense rehearsals and dance numbers. For Pieniazek, this sometimes means not eating before a rehearsal for fear it will slow her down.
She emphasized that physical fitness is more important than appearance: "You do need to go and work out at least like three times a week for yourself, or take walks, or whatever you need to do, just because you need muscles."
Though Dzis acknowledged Migala is "extremely particular" about the "visual aspect" of the performance, she contradicted the general manager's statements that overweight women could not join the group: "I don't think we would discriminate to a larger woman or anything," Dzis said. "I think what we look for first is talent, commitment. If anyone does stick out, we'll make it work."
Dzis said she is currently the tallest member of the ensemble and is placed in the middle of the line as the focal point, with fellow singers on either side of her ordered from tallest to shortest as an effort to mask the height difference.
She said she's not allowed to wear heels like other performers, but instead straps on flats.
"With any performing art, appearance is unfortunately a factor, but I would never say it's an extremely important factor at Lira," Dzis said.
Kowcz-Fair added that Migala often finds part-time paid positions or volunteer opportunities within the group for women or other performers who "are no longer able to" fulfill their Lira duties on stage.
Societal pressure on performers
Cruel Valentine, a professional dancer and performer in Chicago with no affiliation to Lira, said it's not surprising to hear some performance companies place size restrictions on dancers.
But she rejects the claim that a dancer's size or weight could keep him or her from performing adequately: "If there were any difference between what a smaller dancer and what a larger dancer can do, I think that has more to do with being told 'no' a lot more throughout your life and not trying because of that, because people try to hold you back," Valentine said. "It's not because people aren't capable, it's because they're not welcome in these communities."
Cruel Valentine, a professional dancer and performer in Chicago, said the only thing about a dancer's size that would hold him or her back would be negative attitudes and discouragement from society and people around him or her. [Cruel Valentine]
Still, some, like Kowcz-Fair, say size can cause safety problems for partner lifts and make it difficult to keep up with smaller dancers.
"So you can't be size 20 or whatever and dance on the dance floor or move. However, it just shouldn't be done, OK? So we try to keep in pretty good shape," Kowcz-Fair said. "Some of those movements are extremely fast and I see some of those poor dancers sweating ... and of course if you are larger in size it's a risk you may simply injure yourself."
Valentine, who said she's been dancing before she could walk and is trained in various types of dance, said costumes or uniformity were poor excuses to miss out on deserving talent.
She added that size restrictions are an arbitrary detail that goes against the very essence of an audition process — a meritocratic process that Dzis said is similar to that of a professional group.
"I think it's unfair to say, 'Oh you're more expensive or you require more yardage and fabric.' By that logic, like, why wouldn't they cast all size 2 [performers] instead of adding a size 6 [performer] so they could save on fabric? ... Where is that line drawn and why?" Valentine said.
Ultimately, who is hired and who doesn't make the cut is determined by Migala, Dzis said.
Pieniazek and Fair both said they'd encourage people to try out, regardless of size — adding their experience with Lira has been "wonderful," especially as folk dancers see smaller and smaller participation numbers and shrinking resources each year.
Still, Valentine said the world of dance has a long road ahead when it comes to a wide acceptance of artists' bodies.
"Unfortunately a lot of the dance world is very behind," Valentine said, noting she has found a way to work in a section of the industry she said is generally accepting of size and gender performance.
"I think this sort of [size] determination in the audition process without really considering peoples' actual talent has more to do with sexism and its commodification of women and their bodies than it does with anything else. It's not about aesthetics, or art, or the appearance of how they want something to look. It's really, really, really about marketing and selling women," she said.
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