http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/arts/dance/hes-a-ballet-dancer-and-a-singer-and-a-drag-queen.html 2016-10-14 11:32:05 He’s a Ballet Dancer. And a Singer. And a Drag Queen. A look at the many faces of James Whiteside, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theater. === Last Pushing boundaries is something of a habit for Mr. Whiteside, 32, who joined American Ballet as a soloist in 2012 and became a principal a year later. Yes, he professionally plays Prince Charmings, but he also leads alternative artistic lives: as a pop singer, Ballet remains rather traditional when it comes to romantic pairings, gender roles and sexual expression. “I became very aware of the hetero-normative standard in ballet very early,” said Mr. Whiteside, who realized he would mainly play straight men onstage. “And that made me sad. I will never get to express myself as my true self.” JbDubs and Uhu Betch help fill that gap. Those characters have helped Mr. Whiteside attract an eclectic collection of fans on social media, including young, gay male ballet dancers who tell him his presence is reassuring. Some older ballet fans, however, are perplexed, and at times dismissive. “When I post a drag photo,” Mr. Whiteside said, “or if I post something off-color or nontraditional, I notice that I lose followers.” Mr. Whiteside will be busy during American Ballet’s fall season, beginning Wednesday, Oct. 19, including Ms. Lang’s premiere. His ballet accomplishments have given him courage in his other endeavors. “Right now, I’m so happy with where I am professionally that I find myself caring less about propriety,” he said in a recent interview. “I want to be true to my artistic visions — multiple — because I know exactly what I want to do, and why should I have to change myself to fit society’s needs?” “I play a straight character every role I do. I don’t have the luxury of choice. Hopefully, someday we will.” As a teenager, Mr. Whiteside said, he dreamed of joining Ballet Theater. On the surface, his affinity for the traditional romantic ballets that constitute much of the company’s repertory seems at odds with the glee he takes in scrambling gender roles through his alter egos. “He’s unabashedly himself and completely recognizes when his unabashed self doesn’t fit with what it is he’s trying to do,” said Kevin McKenzie, the artistic director of Ballet Theater. The way Mr. Whiteside sees it, Romeo, Conrad, Albrecht and the other seducers in the ballet canon are characters as fun to play as anything else. “Out of context, I couldn’t care less about how I appear on the spectrum of masculinity,” he said. But tradition compels him to play it straight onstage. “I do pas de deux with women all day, every day. Always with women. So I choose to create this character, to create this story, to make it relatable to the masses and artistically sensible.” “Drag tells you exactly what is wrong with the world in a really, really creative, glamorous, funny, sexy way.” Mr. Whiteside and his friends had been going out in drag for years when they created the group the “As a ballet dancer, I don’t get to really play the type of music I love listening to, which is club music, pop music, rap music, basically anything but the music I dance to in my professional ballet career.” As a child growing up in Fairfield, Conn., Mr. Whiteside played his father’s records on a toy turntable and spent hours at the Virgin Megastore in New York City. In his early 20s, he started experimenting with songs on his computer, eventually developing a style he calls “sassy rap,” with sexually explicit lyrics and a dancehall beat. He corralled fellow dancers from Boston Ballet, where he worked at the time, to join him at clubs and in music videos, including for the 2012 song “