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Behind the Curtain: The Body, Control, and Ballet

Paula T. Kelso

Many young girls and their parents are attracted to the ballet because of the applauding audiences, the lights, the sequins and feathers, the colorful, elaborate tutus, and satin pointe shoes. Where else can a young girl dream of becoming a princess, a swan, a dancing snowflake or flower, a sugarplum, or lilac fairy? Where else can she be a character right out of a fairy-tale like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty? Where else can she be rescued by and collapse into the arms of her handsome prince? Ballet is the magical world where these dreams can come true. Young girls and women can be all of these things, characters that symbolize femininity in a society that teaches young girls to be and want everything pink and pretty. However, in the shadows of the spotlight lurks an abusive world of eating disorders, verbal harassment, fierce competition, and injured, fatigued, and malnourished dancers. This world of fantasy is just that: fantasy and make-believe.

THE PROBLEM

Body image is defined as the way in which people see themselves in the mirror everyday: the values, judgments, and ideas that they attach to their appearance. Benn and Walters (2001) argue that these judgments and ideas come from being socialized into particular ways of thinking, mainly from society’s ideas of what beauty is, shown especially in the current media and consumer culture. The average person is inundated with 3,000 advertisements daily (Kilbourne, 2002). In these advertisements, women are shown in little clothing and in stereotypical roles. These women are not real (Kilbourne, 2002). They have been altered by computer airbrushing, retouching, and enhancing, and in many cases, several women are used to portray the same model (Kilbourne, 2002). The cultural idea of what is beautiful has changed over the years. In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, who wore a size 16 at one point in her career, was considered the epitome of sexiness and beauty (Jhally, 1995). Contrast this with more recent examples such as Courtney Cox and Jennifer Aniston from the television show Friends, who are considered beautiful. They wear a size 2 (Jhally, 1995). While models and celebrities have become thinner, the average woman is heavier today. This makes an even larger difference between the real and the ideal.

Like the rest of society, dancers’ appearances have also changed over the years. In the 1930s and 1940s, ballerinas were considered thin at the time but, as can be seen in photographs, looked very healthy (Gordon, 1983). Since dancers have generally been slimmer than ideal, these dancers becoming even thinner for today’s ideal is a problem. As one renowned ballet teacher said it: “It is a reflection of society, everything has become more streamlined” (Benn & Walters, 2001, p.146).

In order to understand the pressures that dancers face to be thin, it is necessary to explore the ideas behind the practice of ballet. Women who become dancers are not exempt from cultural expectations that tell them in order to be successful and beautiful, they must also be very thin. They live with the same pressures as the rest of society, however, they also have to deal with the risk of unemployment if they gain any amount of weight or their bodies do not look a certain way (Gordon, 1983). In a career where education is discouraged because of the time it would take away from a dancer’s most successful years, many professional dancers are not attending college and in some cases are even dropping out of high school (Gordon, 1983). These dancers are putting all of their resources into their body and its appearance. If a dancer does gain weight, develops an eating disorder, or becomes injured, she is left out of work with relatively few choices for the future. Most professional companies have “appearance clauses” in their contracts, which usually state that if the dancer gains any noticeable amount of weight, she is eligible to lose her position in the company (Gordon, 1983, SLB, 1993). These clauses also state that tattoos, piercings, and changing hair color are not permitted (Gordon, 1983). Haircuts are discouraged, and usually only allowed with the permission of the director.

Almost everyone credits George Balanchine, the renowned dancer, teacher, and choreographer, with the current aesthetic of ballet in the West, referred to by most as the “Balanchine body,” or the “anorexic look” (Gordon, 1983). He has promoted the skeletal look by his costume requirements and his hiring practices, as well as the treatment of his dancers (Gordon, 1983). The ballet aesthetic currently consists of long limbs, and a skeletal frame, which accentuates the collarbones and length of the neck, as well as absence of breasts and hips (Gordon, 1983, Benn & Walter, 2001, Kirkland, 1986). Balanchine was known to throw out comments to his dancers, such as: “eat nothing” and “must see the bones” (Kirkland, 1986, p.56).

