About Face spotlights Georgina Pazcoguin and Phil Chan as they challenge the dance world to rid ballet of offensive stereotypes of Asian people and make ballet more inclusive.

Gina, an acclaimed dancer, and Phil, an author and choreographer, launch the global Final Bow for Yellowface movement. They ask dancers to jettison offensive “yellowface” caricatures from ballets like The Nutcracker and La Bayadère. We see in real time as the Scottish Ballet updates its version of the Chinese Dance to both high praise and stinging backlash. Phil takes on a bigger challenge of reimagining a full-length ballet: the problematic La Bayadére. He boldly transports the story from ancient India to a Hollywood studio in the 1920s.

About Face vividly shows the tension and risks the two artists endure as they push an art form—created for the entertainment of kings and queens hundreds of years ago—to be more relevant to diverse audiences today. 

Georgina Pazcoguin was born and raised in Altoona, Pennsylvania and was a soloist with the New York City Ballet.