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The effects of ballet
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“Black Swan”, which tells about a young successful ballet performer and her immense struggle with perfection, is pressured by her teacher to look thin. He tells the main character, Nina Sayers, to not eat before class because it makes her look fat. This actually put off her eating because she went to so many classes per week, leaving really no time to eat. The ballerina’s see their teacher as a role model, whom as their mentor has the control to forecast the girls' outcome of eating patterns. If they make it an important issue to the girls to be skinny to be a excellent dancer, then the girls are more likely to become anorexic and lose the weight to meet their teacher’s expectations. If the teacher does not pressure the girls to be thin, they have a better chance of not falling into …show more content…
the cycle of anorexia. In the final analysis, the media and the influence of teachers can encourage ballet dancers to anorexia to meet the ideals of a perfect ballerina. Next, the environment of practice and clothing can push ballet dancers to feel insecure about their bodies. A ballet dancer is very aware of what her body looks like. At each practice she attends, she wears skin-tight clothes and dances strenuously in front of large mirrors. A dancer has to look at herself for many hours in a day while practicing and this can cause a realization in the dancer. The general public would usually look in the mirror for a couple minutes a day, but a dancer has no option but to position themselves in front of a mirror and compare herself with others in the area.
Moreover, the attire ballerina’ must wear adds to the “skinny” issue. Because of the tight clothing, it can expose the dancer to any imperfect areas of their body, evoking girls to stress and encourage them to achieve a small figure. Seeing others thinner than she, could also prompt a dancer to lose a few pounds to look as tiny as the other girls in the room. As each one does this, the room of dancers becomes very small. Anorexia seems like the best way to become the smallest dancer in the class. Similarly, when practicing, ballet dancers often have to work with a male partner. Together, they will work as one and have to execute moves gracefully and flawlessly. A dancer has to be conscious that a man has to be able to carry her for extended lifts and holds. Knowing she can dance better with a smaller weight, persuades a dancer that she must stay thin at all costs. Not only does a ballet performer have to worry about her weight when she has a partner, but it also influence her movement
alone.
In the article, “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” Roberta Seid goes in depth on the emotionally straining and life altering trials women take on to try to portray society’s “ideal” body over time. She delves far into the past, exposing our culture’s ideal body image and the changes it has gone through over time. The article brings to light the struggles of striving to be the perfect woman with the model body. On the other hand, in the article “Rethinking Weight”, author Amanda Spake, details the many differing views of obesity. Spake voices her opinion on the idea that being overweight, and not losing weight, is caused by laziness. “Too Close to the Bone” and “Rethinking Weight” both deliberate about weight issues that are
“I wish to be the thinnest girl at school, or maybe the thinnest 11 year old on the entire planet.” (Lori Gottlieb) Lori is a fun, loving, and intelligent straight A student. In fact, she is so intelligent that even adults consider her to be an outcast. She grows up in Beverly Hills, California with her self-centered mother, distant father, careless brother, and best friend, Chrissy, whom is a parakeet. Through her self-conscious mother, maturing friends, and her friend’s mother’s obsession with dieting, she becomes more aware of her body and physical appearance. Something that once meant nothing to Lori now is her entire world. She started off by just skipping breakfast on her family vacation to Washington, D.C., soon to escalate to one meal a day, and eventually hardly anything other than a few glasses of water. Lori’s friends at school begin to compliment her weight loss and beg for her advice on how she did so. But as Lori once read in one of her many dieting books, her dieting skills are her “little secret”, and she intends on keeping it that way. It is said, “Women continue to follow the standards of the ideal thi...