If Balanchine has created this aesthetic, other choreographers have followed and adopted it as the norm. Mikhail Baryshinikov, star dancer and former director of American Ballet Theatre, did not tolerate any body type but the Balanchine one (Gordon, 1983). During rehearsal and without any warning, he fired a corps de ballet member because she was too “fat” in his opinion (Gordon, 1983). He said that he “couldn’t stand to see her onstage anymore” (Gordon, 1983, p.150). Fortunately, management intervened and the dancer was rehired. However, Baryshinikov and the rest of his management were known to have had meetings with their dancers in order to emphasize the importance of weight loss (Gordon, 1983). Obviously, dancers need to be fit and trim in order to be successful in their occupation, and no one should argue that staying fit is not helpful in order to see a dancer’s body line; however, it is the extreme skeletal goal that is cause for so much concern.

It is not uncommon for a dancer to walk into what she thinks will be her daily ballet class and find a scale set up in the center of the dance studio instead (Gordon 1983). These weigh-ins are arranged ahead of time and kept secret from the dancers. A director from American Ballet Theatre explained that warning the dancers would defeat the purpose. As one former dancer put it: “A forewarned dancer is a forestarved dancer (Gordon 1983, p.43).” Not only are the dancers weights recorded but many times are read aloud to the entire class. Even the youngest dancers, at one pre-professional academy, at ages eleven “gasped in horror” as the teacher read their weights aloud at 50 to 60 pounds (Gordon 1983, p.43). Public humiliation is not uncommon in the ballet world (Hamilton, 1998; Benn & Walters, 2001). Directors and teachers are known to make hateful comments and even resort to name-calling in some cases (Gordon, 1983). One director told one of his dancers to “drop the weight in three weeks. I don’t care how you do it”(Benn & Walters, 2001, p.145). When she did in fact drop the weight by basically not eating, she was rewarded with a role in the performance that the company was rehearsing. Dancers learn at an early age that rewards and punishments are based upon weight. If a dancer loses weight, she is praised and rewarded with a role in a ballet. If she does not, she is punished by not being cast at all (Gordon, 1983). It seems that directors and teachers perceive how thin a dancer becomes as a sign of dedication to the art and is often times rewarded (Benn & Walters, 2001). Suzanne Gordon (1983) accompanied several members of an elite advanced pre-professional academy to a professional audition. She witnessed hundreds of dancers asked to walk across the floor of the studio, where many of them were then asked to leave. After fifteen or more years of professional training, these dancers were not allowed to even audition. Apparently, they did not have the right “look.” This practice is used by most professional companies across the United States (Gordon, 1983).

Directors and company managers are not the only ones who put pressure on dancers to stay thin. Ballet critics often refer to body sizes when writing reviews of a performance (Benn & Walters, 2001). This can be a nightmare for a dancer, particularly if a negative body shape statement is printed next to her name for anyone to read in the morning paper. For example, two critics wrote reviews after seeing a company perform a Balanchine Ballet (a ballet in which the dancers wear nothing but tights and leotards). One said he witnessed, “an awful lot of wobbling bottoms on display” and the other claimed that this particular company had “rejected the starved-greyhound look in ballerinas-but now things have gone too far the other way. Bonnard legs and Ingres bottoms are all very well, but not on stage, and particularly not in Balanchine” (Benn & Walters 2001, p.149). These reviews were taken to heart by the company directors, who threatened to fire members of the corps de ballet if they did not lose the weight fast. So they did, by not eating (Benn & Walters, 2001).

According to a research conducted by Benn and Walters (2001), dancers studied were found to only consume 700 to 900 calories per day. Many of the subjects were consuming less than 700. Surveys conducted in the United States, China, Russia, and Western Europe by Hamilton (1998) found that female dancers’ weights were 10 to 15 percent below the ideal weight for their height. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s official criteria for anorexia nervosa, the number one factor for diagnosis is if the person’s weight is more than 15 percent below the ideal weight for height. This is dangerously close to most dancers! Another factor for diagnosing anorexia nervosa is if the person has developed amenorrhea, that is, if they have missed three consecutive menstrual cycles (Hamilton, 1998). According to Suzanne Gordon’s research (1983), many dancers have ceased menstruating or have many cycle irregularities. Once someone stops menstruating, she may lose 4% of her bone mass annually for the next three to four years (Hamilton, 1998). This causes another set of problems: injury and osteoporosis. If dancers are not consuming enough calories, many times they are nutritionally deficient, which Hamilton (1998) supports in her arguments. If dancers are malnourished and continue to heavily exert themselves through dance, stress fractures, a common injury among dancers, are unavoidable (Hamilton, 1998; Gordon, 1983). Also, osteoporosis is common. One dancer took a bone density test and at 21 years old found she had the bones of a 70 year old (Hamilton, 1998). Dancers are not receiving crucial health and nutrition information, and they may not realize the harm they are inflicting on their bodies until it is too late. Benn and Walter (2001) found that only 18% of current dancers had received proper nutritional education.

