CANADA—A fresh-faced exclusive signed by CockyBoys in February is getting a bunch of mainstream press after he went public with his claim that his real career as a ballet dancer was derailed after the Royal Winnipeg Ballet expelled him from its school when they found out about his foray into porn. CBCNews today profiled Jett Black (pictured), whose real name is Jeppe Hansen, in an article in which the 22-year-old Danish native says he was pressured by the school to say he was leaving of his own accord.
"They told me … they didn't have any space for me because I did porn," he told the CBC.
All of this took place shortly after he signed with CockyBoys. “Hansen said he left the school in late March,” reported the CBC. “In April, he left Winnipeg and moved to New York City to pursue adult entertainment full-time under the screen name Jett Black.”
But Hansen still insists that the ballet is his calling, and accused the ballet company of trying to force a limited definition of art upon him. "You cannot be in a company or with the school or whatever because you've decided to take a different standpoint artistically — not because you physically can't do it, or because you're not good enough," he said.
He added, "Being told because you're doing something else that's interrupting with what we think you can do is really difficult because they know it's your passion, they know that that's what you live off. They know my entire identity's built on it. So it was really difficult to be told that and to be told, 'You know what? There's no space for you here.'"
Hansen has been dancing since he was two, and, according to the article, “had danced on stages around the world and studied in Montreal, New York City and his native Denmark before joining the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in September 2012.”
He said his eventual frustration with the artistic limitations being put on him made him revisit earlier decision not to pursue invitations to do porn, and in February 2013 he made the leap.
"It was more important for me to be me and to do the things I wanted to do for once, and not what everyone else wanted," he said. "Being a ballet dancer is restrictive. Everyone tells you what you have to do, how to look, what to weigh, how to perform [and] be the artist you are."
CBCNews also spoke with CockyBoys owner Jake Jaxson, who said he, too, is pushing artistic boundaries in porn, and telling the network, “To me no one can tell me what art is. Art is what you and I define art by."
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet said it would not comment on personnel issues. After this amount of press, the door there is surely closed to Hanson for good, but he insists he is not done with ballet.
"My dancing career is not over. And when they [officials at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet] told me that, I thought the same thing," he said. "I'm taking a break from performing and I'll take this break until I find a place where I can fit in as a ballet dancer."
In the meantime, he said he is pursuing adult entertainment work full time, and enjoys it.