Anorexic: this word is an adjective, a label, and to some, a lifestyle. Medically speaking, it is someone who suffers from the deadly and heartbreaking disease, Anorexia Nervosa. This term translates to “nervous loss of appetite”, but anyone who has battled through this sickness is aware how that is anything but true. Eating disorder patients do not, in fact, lose their appetite; there is more to it than that. Many perceive eating disorders as a choice to be thin, a diet, or a cry for attention; they do not see the mental destruction going on inside of the mind. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, yet only 30% of people fully recover (ANAD). The general mindset that society has about eating disorders walks hand in hand with these statistics, slowing down any advances patients may be able to make. Eating disorder patients are not getting proper treatment because of ignorant misconceptions about the illness.
By universal definition, "sport" is listed as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively." Football, basketball, baseball, soccer and other primary activities have always been concretely defined as sports in society. However, one of the most physically demanding activities is constantly forgotten when it comes to the realm of sports- dance. Dance requires a tremendous amount of training and creates an aura of competition in which people compete to be the best, win, and take home the trophy- just like in traditionally accepted sports. These sports, however, do not possess an element of psychological health threats that some competitive dancers unfortunately must account for due to the emphasis placed on physical appearance.
to the world of professional dance where incidents of Anorexia almost appear to be an occupational hazard as demands for thinness prevail in the dance world. The film explains that dancer’s tend to be abnormally thin, often 15% below ideal weight, which is the equivalent of an anorexic weight. Today the profession recognizes that this is a deadly psychiatric disorder which
Ballet is an athletic art form that utilizes muscle control, flexibility, and physical strength. It requires extreme discipline from the dancers and takes an extreme amount of mental concentration. This discipline causes dancers to have success throughout life and specifically in academic studies. There are many ways that dance can affect the success of a person’s life; however, there are two in specific that make dancers generally more successful. To begin, ballet causes dancers to be self-motivated workers; dancers cannot rely on others to push them to be better, but must have the drive within themselves.
She starts off with an imaginary scenario in which the readers probably imagined a young white female to be in the situation and not a girl of different ethnicity. She goes on to explain how in some cultures, that have not been exposed to western media, prize women who are big because it was a sign of healthiness and how that women had food to eat. Bordo uses many cultures as examples to show how being exposed to media has influenced young girls tremendously. One of the examples Bordo uses is in Central Africa where a skinny body was connected with someone having AIDS and where if the bride wasn’t big enough for her wedding she was sent to a fattening farm. When the area was exposed to television shows that viewed women as skinny and beautiful the percentage of girls forming eating disorders to stay skinny had grown by a lot. Bordo goes on to talk about why these images are so powerful, that the images these girls are looking at, are viewed as normal by the “dominant culture” and that’s why girls try to look that way to be accepted as “normal”.
Young girls and women symbolize femininity with being a ballerina. Kelso comments that in the shadows of the spotlight lurks an abusive world of eating disorders, verbal harassment, fierce competition, injuries, fatigued, and malnourished dancers (Kelso, 2003). In today’s world of ballet, dancers suffer from always being in pain, worrying their body image is not the right look they need to have to get lead roles resulting in the development of eating disorders, and male ballet dancers are stereotyped as being homosexual when most of the male dancers are in fact heterosexual.
However, despite attempts at resolving eating disorders, it is still not enough. 16.4% of all dancers still have been classified with a general eating disorder, 4% with anorexia, 2% with bulimia, and 14.9% diagnosed with an eating disorder not otherwise specified (Arcelus). Many companies, also, continue to select their dancers by their physical appearance instead of their ability to dance, which places the dancers under a lot of stress and pressure to change their bodies to fit the standards of these desired companies. Grace Edwards also points out that it is not only the dance community’s fault for having such high standards on dancers, but also the audience. Edwards says that, as spectators, people are accustomed to thin dancers that an average body structure would be considered “distasteful.”
Dancers often times have many pressures put on them, which can lead to physical and emotional damage. These damages occur through the pressures from the media, parents, teammates, and the stereotype that society has placed on dancers. One of the hardest pressures that dancers have to overcome is the pressure from the media. The media places harsh, rigid, and false ideas of dancers on to the mass public. Constantly bombarded by commercials, magazine ads, posters, etc., the idea of being thin and beautiful is what the society thinks of as the “norm”.