Many people believe the myth that female dancers must be skeletal because of the male dancers who have to partner and lift them. This is simply not true. Gordon (1983) interviewed several professional male dancers, who said that they preferred to partner heavier dancers rather than dancers who fit the “anorexic look.” Patrick Bissell, a well-renowned dancer, says that “it’s not easy to partner very thin dancers…they scream out all of a sudden because you pick them up…it makes you very tentative about how you touch them” (Gordon, 1983, p. 151). Another famous dancer, Jeff Gribler, agrees. He says that “It’s easy to bruise a woman when you partner anyway, and if she seems too frail, you don’t want to grip too hard. It can be really painful for her to be partnered” (Gordon, 1983, p. 152). Vane Vest, another dancer, says “these anorexic ballerinas-I can’t bear to touch them…you partner a woman and lift her at the waist and you want to touch something. These skinny ballerinas, it’s awful…how can you do a pas de deux with one of those girls?” (Gordon, 1983, p. 152). Gordon found in her research that ballerinas in Europe and elsewhere weigh more than North American ballerinas, yet male dancers do not seem to have a problem partnering them (Gordon, 1983).

Another myth is that this unhealthy “Balanchine body” is the only body capable of the technical feats that ballet requires. People also believe that if dancers were not this thin, audiences would not come to the ballet. However some of the most famous and successful companies are located in Europe and elsewhere. European companies, even with dancers who are not emaciated, are very successful. Gordon (1983) found that in European companies, particularly the Royal Swedish Ballet, dancers look somewhat different. She noticed older dancers in their late thirties and forties, and also that dancers were not nearly as thin as American dancers (Gordon, 1983). These dancers were definitely thin, but they looked healthy. They had breasts, hips, and curves, and actually looked womanly. During a gala performance for American Ballet Theatre, Gordon sat next to a New York ballet critic. When guest artist Zhandra Rodriguez from Ballet de Caracas, Venezuela came on stage, Gordon immediately noticed that she had visible breasts. When she mentioned this to the critic, the critic retorted, “she can’t be an American” (Gordon, 1983, p. 151).

A NOTE ON GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS

This paper’s focus is on female dancers from mainly Caucasian companies. This is not to imply that men and minorities do not have problems in the ballet world. Class and race are areas of ballet that need much further attention and research.

Men may also develop a negative body image; however, it is much easier for men than women in ballet. Men do not have strict weight requirements or appearance requirements. This is partially due to the fact that there is a shortage of technically qualified men in dance. Male dancers must really only be taller than the female dancers they are partnering, and be able to lift them above their heads.

Race is another area of ballet that is in need of further examination. There are very few African-American female dancers and other minorities seen in professional companies. There are a few African-American companies such as Dance Theatre of Harlem, where talented African-American dancers can flourish. However, the majority of companies look very white. Gordon (1983) said “if there is a standardized ballet look, there is also a standardized ballet color: white” (p.97). Balanchine once commented that the skin of a ballerina should be the same color as a peeled apple (Gordon, 1983). Even when extremely talented African-American dancers make it into predominately white companies, they notice that they do not get the same kinds of parts. Very rarely in the ballet world, will a black Seigfried partner a white Odette or vice versa in Swan Lake. Black and white dancers hardly ever partner together onstage. There is also racial bias in the roles themselves. Directors do not want to cast an African-American in the role of a white swan, white snowflake, or white ghost. Management wants all of its dancers to look alike onstage, and it believes that audiences might find it distracting or hard to believe if a black dancer were to play a white snowflake in a sea of other white snowflakes danced by white dancers.

