Monday, October 12, 2026
Matthew Mahoski is choreographing his first ballet and he’s coming home to do so, using Long Island dancers he once danced with and a stage where he is more than comfortable. “Portraits of Domesticity – an Exploration of the Oppression and Limitation of Women in the Home,” will debut at Oyster Bay High School on Aug. 15 at 3 p.m.
Mahoski, a 2014 Oyster Bay High School graduate, just completed his first year at NYU Tisch School for the Arts, where he is majoring in musical theater.
Thus far college has been quite a learning experience for the lifelong Oyster Bay native, but Mahoski, 19, believes that his decision to become a feminist was perhaps his most valuable lesson.
“I learned that it is important to be a feminist, which I never considered myself to be,” Mahoski said. “I’m a gay man so gay rights have always been more important to me, but this year I met so many young women who explained to me the importance of tying gender equality with feminism.”
His ballet is a celebration of his newfound beliefs, written in honor of his mother. “Portraits of Domesticity,” 18 minutes in length, is an exploration of the 1950’s housewife’s plight to fulfill her role when a woman’s job was almost always in the home. It is a contemporary ballet utilizing an unusual array of props that include plastic grocery baskets and even a toilet brush.
The ballet will be performed in the second act following vocal performances by alumni of Oyster Bay High School, who will sing a collection of musical theater songs that address domesticity and female empowerment.
Mahoski’s concept for the ballet came from his realization that it was the women in his family that made him who he is today.
“All of the women in my family are strong women,” Mahoski said. “My sister is going to school for biomedical engineering, my mother was a professional and my aunts and cousins are all career driven. None fall into domestic servitude.”
He began to think about the issues that men deal with, that they can’t cry, are discouraged from ballet dancing and the pressures that society imposes on men to live up to preconceived notions that he believes are limiting. Women deal with their own set of challenges, he reasoned, and it must have been so hard for them in the 1950’s.
“I realized that I am the product of a break from domesticity and that inspired me to do a piece in support of women,” Mahoski explained. “There’s no greater example that people can still remember of gender inequality than in the 1950’s.”
He read up on the period, looked at photographs and advertising posters too.
“I created in my ballet six women who are each a different portrait of a housewife co-existing in a metaphorical world,” he said, adding that he pulled the ballet together in two months.
But Mahoski did run into some challenges along the way.
The college and high school dancers chosen were from Norma’s School of Dance in Bethpage, where Mahoski had studied. But since it is summer the dancers had schedules that included vacations and summer dance programs in the city. He had to be flexible with his rehearsal schedule and work around missing dancers.
Finding free space to rehearse was also difficult. Finally his father, who is the co-owner of Gold Coast, a flooring store in Hicksville, came to the rescue, offering to allow for rehearsals at the store.
“Many of my original plans changed, like using furniture on stage as a set,” he said. “Getting an actual stage to perform at was hard enough. I almost gave up a few times.”
After contacting several people at Oyster Bay High School he received permission to use the stage at his alma mater. Then he had to secure insurance, which he managed.
Now in the red, Mahoski is hopeful that he will make back in ticket sales what he has spent. He plans to donate the rest of his profits to his high school’s Friends of the PAC, an organization composed of parents committed to supporting the Oyster Bay Arts Center.
Although the women in his piece are portraying women in the 1950,’s Mahoski believes their issues are relevant to women today.
“Even today cleaning products are advertised with women in them,” Mahoski said. “There is so much more progress that needs to be made to achieve gender equality. I believe it is important to make art about this because it will open the dialogue.”
When the rehearsal at the flooring store ends it is dark outside. But the young women, who have worked for hours to perfect Mahoski’s ballet appear to be anything but tired.
Stephanie Malatestinic said she’s enjoying the experience. “I’ve never done anything like this before. It is so intimate and tells a story.”
An unfamiliar story, she is asked? “Well we’ve all seen women like this on television,” Malatestinic replies.
The three other young women nod in agreement.
“It’s really like the opposite of what we are now,” said Tina Rapaglia, who like Malatestinic, had danced with Mahoski for years when they were much younger. “Everyone pushes women now to go to college and get a degree.”