Ballet is a beautiful and romantic type of performance art. It originated in the Italian court systems in the 15th century (Jonas). Since its origination, ballet has undergone many changes and gained worldwide recognition. Filled with elaborate costumes, cheering audiences, lights, weightless movements and beauty; ballet is admired by many. On the magical stage ballerinas can become whoever they wan to be, and perform in a world of fantasy. For these reasons, children, especially little girls, all over the world dream of becoming ballerinas when they grow up. However, becoming a professional ballerina is an extremely difficult accomplishment, in which few will achieve (Kelso 1). The world of ballet may seem to be filled with glitz and glamor but, behind the curtain there is an entirely different story. There are extreme demands and pressures put on these young dancers to be very thin and nearly perfect. Some of which include body and weight demands, competition, and social pressures. These constant pressures can lead to a negative body-image and even debilitating eating disorders (Price and Pettijohn).
These expectations are achieved by the different dance styles, settings, much and the overall look of the dancers. However, there are many aspects that contribute to the pleasing appearances of dance; the appearance of the dance industry rests heavily on the performers. Dancers, especially in advanced dance studios, have to have the whole collection of talent. Dancers should attractive, physically fit, strength, and be elegance. As a result of such high demands, dance companies have high standards for dancers that are selected to represent their studio. These standards cause loads of pressure that is put onto the dancers that can potentially contribute to the development of improper diets and eventually lead to eating disorders. For dancers, eating disorders are highly encouraged by teachers and even fellow dancers. It appears that the dance industry is not aware of how harmful the unhealthy eating habits dancers can attain can be to their dancers. There are many effects that come with these habits; these effects are exaggerated in dancers as they participate in intense physical activity, and must maintain high energy levels. However, high level dancers cannot maintain high energy levels if their body is not getting the proper
Rejection however is an inevitable part of life, she writes, which is how she came to express the view that gives her essay its title, “We Are Not Created Equal in Every Way.” And because we are not created equal, not everyone will be admitted to their first choice of higher education or get a turn on the stage. That’s the undeniable consequence of setting standards: Some will rise to the challenge and be accepted and others will not. Ryan quotes the spokesperson who explained that the San Francisco Ballet School is “not a recreational department”(which parents should realize). In other words a professional ballet school, like a university, is within its rights to deny applicants with body types unsuited to its view of success in professional ballet. To put the matter bluntly, those with unsuitable body types, however talented or attractive, are less likely to be successful in professional ballet than those with “classical” proportions. Female dancers, for example, must be repeatedly lifted and carried by their male counterparts, a feat that is already difficult enough with even “leaner body types”. Ryan points out that those who don’t have the right body type for ballet are not banned from professional dance: “They just have to find a different type of dance…just as athletes have to find sports that fit certain body
Nearly all athletes seem to be overwhelmed by the pressure, be it from coaches, other athletes, society or parents, to achieve so-called leanness. In many sports, especially figure skating, dance and gymnastics, there is a reputation for leanness via unhealthy methods. Figure skaters live in environments where lean builds are rewarded, yet in achieving this, figure skaters often practice non-optimal eating, which can result in long term health damage (Ziegler, 2005).
I, like so many little girls at age four, donned the tulle and canvas slippers of a ballerina to pirouette and sashay across various studios and stages in search of happiness. Within a year, I had begun to immerse myself entirely in the art. I learned the production history of all of the canonical ballets; I mastered the French pronunciation of every position, ballet master, and dance step; I spent at least twenty hours per week in the studio and invested countless hours in ballet classes, competitions, and auditions. Dance became an integral, primary part of my identity and lifestyle, the one constant through the tumult of my adolescence. By my middle school years, dance was as large a commitment as school. Nonetheless, I was happy dancing and I took pride in the work ethic dance had instilled in me. Ballet demanded that I learned to handle immense pressure at a young age and I was made to understand the importance of self-motivation and responsibility.