Dancers VS Their bodies
Have you ever been watching a dance show and thought “wow they make that look so easy” although the art of dance may look easy it most certainly is not. The dancers are trained to make the dancing they are doing look easy when in reality It is extremely hard on the physical and mental health of the dancers, which is why it is not surprising that so many dancers struggle with eating disorders and poor body image. The struggles of body image in every day life is hard enough without the criticisms of dance teachers, comparing our bodies to each other’s, and the rude comments about our body from the audience. I am not blind to the fact that many non-dancers struggle with eating disorders and body image issues as well. However, all these factors can be elevated for dancers. Despite the fact that the body positivity movement does seem to be affecting the dance world slowly by having a more diverse body types dancing in shows there is still pressure to have the perfect “ballet body.” The “ballet body” can be described as body type that is the perfect height, skinny, muscular but not bulky, and has long legs and arms.
To start off let us take a look at the pressure dancers feel to have the ideal “ballet body” this pressure comes from many diverse sources, I think most dancers can agree that their teachers are there to support them however no matter how much they support and cheer you on they can make some brutal comments about your body and how you are not skinny enough. I have personally been told that I did not have the right body to get into the national ballet school summer intensive by one of the instructors that was teaching the auditions this happened almost 10 years ago. I was ten years old when I was told by an adult that I did not have the right body. Thinking about my own experience made me think about a documentary titled “Dance of the little swans”
This documentry is about the audition process of the Vaganova ballet academy. During the audition they have these little girls dance in only their underwear so they can see their bodies the clip of this goes from (7:29 to 8:13). My personal experience and this clip show that the expectation to have perfect “ballet body” starts from an early age. It is worrisome to me that we are creating this mindset so early on. I have taught little girls who I have seen look at them selves in the mirror and suck in I remember doing that myself. The fact that you can find examples of the ideal “ballet body” in the media like Instagram, tiktok, Facebook etc. doesn’t surprise me however the fact that they put in a book is surprising to me this book is called “Bunheads”
It was written by Sophie flack this book is about a professional ballet dancer, it is about her life in side and outside of the company she also talks about her peers and the competitiveness between them. When she is describing her peers, she immediately points something out about their body’s the one that really stood out to me was
“Her legs are long and almost skeletally thin”
This quote is on(p.3.para.11) and this is only the first out of many introductions she does. I feel that most people would not see a problem with this as it is just a book with fictional characters but as a dancer, I feel that it is setting up expectations that can only be reached through disordered eating for bunheads sophie flack — Bing images
dancers and it could even be setting expectations in non-dancers as they may expect every dancer to be unbelievably thin. Though this book may be fictional the author Sophie Flack was a professional dancer with the New York City Ballet, so she knows what it is like to be in the dance industry, therefor the book does in fact have some truth to it.
How can we make the dance industry more body positive?
I have a few ideas starting with using dancers who do not have the typical “ballet body” to promote ballet schools and model bodysuits on websites. For example when you go onto luckyleo’s website the first thing you will see is girls who have the ideal “ballet body” modeling their bodysuits when they could easily do a mix of all body types and show that they are part of the body positivity movement, Another example is when you go onto the National ballet school of Canada the picture you see is two preteens that both have the ideal “ballet body”. However Dance wear center is a dance clothing store and they use dancers of every body shape and size to model their bodysuits.
I hope to see other dance wear companies and dance companies do the same the as Dance wear center and expand their views of the perfect “ballet body” to show that they are part of body positive movement. I personally do not think it is that hard to be body positive. The dance industry needs to help get the movement going in the dance world so that everyone feels included.
Nutrition classes and help for those who need it
Another thing that would be beneficial is to provide nutrition classes for the dancer whether it be in a company or your local dance studio. So that dancers have the resources to properly loose weight if they feel they want or need to. This would help so many people! I know I would have loved that so instead of holding out proper nutrients my body needed to be fueled so that I could lose weight I would learn to fuel my body and loose weight at the same time. Along with that they should teach teachers to correct technique and not the dancer’s body. A teacher telling a dancer they need to lose weight is not helpful at all because they may already hate their bodies. That being said, teachers who do that should be held accountable if their students develop eating disorders.
Sizing
And the last is that dance wear companies should adjust their sizing. I am a small or medium in street clothes however in dance clothes I am usually a large. I am going to be completely honest here the fact that m usually a large in dance clothes makes me extremely sad because going from a small to a large makes me hate my body. There is one company in particular who really needs to take a look at their sizing the company is eleve dance wear this company has made their the medium and small the exact same the only difference is the length the problem with this is that you can try on a small and it could be very tight then you try on a medium and it fits the same. As a dancer something very similar happened to me I tried on a medium and it was way too tight then tried on a large and it didn’t fit either It was way to long. And I immediately thought I must lose weight so the medium fits me. Then I looked at the size chart and realized something is very off. The medium and small are the same!
There are many things that can be done to promote body positivity in the dance world we just need talk about it more and get the ball moving forward to a more inclusive dance future. That being said there is still pressure to have the perfect “ballet body.” But with some more advocating and more press awareness I genuinely believe that the dance world will be fully inclusive of all body types in the near future.
