Ballet is a practice judged by the aesthetics of a dancer’s body, so much that it is widely considered an art form rather than a sport with teams and winners. Most athletes work to strengthen certain muscles solely to enhance their athletic performance; however, in ballet, the goal is not only to achieve a certain athletic capability through strength but also to meet a visual body standard.
According to an article in Dance magazine titled, “The Culture of Thin,” dancers who were anonymously interviewed claimed that, “Weight gain can get them fired while thinness can help them advance.” Pressure to acquire the “ideal ballet body” is not in an effort to improve a dancer's athleticism, but rather to improve their physical appearance—this aesthetic is a priority in ballet.
In an additional article by Dance magazine called, “Let’s Stop Talking About Racism and Fat Phobia as Separate Issues,” the writer states that stereotypes within the ballet world often come from ballet’s systemic racism and fatphobia. Ballet’s history of exclusivity toward one body type, both by skin color and shape, is still prevalent today. Lea Marshall, an author at Dance magazine, speaks to this norm, stating, “Think of the many stories of both racism and body-shaming that emerge from the experiences of dancers asked to whiten their skin, or lose just five more pounds, in service to an ideal of uniformity grounded in western-European aesthetic preferences.” The inordinate value of skinny, young and white girls is still prevalent in ballet culture today.
Margot Johnson, a senior and dancer at the Performing Arts Academy of Marin (PAAM), recognizes the stereotypes surrounding ballet dancers and what is idealized in the community.
“The [ideal] ballet model is a stereotype. It would be difficult for [dancers and audiences] to break the mindset that that is not the only option. This model is built into the art form, how [ballet is] taught and what [dancers] attempt to achieve,” Johnson said.
It is hard to change the stereotypical image of a ballerina, as this ideal is fostered in aspiring ballerinas at an early age. The light pink color of pointe shoes, small legs and tiny arms of porcelain ballerina dolls and lack of diversity among the uniform ballet dancers, are only some examples of the way in which whiteness and the skinny “ideal” are prevalent in the ballet world.
“The first thing that comes to mind [when I think of a dancer]—this was especially true when I was a little girl—is the music box with the spinning ballerina. In every box, the doll is the same: white, skinny and flawless,” Johnson said.
This uniformity among dancers is expected within the ballet community, where the goal is to create a group of people who all look alike and dance in sync. PAAM dancer, sophomore Olivia Svallin, sees this expectation of dancer’s firsthand at her studio.
“I think there is still an expectation that every dancer is supposed to look the same. When we’re doing the group dances, [teachers] put similar [looking] people together, but not every dancer is going to look the same because we are all different,” Svallin said.
In addition to this, negative body image can take away from the artistry of dancing for ballerinas. Kathleen Gao, a former Redwood student and current company dancer at New Ballet in San Jose, has dealt with negative body image, having danced professionally for over two years now. Gao found that the mirrors in a studio can contribute to low self esteem and as such can feed a negative mind set.
“If [a dancer] is having really poor mental health or is in a bad headspace, they’re not going to look into the mirror and think, ‘Oh wow, this is such a great tool that I can use to fix my technique,’” Gao said. “It’s [often] more [that dancers] will look in the mirror and think, ‘I need to fix some aspect of my weight,’ or the way they look. [Ballet] becomes less about the art and more about [one’s] appearance.”
Similarly, Savannah Levy, a dancer at Marin Conservatory of Dance (MCD) and student at Tamalpais High School, has experienced that stereotypes and expectations in ballet can take away a dancer’s ability to focus on the dancing itself.
“When I don’t feel good about myself, my dancing is [definitely] worse. I am not able to concentrate on what I’m doing, and instead, I am concentrating on how I look,” Levy said.
These stereotypes can also cause ballerinas to compare themselves to their peers. Julie Oliveira, a junior at Redwood and ballerina at Marin Dance Theater (MDT), has also been affected by ballet’s rigid expectations. Oliveira began to notice differences between her and her peers’ body types starting in her early teens.
“As I got into my teens, [body image] has affected me more. When I was little, most girls in my class had the same [type of] body because we hadn’t grown. But then, when we grew up, we all [developed] different body types,” Oliveira said.
A ballerina can stretch their feet and practice their splits every night to increase flexibility, but they cannot change the structure of their hips, length of their legs or color of their skin in order to meet a societal expectation.
“I am Brazilian, so a lot of my family is a little more curvy. I noticed that a lot of ballerinas around me didn’t have that [feature], and often those who were slimmer, had lighter skin or [had] blonde hair were put in lead roles that sometimes I wouldn't be cast as,” Oliveira said.
No one is to say for certain that those lead roles were cast based on race, but either way, there is clearly a lack of diversity in the ballet world. According to research by Data USA, only about two percent of ballerinas in the U.S. are African American, while over 65 percent are white.
Johnson explains that in order to see change within the ballet community, both ballet companies and audiences will have to shift their outlook on what makes a ballerina beautiful.
“I think people don’t understand that many body types can make ‘those lines’ even if it doesn’t exactly resemble the ‘ideal’ ballerina [body],” Johnson said.
Despite the challenges the ballet industry faces, Svallin has hopes for a more inclusive future.
“It’s 2022 and the world is always changing. Our generation is usually more accepting of [different] body types,” Svalllin said, “I hope that as things [in society] change, the [ballet] community continues to change as well, which means loving people of all body shapes and sizes.”