Ballet is very expensive, which makes it very exclusive. Most families could not afford the price it takes to make a dancer. Tuition alone costs thousands of dollars every year (Gordon, 1983). Factoring in shoes, tights, leotards, transportation, and makeup only exacerbates the situation. In a St. Louis pre-professional program, a 9-month school year costs $1,845 (SLB, 2002). It is expected that dancers will also attend the school’s summer program which costs well over $800 (SLB, 2002). This is only the cost of tuition and does not factor in extra expenses, like recital fees and costume costs, which may be required during the year. In a New York pre-professional program, a student’s family can expect to pay $3,555 each year, with a summer program costing $1,040 for tuition and $1,470 for room and board (SAB, 2002). Adding to these costs are high costs of pointe shoes at approximately $50 per pair. Many training students go through at least one if not two pairs each month. Not surprisingly, most ballet students come from middle-class or upper-class families.

A LOOK AT THE WORLD OF BALLET THROUGH SUBCULTURE THEORY

Many wonder why dancers and their parents continue to take part in the ballet world after learning about some of its negative aspects. Subculture theory can explain why dancers continue to dance, even in the face of major internal and external obstacles and criticism. Subculture Theory has mainly been used to explain deviance and crime in the past; however, it works well in analyzing ballet as a unique world of its own with different norms and values from the rest of society.

A subculture can be defined as a group of people who share a common identity through a unique set of characteristics common to the entire group, yet not entirely distinct from the rest of the society in which the group lives (Farley, 1998). The subculture is a part of the larger society, yet it has certain ideas, beliefs, behaviors, and values that set it apart in some way. Farley (1998) states that individuals with a common interest and occupation commonly form subcultures. Ballet is truly an entire world all to its own. It functions within society, but it is a distinct group that should be recognized as such. The world of ballet has its own ideas of what the body should look like that are more extreme than the rest of society; however, the current ballet aesthetic would not be popular if dancers lived in a culture that did not value extreme thinness. All ballet companies across the world value thinness; however, it seems that only North American companies, especially the United States, have this dangerous goal of skeletal thinness.

Dancers are raised in this subculture of ballet, many from as young as three years of age. They spend every night in this world among directors, teachers, and other students who help to normalize ballet’s ideas and values, and they internalize these messages. Dancers rely on their teachers for support and guidance, but also for approval and selection of parts in ballets. This leads to a generalized fear instilled in the dancers.

Jargon is another characteristic of a subculture. Ballet terms are in French and have been the same terms used for centuries. The language of ballet is the same in every country and every company across the world. This makes it easy for Russian teachers or teachers of any country to come to the United States and teach without mastering English. Thus the manifest function of ballet’s specialized terminology is for the purpose of describing certain steps and concepts easily to the entire subculture. This also creates an “in group” and an “out group,” in a process referred to as boundary maintenance.

By having specialized terminology, anyone who is not a dancer does not know the difference between a “tendu” and a “rond de jambe.” Dancers have a difficult time articulating the pressures that they are under to friends who are not dancers, and may become frustrated at having to explain every single detail. A friend may not understand what happened at the “barre,” or the significance of a hurtful criticism from the teacher, where as a fellow dancer would understand. She would know that the barre is the railing along the dance studio that dancers hold onto for warm-up, and that a criticism, even a hurtful one, can be taken as a compliment because at least the management is not ignoring her.

Also, dancers spend so much time in class and rehearsals that they rarely have time for a separate social life (Gordon, 1983). This can give dancers a sense of belonging to a particular group, but it also isolates them from other peers their age, giving directors and teachers full reign over what to instill in them and leaves few people to question it. Dancers can hardly rely on each other for a means of support either, because they are vying for the same roles in a daily competition to prove who is the better dancer. Dancers may understand what other dancers are going through, but they have little time to care because they are taught to only be concerned with their own success.

Ideas of beauty and health are different in the ballet world than in the larger society. Many dancers believe themselves to be healthy because they form “their ideas of healthy and normal…according to the norms and values of the ballet world” (Benn & Walter, 2001, p.142). Because dancers are surrounded by eating disorders, many believe themselves to be healthy because they do not deny themselves food completely and they do not binge and purge. Many dancers may look healthy enough, but in reality they are not. They would not be diagnosed as medically anorexic, but they are staying thin by means of “gentle starvation,” meaning not consuming enough calories and being nutritionally deficient (Benn & Walters, 2001, p.142).

