Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin’s Groundbreaking Film Redefines Ballet

Going to see a classic performance of the “The Nutcracker” ballet has long been an enduring Christmas tradition for many families. However, the Chinese Tea Dance has been a problematic part of that story for many due to what is seen as a negative portrayal of Asian dancers.

That in turn has helped spark a wider movement to crack the underlying problem of the stereotypical portrayal of Asians and Asian Americans and push for more diversity among all dancers in the close-knit world of ballet.

If you want to understand how that journey started, find a screening of the groundbreaking film “About Face: Disrupting Ballet.” The documentary featured choreographer Phil Chan and ballerina Georgina Pazcoguin and their enduring impact on the ballet world. The film debuted in October 2025 and premiered at Lincoln Center on July 23rd in the David Rubenstein Atrium.

They have both disrupted the industry by calling out Asian stereotypes embedded into popular classics including “The Nutcracker” and “La Bayadére.”

A major theme of the film was their own personal experiences facing outdated Asian portrayals onstage and the courage to have difficult conversations. Conversations around harmful Asian stereotypes in “The Nutcracker” are not a new conversation. As far back as 2017, the director of the New York City Ballet was receiving complaints from audience members that the Tea Dance scene in “The Nutcracker” was offensive in its portrayal.

Said the film’s director Jennifer Lin, “Some people might look at this and say it is 90 seconds of choreography. What is the big deal? ‘The Nutcracker’ is such a monster ballet. It is the start of ballet for millions and millions and millions of people. So why not use that as an example and a platform for talking about this much larger issue?”

Chan said, “it makes a ton of money. Some American companies can get up to 60 percent of their annual revenue from ‘The Nutcracker.’ When you’re not bringing your kids to ‘The Nutcracker’ you are in trouble.”

Georgina Pazcoguin is the first Asian American woman promoted to the role of a soloist at the New York City Ballet. The conversation around eliminating yellowface in ballet began when Pazcoguin was on a diversity committee meeting at the New York City Ballet.

In 2017, Pazcoguin called Chan and asked if he could help speak with NYCB about the issue. What began as a collaboration between Pazcoguin, Chan, and the New York City Ballet soon became a national and international conversation about shifting the foundation of ballet from a “strictly Eurocentric art form to being a global, diverse art form.”

Until then, Chan noted that stereotypical depictions of Asian people in “The Nutcracker” were commonly accepted. Chan said, “some of the growing pains are yellowface. Our focus was how do we advocate for Asians and Asian-Americans in this form?”

A lot of the Nutcracker’s historical choreography was revealed by Chan’s research to not actually exist in Chinese culture. Chan’s approach included finding acceptable makeup, costuming, and choreography that were inspired by actual Asian culture. On the advocacy website, he gives examples for other companies to use such as drawing inspiration from the Peking Opera which is “a rich theatrical tradition in China where different colors in the masks represent different character traits. Ballet West’s current version of the divertissement features a Peking Opera-inspired warrior battling a playful Chinese dragon.”

Chan said, “Almost ten years out, every major American company has signed the pledge, all the top five biggest companies in the UK signed this pledge.” The Final Bow For Yellow Face website was created with a petition that has since been signed by prestigious ballet companies both nationally and internationally. Chan is also the president of the Gold Standard Arts Foundation that champions AAPI diversity in dance.

Chan said, “So say you want to change something and you go to the person who has the power to change it and say, ‘hey, you’re the problem.’ That person is going to shut down that conversation immediately, right? Conversations had to be approached thoughtfully to convey a dialogue and not a confrontation. Chan said that this approach would often yield a better result.

Chain continued, “We want more Asian people to buy tickets. We want more Asian families to drop their kids off into our ballet schools so we can have enrollment up.” Chan calls this form of work “inclusive advocacy.”

The film’s producer Jennifer Lin felt that this movement was “the antithesis of cancel culture.” She said, “questions arose in the ballet world such as how do we take this culture and make it more inclusive? How do we take these classics like ‘The Nutcracker’ and ‘La Bayadére’ and give them new life and a new meaning?”

Lin said, “I had these conversations with my daughter privately when she was growing up in the ballet world and when she had to do the Chinese dance and said, ‘it’s horrible’.”

Lin explained, “We had this private conversation and I said to her ‘keep it to yourself. Don’t say anything because you will get repercussions.’ My daughter gave me a copy of “Final Bow for Yellowface” in 2020. It was a moment. Phil was articulating things that she and I had discussed.” Lin stated that Phil Chan’s 2020 book “Final Bow For Yellowface” was pivotal in her decision to produce the film.

At Indiana University, Phil Chan reimagined the work “La Bayadére” as “A Star On The Rise” which tells the story of a Hollywood Western that replaced the original context of the work that was offensive to Indian people.

Chan often thought, “What else could it be? When you are a little kid and a pencil is not just a pencil. It is a rocket ship, a magic wand, a lightsaber, or a sword.”

Lin said, “it was really great to talk to the young dancers. One young dancer was Indian American and had done traditional Indian dancing. She said, ‘you know, La Bayadére is kind of a joke for Indian dancers’. It was really a great point of view to include in the movie.”

Chan said, “This has basically been an unpaid job for me for the past ten years. I also want to be able to focus on my own creative career. I have peers my age who are doing really well as choreographers, but do not have to open doors for themselves or other people in order to get the same work.”

Chan shared, “if someone wants to understand this conversation they don’t have to call me or spend a lot of money with an expensive diversity consultant. They can watch this movie, and they can start chewing on these ideas on their own and be able to make change in their own community. I have Jennifer to eternally thank for freeing me of this burden.”

During the Q&A portion of the event that came after the film screening, Chan and Pazcoguin spoke with Susan Yiqing Feng who is the Director of Programs at the China Institute of America. They candidly shared their own experiences which had a profound impact on the audience.

As the evening ended, Lin remembered one woman who walked up to address them. She was teary eyed as she shared how much the film deeply and positively impacted her. Lin said, “I was really taken by her emotional response to the movie and the questions.”