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Looks like ballet schools are now taking their place in the hall of shame after athletics, gymnastic and so many other institutions supposed to be nurturing the best and brightest in their field.
I'll admit a vested interest, my daughter was at Elmhurst during this period and I can confirm what is in the Panorama documentry is the tip of the iceberg. The ballet forum (yes i have an account) has gone into melt down.
I need to work on my aerobic fitness.
If I was bordering on a professional career which had expectations, I would/would I listen to my teachers?
I'm probably misunderstanding the situation?
It is expected that ballet dancers must be slim and athletic in order to fulfil the roles, and ballet school training involves a gruelling programme akin to that of a professional athlete
I'd say they're beyond a lot of pro athletes in terms of how hard they push themselves and their abilities, and the athleticism required.
I guess if the audiences are happy to watch some bigger people do ballet then crack on. Is the pressure mainly coming from their expectations of the aesthetic?
Just watched it(out of the corner of my eye)
Pretty depressing and sad accounts, though possibly not completely surprising.
Yeh watched it. Came as no surprise whatsoever unfortunately.
The issues highlighted in the documentary focus on body shaming resulting in eating disorders. In reality the emotional abuse the kids get would have Ofsted on a holy crusade if it was a state school. The drop out rate due to kids developing anorexia is bad enough, the number who drop out with PTSD is a lot worse. Imagine being told everyday youre not good enough without ever being told or better still shown how to improve.
The other issue is the opportunites in ballet are extremely limited but the dance world as a whole has a lot more opportunities, but if your not stick thin, and an I mean unhealthy thin they are not imterested.
Yes its highly competitive, but that doesnt give the teachers the right to emotionally abuse the kids. Surprisingly enough they perform better when taught with support and encouragement as opposed to negativity and demotivation.
I guess if the audiences are happy to watch some bigger people do ballet then crack on. Is the pressure mainly coming from their expectations of the aesthetic?
This I think has some merit.
Looking at the 'factory' making the product first rather than double checking the product is still appropriate in 2023 seems odd. The product is abnormal - that thin, that trained at such a young age is to be honest a bit perverse. I'm not convinced you can churn out kids in meaningful numbers that fit the present expectation and treat them right. Probably even more so now than 40+ years ago as the national average in terms of body shape and healthy diet has drifted further from ballerina expectations.
If there were cycling schools which taught kids to become professional cyclist as well as reading, riting and rithmatic. Would the teachers tell the climbers to eat less doughnuts, the sprinters to eat more spinach and the GC riders to a bit of everything but not too much?
Having worked at a theatre for a few years nothing of the story really surprises me.
The pressure to perform at a very high level and be a certain size and shape is immense in that world. The ballet shows were always highly stressed due to the demands put upon the girls (90%+ of the cast are teenage girls) with lots of them not eating or drinking correctly, stories of passing out and throwing up in the loos weren't unheard of. It's one of the sides of the industry that I really didn't enjoy seeing at all and I would try and get out of doing those shows if I could (I worked the bar and would help out on the tech side so saw everything that went on).
Hopefully this will act as a wake-up call for change but I very much doubt it. They'll just wait out the furore until it's fades away after making some 'changes' then slowly go back to the old ways.
I dated a Portugese ballerina for a long time and she was encouraged to eat toilet paper to feel full and stay slim! Like someone mentioned earlier, a very toxic environment. A lot of the young girls had just moved out of home into shared accommodation often abroad and were subjected to incredibly harsh regimes. Apparently the ballet scene is (was) also perv central, especially in Germany and Austria.
Principal of Ballet West (boarding upper school in Scotland) has been charged with 14 sexual abuse charges including 4 of rape, that wasn't enough to shine a spot light on the schools.
Gymnastics has been through similar scandals (both abuse and body shaming), but the fundamental flaw is that strength to weight ratio is quite key to being able to perform some moves, both competitively and safety wise. Performance expectations need to be better managed.
LittleMissMC does display gymnastics, which is more cheerleading/acrobatics rather than the gymnastics you see at the Olympics. It is certainly more inclusive - my daughter also held the school shot put record, and looks more like a shotputter than a gymnast, but her, and other larger girls, are much more visible at display shows and can do fantastic gymnastics as well. Her squad has represented British Gymnastics abroad for sevetal years now.
Always interesting when they take a packed lunch when they are away at shows - many of the girls will be nibbling on cucumber and celery, she will have a sausage roll and a packet of crisps*. She is also usually the happiest, most chilled and most sane one in the group.
*that apple did not fall far from the tree. Though it may have gone through a chocolate fountain on the way down
I've been into the women's changing area in the Covent Garden, Royal Opera House when a Russian ballet troupe were, er, changing..... they were all emaciated.