Another aspect of the ballet world, which helps to define its culture, is the idea of control. There is an authoritarian power culture in the ballet world that forces conformity to harmful behaviors. Dancers have become accustomed to abusive treatment; it becomes a normal part of life in the subculture. Dancers’ acceptance of such treatment has been referred to as “silent conformity” for the “unquestioning, subservient way in which…[dancers accept] abuse and unreasonable behavior” (Stinson, 1998; cited by Benn & Walter, 2001, p. 140). This is one reason why ballet has been compared to a cult in some of the literature (Benn & Walter, 2001; Gordon, 1983; Smith, 1998). Directors and management have the power, and they exert it over the dancers, who must obey certain rules if they intend to continue dancing.

ANOTHER THEORETICAL CONSIDERATION

Rational choice theories and exchange theory are based on the idea that behavior is influenced by the rewards and costs that people anticipate for a given action (Abrahamson, 1981). The idea is that when people behave a certain way, if they are rewarded for this behavior, they will continue to behave in the same manner, but if they are punished in some way for this behavior, then they will cease performing that particular action. Enduring stimulus-response situations give an individual reinforcement for a particular behavior, so that the behavior is likely to be internalized and repeated. A kind of mutual reinforcement must occur for the relationship to remain successful.

In ballet, dancers perceive promotions, sought-after roles, and praise from management as rewards. They see insults, being ignored, and failure to be selected for coveted roles as punishments. Management wants dancers to maintain a certain aesthetic. When dancers comply with this requirement, they continue their employment and may be rewarded with roles in an upcoming production. Compliant dancers are also not as likely to be verbally abused by management, since directors require that dancers silently obey demands. If a dancer were to actively speak out against a requirement, she would surely be punished in some way, possibly by losing her position or by not being selected for a role. If dancers were never rewarded, they may decide to leave the company or act in non-conforming ways. If they are rewarded occasionally, they are more apt to stay and act in a way in which management wants.

Managers of dance companies rely on the dancers to dance for them and to look a certain way because this is what they have found to be successful for the company. Dancers must translate choreography, continue to improve technique, and maintain a certain appearance in order for the management to remain happy. Directors are rewarded by the success of their company through high ticket sales and praise from critics and colleagues in the dance world. If the director’s company does well, positive attention will be drawn to that particular company, which could result in more funding from organizations and individuals in the future. If the public believes the company to have performed poorly, management will be punished through a drop in ticket sales, negative attention, and less funding for the future. This could jeopardize the future of the company and reflects poorly on the esteem and status of the director.

Blau believes that “exchange depends on the strength and internalization of social norms, which in turn depend on the fact that people receive approval in exchange for their conformity” (Wallace & Wolf, 1991, p.216-17). Dancers receive approval from directors for conforming to the dangerous ballet aesthetic, and directors receive approval from critics, ticket sales, and colleagues for having a company that conforms to the historical ballet aesthetic. No one deviates from the rules because of the risks that are involved. If dancers do not conform, they will be fired. If directors do not conform, they may face losing status and support in the ballet world. If one director were to deviate from the norm, by allowing dancers to not fit the “skeletal” aesthetic, he or she may threaten the survival of the company if critics and audiences do not approve.

Power is not equally distributed between directors and dancers in their exchange relationship. The idea of power-dependence has emerged in exchange theory. Both Blau and Emerson have studied power differentials in exchange relationships (Wallace & Wolf, 1991). The idea is that an imbalance occurs when Partner A is more dependent on Partner B for rewards than Partner B is dependent on Partner A. This imbalance gives Partner B the power in the relationship. Wallace and Wolf (1991) mention that individuals in positions of power may seek submission and compliance. Similarly, Molm has researched the role of “punishment power” in power-dependence relationships. She has found that punishment power may have been concluded as weak in previous research because it is not used as often and not because reward power is more effective (Ritzer, 2000). Most often in rational choice theory, rewards for behaviors are studied; however, punishments are more likely to apply in the world of ballet.

