In spite of all, a different perspective...

Anyway, in contrast to all the dark scenery of the back stage we've seen in ballet, this discipline also has a quite ludic side. When dancing ballet not as a professional dancer, but rather as a hobbie, it is an art in which girls are free to express themselves and, in fact, have the chance to have fun. In several ballet academies for amateurs, although a degree of discipline is always required, passion and fun are fundemental. In these kind of places, instructors do not press their pupils in order to lose wait, and eventhough they want them to improve in their technique, they will never be as harsh as to make them not want to keep dancing, as it does happen to many who intend to become professional. With this, girls  - and boys - of different places, incomes and desires for their futures are encouraged to dance. A most clear example is Sara Nieto who  runs her own academy at the moment and has as slogan "Passion for dancing".

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“You can’t ever tell a girl or an adolescent that she is overweight. They are very vulnerable and can do crazy things" Sara Nieto. 

Black Swan, Inspiration of Idealization

Media is one of the main diffusers of any kind of stereotype, what is as well applied in ballet. We can see in several movies how they portray  the anorexic dancing girl. Today, Aronofky’s latest and more fashionable movie ‘Black Swan’, tells the story of a girl who is obsessed with being perfect in every single aspect of her dancing career. This begins, of course, with ballet technique - for ballet is extremely perfectionist in all of its movements - and ends up with their bodies. For achieving this so much dreamt perfection, Nina – the protagonist – lives a life in which there is only space for ballet, rejecting every other item of her life; from social relationships, to food; it is to say, a healthy life. In this movie we can also see the strong negative influence ballet teachers may sometimes have over their pupils. The director of Nina’s company – Thomas – demands her to devote to the role to such extent that she actually transforms herself into the character she is supposed to perform, tha black swan. As the story develops, we can see how ballet starts taking posession all over Nina, driving her to a state of mental insanity that will end up in her own death. As she dies, her last words are “ I felt it. Perfect. I was perfect.”

In ‘Black Swan’,  Nina´s mother gave away her chance to shine after getting pregnant - a most graphic example of a frustrated-ballerina-mother, but intends to live her dream by overcontrolling every single bit of her already grown up daughter’s life, leading her, together with the demanding director of the company and Nina's own inclination to perfection to a pathological state of mental insanity.

This is of course, an extreme exaggeration, but it does encourage the stereotype.

Nutritional Disorders

 Anorexia is an illness that arises from the discomfort with one’s body and low self esteem, that may lead to a dangerous state of malnourishment, being totally counterproductive in the career of a dancer. This disease is generally seen in female dancers, who are immersed in an environment of rather more rivalry than men are, due to the enormous amount of ballerinas that fight for reaching a high level in their dancing career.

It has been proved that ballerinas have a certain degree of obsession with control; control over their technique and over their bodies. This, together with the pressure applied by their teachers and the consequent diminishment of their self esteem, is what has led a great amount of dancers to nutritional diseases. Statistics show that around 45% of ballet dancers are dissatisfied with their bodies and 33% run the risk of suffering either anorexia or bulimia, reaching sometimes a proportion of one out of five, and it probably has some sense, considering the amount of hours they spend a day dressed in tight leotards sorrounded by mirrors all over the room. But mirrors, we know, are not harmful enough as to provoke such a serious illness in any person, but professors can. George Balanchine, famous for being founder of The School of American Ballet, is also acknowledged for ‘idealizing what the ballerina’s body should be like’. His concept of the perfect ballet dancer, was of such a slender and ethereal silhouette, that they would not doubt taking extreme measures in order to achieve it. He would not give them the instruction ‘eat less’, but ‘do not eat at all’, because in their chests, he ‘must see the bones’.

A similar situation happens in the Kirov Ballet in Russia. According to the director David Kinsella, “EVERYBODY knows in Russian Ballet” that the body index of the ballerinas is supposed to be around 14 and often weighting around 15% less than what they should, according to  what is required for their height. It is pertinent to mention that it is between 20 and 25 the normal body mass index in a female adult, and under 20 a situation of malnutrition. In any place in the world, body mass indeces like these, would directly land people to the hospital; due to the serious consecuences that may occur. Natalia Berríos, chilean prima ballerina from Teatro Municipal de Santiago, had no real instruction of how to carry a healthy diet, for what she decided to simply cease to eat. She believed that the hungrier she got, the better, inducing her to a hazardous state of famish. After months in this process, Natalia once got dazed on a rehearsal, and cut both her tongue and trachea after fainting and falling over a mirror. This accident cost her over two months hospitalized, without being able to dance. Providentially, Natalia learned her lesson and began a healthy regime, for later becoming an acknowledged and important national dancer.

Fortunately, due to a new conscience for health developing, sprunged up in part because of a number of regrettable incidents with affected dancers, the treatment masters are having nowadays with their pupils is gradually shifting. Eventhough ballet dancers are supposed to seem ‘lighter than the air’, something ethereal, the training is physically extremely demanding. For practicing this dance as a professional career, an average of between 5 and 8 hours of practice a day is required, what definitely cannot be achieved with such a weak nutrition. Pure skin and bones in a dancer’s body is not enough, muscles are essential in the execution of certain steps, such as jumps and pirouettes. It is true, it is all about aesthetics; they want to be slender, because the musculature looks much better, but there will not be any if there is a weak nutrition; that is why proteins are of high  relevance in a dancer’s daily diet. But the problem comes when the preassure makes them become obsessed, and do not longer seem to understand the delicacy of the matter. “You can’t ever tell a girl or an adolescent that she is overweight. They are very vulnerable and can do crazy things […]. It is a matter of educating and creating them good habits” states former prima ballerina Sara Nieto, who is nowadays director of her own ballet academy, and has the enormous responsibility of dealing with several young girls everyday.

" - Do you know, professor, what do we play in the dressing room? - , a group of girls between twelve and thirteen years old one day asked […] the ballet director. The girls told him that when they were changing to their training suits, all of them watched magazines and played to imagine they were eating all the delicious things that there appeared” El lado Oscuro del Ballet.

Wannabe Ballerina Mothers

Frustrated-ballerina-mothers are so common in the world of ballet, and what they want is to project their own dreams through their daughters. This kind of mothers is vividly represented in ‘Black Swan’ as well as in the american movie ‘Center Stage’. In both movies we have mothers who desired to be dancers and for different circumstances of life had to leave aside their dream, but are not willing to see it fade away in their daughters, not really questioning themselves about what they may want. In ‘Black Swan’,  Nina´s mother gave away her chance to shine after getting pregnant, but intends to live her dream by overcontrolling every single bit of her already grown up daughter’s life, leading her to a pathological state of  mental insanity.

In the movie ‘Center Stage’, Maureen, one of the best dancers in her company, suffers from anorexia. Her mother is also a frustrated dancer, because of lack of physical conditions required to be a dancer. Maureen’s mother is very involved in the company, spending a great amout of time there working as a secretary, and is often controlling her daughter who has no particular love towards ballet and would rather have a normal life, with friends and studies. After an emotional break down at the end of the film, Maureen reveals her truth; 

“It's your dream... and it means more to you than it ever did to me. (…) That's what ballet would be... a life of wishing that I found something I loved, instead of something I just happened to do well. I'm not you, Mom. You didn't have the feet. I don't have the heart.”