En pointe: Why brands are embracing the aesthetics of ballet

Losing the Oscar was probably a tough loss, but a bigger blow to Timothée Chalamet’s ego might have been the overwhelmingly negative response to his declaration that ballet and opera were dead in the water—after which the UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera thanked him, since his controversial comments helped increase ticket sales.

Timmy isn’t the only reason people are paying more attention to ballet and the performing arts lately. Across advertising, the aesthetics and performance of ballet have appeared in campaigns like NikeSkims x LISA and home decor company Lulu and Georgia’s film-forward campaign.

One of the biggest spring shoe trends is the “sneakerina,” a ballet sneaker that had, according to the fashion search engine Lyst, seen a 1,300% YoY increase in interest as of Q1 2025. In entertainment, Prime Video promoted its ballet-themed thriller, Pretty Lethal, at South by Southwest, with tutu-wearing representatives handing out movie posters, while pop star Olivia Rodrigo was recently spotted filming a music video surrounded by ballerinas.

The art of ballet may be centuries old, but it seems to be enjoying a breath of new life—a phenomenon that could be a response to the rise of AI and our digital lifestyles at large, according to Jaimee Estreller, VP of platforms, algorithms, and culture at VaynerX. And for brands paying attention, tapping into ballet and performance art could yield results.

“I call it rage against the machine of the automation, the AI, the algorithms that have inundated our feeds,” Estreller told us. “Ballet and the craft of performance art has been growing only because it’s softer. It shows craft and deep expertise, and it’s also a romanticization of a slower pace of life that is different than what we’re used to in scrolling.”

Dance to the beat

For Lulu and Georgia, incorporating ballet into its marketing wasn’t about tapping into a cultural trend. Rather, the art form provided a new type of storytelling that Jenna Kincaid, VP of brand creative, told us set the campaign apart from the brand’s past work.

“We’ve really worked to be like, ‘Okay, how do we…hook [audiences] with something that’s a little more unique and out of the box?’” Kincaid said. “This is our first campaign that we’ve done that’s just high-level brand storytelling.”

In the spot, called “The Rhythm of a Room,” two ballerinas dance around an empty room that slowly fills with furniture pieces. The focus is on the dancers rather than directly highlighting the brand’s products, as previous Lulu and Georgia campaigns have. Ballet’s visual language helped emphasize a throughline between the craft of both ballet and home decor, and the ad itself is more of a brand awareness play than a lower-funnel approach that’s more typical for the company, Kincaid said.

To emphasize that craft, choreography was key, and Kincaid said conversations with a choreographer impacted how the ad was made. Through the making of the ad, they changed details, including eliminating a plan to have dancers physically move furniture pieces into the room, to allow ballet techniques to shine through.

“When we started talking to the choreographer, he was really focused [on being] very careful and intentional with how we bring this to life,” Kincaid said. “From his perspective, this needs to be very technical still, because this art form is revered.”

Brands that show attention to ballet’s details in their messaging and platform the artists can help align the companies with what Estreller said is appealing about the art form: an appreciation for something that takes deep expertise, especially in an age when baseline information is at our fingertips.

“People have been calling it competency porn,” Estreller said. “AI has been able to give us the information. [Now] we actually want to see the experts, we do want to hear from the people who have tactical craft and have an actual hard skill. It takes years to learn it, and it can’t be automated or shortened.”

Set the stage

It’s not just ballet imagery that taps into a counter-AI narrative. Estreller pointed out that performance arts as a whole, including opera (sorry, Timmy) and other forms of dance, can scratch the same itch. While some companies, like luxury brands and athletic attire, are perhaps more naturally suited to adopting these aesthetics, there’s opportunity for a wider variety of brands to get involved, too.

“[Brands can be] a setting or location for choreographed dance, where they can just input themselves as a background scene where art can just happen, so [then] we think about [those brands] as places to create and bring people together,” Estreller said.

Estreller predicts that taking customers behind-the-scenes and investing in artistry will continue to resonate.

“I feel like we’re going to be in this boom of creativity all around, and a lot of brands are going to work with the creators from the communities that are leading it, whether it’s music, whether it’s fashion, whether it’s performance arts in any form,” Estreller said. “We’re seeing that type of hunger from brands because of what people are gravitating towards.”