Emerson found that Partner B is more powerful in the relationship the more that it is true that 1) Partner A has no alternative to turn to and 2) Partner A cannot find a substitute for the rewards offered by Partner B (Wallace & Wolf, 1991). Applied to ballet, directors are the side of the exchange with the most power and the dancers are dependent upon them for rewards. Since there is such a high number of qualified female dancers, and ballet is such a competitive field, directors may feel that dancers are easily replaced and expendable (Gordon, 1983). Therefore, rewarding dancers to keep them happy and conforming is not as high of a priority when they are seen as easily replaceable. Also, since most dancers do not have more than a high school diploma and have even less in some cases, they may feel as if they have no other options than to comply with management’s demands in order to ensure their employment. Since ballet is a subculture, the norms and values of all companies are very similar and because the subculture is relatively small, a non-conforming dancer can be seen as a “trouble-maker” and may be “black-listed” in a sense from other companies. If a dancer is committed to maintain employment in the ballet world, she has relatively few choices than to submit to the director’s demands.

In Kathryn Morgan’s (1991), Women and the Knife: Cosmetic Surgery and the Colonization of Women’s Bodies, she discusses three paradoxes inherent in the choice to undergo cosmetic surgery. The structure of her argument works well with the paradoxes inherent in the ballet world.

PARADOX ONE: ART?

Ballet is known as a performing art. Art implies a creative process through which the artist can express her innermost thoughts and feelings to an audience. Many dancers dance because they learn to express themselves through movement. However, all of ballet looks the same with cookie-cut out dancers expressing themselves in the same ways to the same music. There is no individual creativity to be explored here, only the creativity of the director is seen. The director’s feelings are then described to the dancer and the dancer’s job is to express that feeling to the audience. Creativity tends to be quashed in the classroom by focusing only on technique, which trains bodies to be a vehicle for someone else’s creativity. Gelsey Kirkland (1986), a world-renowned ballerina, says in her autobiography that Balanchine had a “monopoly on taste and creative control” at New York City Ballet (p. 49). She also says that the dancers relied on him for “ideas and psychological motivation” (cited by Benn & Walters, 2001, p. 148). Michelle Benash, another dancer, says that “you have to lose your personality; your movement, your style are dictated to you” (Gordon, 1983, p. 112). A former New York City Ballet dancer puts it this way: Balanchine believed “that women should provide the inspiration that triggers men’s creativity” (Gordon, 1983, p. 173) Dancers, then, merely become puppets for someone else’s creativity and emotion.

PARADOX TWO: CONTROL?

All dancers must have control over their bodies in order to master the technique required to perform professionally. Dancers start training young so that their hips will form a certain way in order to have the required “turn out.” They also must spend years training their leg, feet, and abdomen muscles in order to jump, balance, and dance on pointe properly. These skills require intense years of training and hard work in order to establish the right strength. One would imagine that dancers would have plenty of control over their own bodies; however, management takes over this control by exerting power over the bodies’ appearance. Having the right technique and strength is not nearly enough to dance professionally, one must also exhibit the right “look.” This look, as discussed previously, is unhealthy and almost impossible to achieve.

PARADOX THREE: THE WONDERS OF THE HUMAN FORM

Ballet is supposed to showcase what the human body is capable of physically accomplishing. Audiences come to see ballet because of the feats that they will likely see at the performance. Amazing jumps, turns, and tricks are fan favorites. However, ballet is not showcasing what the human form can accomplish, it is merely showcasing what one, almost impossible, body type may be capable of executing. Dancers are supposed to make these feats look effortless, but it is doubtful that anyone leaving the theatre feels as if they could mimic these steps without the required body.

PARADOX FOUR: THE LOOK

Dancers are usually referred to as beautiful and graceful creatures, capable of accomplishing extraordinary feats on stage. Off stage, these dancers resemble broken young children. They often times look emaciated and injured, collapsing offstage after performances or limping to their dressing rooms. Dancers are artists, but they are also athletes who train their bodies every day. Athletes are usually considered to be the epitome of the human form and very physically fit. One look backstage and these are not the thoughts that would come to mind of the dance world. Most dancers are very unhealthy physically and often times emotionally as well.

