27
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Hidden pain, controlled bodies: Does ballet have to be like this? A recent explosion of revelations from ballet dancers confronts an art form afraid to look itself in the mirror
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- Title
- Hidden Pain, Controlled Bodies: Does Ballet Have to Be Like This?
- Published
- Jun 12 2023
- Word count
- 3928 words
Beautiful and tragic article. I genuinely hope some of the ideas they discuss about rethinking the culture surrounding ballet can be addressed in my lifetime.
For my part, I'm the cissest of cis males, so I'm not equipped to comment on the gender/lgbt inclusion issues. I took a ballet class in college with my sister when we happened to cross paths at the same community college (her for the first time, me returning - I'm 6 years older than her). In an intro class, we had a lot of fun with something not meant to be taken seriously at that stage. There were a few girls in the class who had been dancing all their lives and you could see how hard it was on them, compared to those of us just taking it for the experience.
I'll say, there are good lessons in ballet - I learned a lot about my balance, proper lifting, body positioning and precise movement. I would highly recommend everyone take a ballet class, tai chi was another good movement class I took in college. My cousin was in ballet from the time she was 6 until she was in her 20s, and she teaches ballet now. Physically she was never "elite" enough for it to do damage to her body (toes notwithstanding), but mentally there were enough of the examples listed in the article that she struggles with applying her skills to anything but feeding back into the system. I have no way of knowing, but I hope she treats her students with compassion.
I have a daughter on the way and I'm definitely going to introduce her to ballet, but I'd probably be resistant to her taking it on long-term.
I feel that professional ballet is a sado/mashochistic dance of perfection. The ballet directors can be sadistic and cruel to people who are so mentally fragile and physically exhausted. The dancers keep up the torture trying to achieve the perfection they feel is lacking in themselves. They punish their minds and bodies never truly being able to accept how good they are, or deserving of praise and validaton. The whole thing, while undeniably beautiful in its execution, is beyond sad.
Amateur ballet is a fantastic way (as you highlighted) to learn body balance, awareness and generate internal core strength and fitness. They are poles apart.
Interesting article, thanks for posting. I once had dreams of being a professional dancer but since I don't fit most of the preferred physical esthetics, a career as a dancer wasn't very likely. I had skill, technique and artistry but that wasn't enough.
Balanchine can make for some interesting discussion. I was trained in ballet but that wasn't my focus. I didn't find freedom in ballet and I didn't love it. I responded more to Twyla Tharpe and Martha Graham. In less serious classes, I loved jazz, contemporary and hip hop. I also liked performance art despite the fact it's often made fun of by people I've encountered. I never held Balanchine in high regard. That's not to say he hasn't contributed to the world of ballet. But I don't consider him a God, more a rigid perfectionist who manipulated and used his dancers. The way I see it, the Balanchine method requires conformity. It's all about the method, not the dancer, which I find fittingly narcissistic for Balanchine. It has frustrated me that it's become such a dominant method in ballet, which I think contributes to the lack of inclusion.
In response to OPs title, no I don't think ballet has to be like this. I've felt this way since I started dancing back in the early 80s. Though the Balanchine standard is lovely to look at, I tend to respond to skilled dancers who have a more natural body shape and movement style. It's a shame the voices speaking up today couldn't have been able to do so much sooner, as the issues mentioned in the article have been present since I was a kid, which was many moons ago. Better now than never though!
A beautiful and thought-provoking article, though I thought from the title it would be about the extreme exertion and long-term physical damage that ballet can wreak upon the body. Instead it's largely about the mental health aspects, impacts of deeply-ingrained gender-related ideals that fuel a large portion of the art, and the physical damage dancers cause their bodies as a result such as eating disorders.
What's sad to me is that... I'm actually more surprised that the mental health aspect is some great secret within the industry. I know nothing about ballet, but while reading the article I kept thinking how natural all the issues seemed. It's an art that centers heavily around the female body, appearance plays a major role and so it's natural to me that it would lead to mental health issues.
I didn't know the full extent of the issues such as the deeply ingrained sexism behind assigned roles and the infantilization of dancers, but it's not a surprise to me. To see it treated as a taboo to the point dancers get ostracized for speaking out about it is a surprise though. To see them describe it like a cage is a bit chilling.
As a side-note, even the very first description of Balanchine which was supposed to be benevolent struck me as not feminist, but an obsession with the female body and control over women. I already knew the total devotion to it can consume dancers' lives, both physically and mentally. Ballet is beautiful, but it's also destructive in multiple ways in the pursuit of its famed grace.
See the movie "Black Swan".
GF immediately turned it off at about 10 mins when the violence started.