CONCLUSION

The dangerous aesthetic of the ballet world is an area that needs much more attention and further research. Artistic directors of companies do not like to discuss or acknowledge problems with the current ballet aesthetic, which can be seen in their reluctance to talk about these issues and the lack of available research on the topic. As can be seen throughout this article, my primary source is from 1983. Aside from a few current journal articles that discuss eating habits, no one has really attempted to see if the abusive world Gordon exposed in her book has changed at all since her research in the 1980s. Off Balance: The Real World of Ballet alerted us to the fact that ballet was not so lovely and magical backstage. This is also when several of George Balanchine’s principal dancers began writing autobiographies about eating disorders, psychological illnesses, abusive teachers, substance abuse, and other problems that plagued them as dancers, such as Gelsey Kirkland’s Dancing on my Grave. I doubt much has changed. I can attest to experiencing all of the aspects of ballet, in my pre-professional training and in my professional dancing, that Gordon showed. I also know from fellow dancers in the Midwest, New York, North Carolina, and San Francisco that their experiences are and have been very similar to what Gordon portrays in her book. There have also been recent examples in the media, which suggest that not much has changed since the 1980s. For example, the Boston Ballet ballerina who died at 22 due to complications from an eating disorder (Segal, 2002). Management had told the dancer that she was “chunky” and that she needed to lose weight before she developed anorexia (Segal, 2002). Another example occurred in San Francisco, where nine-year-old Fredrika Keefer was denied admission to San Francisco Ballet School because she was considered too short and chunky by administration. Keefer’s parents are suing alleging unlawful discrimination and sex discrimination because height and weight standards are much stricter for females than males. Currently, the mother of Heidi Gunther, the Boston Ballet ballerina who died of anorexia is in appeals trying to sue Boston Ballet for wrong-doing as well (Segal, 2002). A fictitious example can be seen in the recent movie, Center Stage, where dancers at a highly competitive pre-professional school deal with eating disorders, weight issues, and competition. This film also addressed a directors’ control of his company, albeit briefly and sentimentalized. However, all of this is of course anecdotal evidence. A systematic, sociological study needs to be done today to see if anything has improved since Gordon brought the real world of dance to the attention of the public. I plan to do further research which will be used to determine if the ballet aesthetic and pressures placed on dancers have changed at all since the 1980s. Further research is important to assess the current situation in the dance world and to see if the aesthetic and treatment of dancers has improved at all since the dance community and the public have been made aware of the dangers.

The health and sanity of dancers are being sacrificed for this art form. Until dancers, audiences, and management accept a new, healthier paradigm, dancers will continue to suffer. Segal (2001: 2) articulates it best when he writes:

What we accept as the ‘tradition’ of extreme thinness is arguably just a mid-to-late 20^th

century whim of the white ballet establishment. And it needs to stop, for the health of the

art form and the women dedicated to it, before ballet training becomes a symbol, like Chinese

foot binding, of a society’s cruel subjugation of women to a crippling, inhuman illusion.

References

Abrahamson, M. (1981). Sociological theory: An introduction to concepts, issues, and research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Benn, T., & Walters, D. (2001). Between Scylla and Charybdis. Nutritional education versus body culture and the ballet aesthetic: the effects on the lives of female dancers. Research in Dance Education, 2 (2), 139-154.

Farley, J. (1998). Sociology (4^th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gordon, S. (1983). Off balance: The real world of ballet. New York: Pantheon.

Hamilton, L. (1998). Advice for dancers: Emotional counsel and practical strategies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jhally, S. (Producer). (1995) Slim hopes: Advertising and the obsession with thinness [Videotape]. Featuring Jean Kilbourne.

Kilbourne, J. (2002). The naked truth: Advertising’s image of women. Presentation to Principia College (Elsah, IL). 14 February, 2002.

Kirkland, G. (1986). Dancing on my grave. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company.

Morgan, K.P. (1991). Women and the knife: Cosmetic surgery and the colonization of women’s bodies. In L. Richardson, V. Taylor, and N. Whittier (Eds.), Feminist Frontiers (pp. 116-127). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Saint Louis Ballet. (1993). Employment contract. St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis Ballet.

Saint Louis Ballet. (2002). Online tuition information. Available at www.stlouisballet.org.

School of American Ballet. (2002). Online tuition information. Available: www.sab.org.

Segal, L. (2001, April 1). The shape of things to come. The Los Angeles Times. Available at http://www.latimes.com.

Smith, C. (1998). On authoritarianism in the dance classroom. In S. Shapiro (ed.), Dance, Power, and Difference (Leeds, Human Kinetics).

Stinson, S. (1998). Seeking a feminist pedagogy for children’s dance. In S. Shapiro (ed.), Dance, Power, and Difference (Leeds, Human Kinetics).

Wallace, R., & Wolf, A. (1991). Contemporary sociological theory: Continuing the classical tradition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Paula Kelso is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her email is paulatkelso@hotmail.com

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