Body Shaming in Ballet
Olivia Floyd is DWC’s Operations Manager and one of our highly skilled pointe shoe fitters! She has been dancing in the Pacific Northwest for 16 years. She has trained in various styles including ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, and hip-hop. Post graduation, Olivia opted to continue her training in ballet and pointe, and teaches creative movement, ballet, tap, jazz and hip-hop in the Greater Seattle Area. One of her favorite things about working at Dancewear Center is meeting new dancers from all over!
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*DWC recognizes and acknowledges that this perspective on body shaming is written from and with a eurocentric, female-identifying focus in mind, and does not address the unique struggles that dancers of color, differently abled, and other marginalized groups experience, and that this is just a small part of a much more complicated web of problems to be found within the ballet community. To read more on these subjects, please refer to “Disability Stereotypes in the Dance World: An Introduction” and “Seeing Color in the Dance Industry”, and sign up for our newsletter to receive more articles that are currently in the works!
I want to share with you all a story not of myself, but of a professional ballet dancer that many of my fellow dancers know and love: Kathryn Morgan. To be more specific, this story belongs to a friend of Kathryn Morgan who has chosen to remain anonymous. Kathryn shared this story in her YouTube video titled “REAL TALK: “My Today Show” Appearance | Body Image & Mental Health in Ballet.”
Kathryn’s anonymous friend was signed to a professional company. Despite her natural talent and passion, this dancer was told by the artistic director of her company that she would not be thin enough until every bone in her chest was visible. When this dancer told the artistic director that was impossible for her, he responded, “Well, have you thought about cocaine?”
As many of us dancers know, ballerinas have a long history of being admired for their slender figures and athletic abilities. This reputation however has created a culture of body shaming that has shaped the ballet community for hundreds of years.
To start, let’s explore the history of body shaming in ballet in order to determine how it started.
If you ask any dancer involved in the ballet world (young or old), we will tell you that body shaming is a huge issue. The reality of the situation is it is rarely spoken about due to the scandalous nature that society has assigned the subject. According to an article by Kaityln Pierce in The Daily Campus, the issue of body shaming and eating disorders in ballet was not well known until 1997 when 22-year-old ballerina, Heidi Guenther died on a family vacation due to cardiac arrest caused by her eating disorder. She was 5’6 and 96 pounds.
According to an article in SFGate, media outlets found Heidi had been told by her artistic director at Boston Ballet that she needed to lose 5 pounds. After Heidi’s death, the artistic director was questioned about this recommendation. In response she defended herself saying, “[Heidi] was looking a little pudgy.” At the time she was 115 pounds.
Horror stories of body shaming in ballet date back decades with some of my own teachers (currently in their 30s or 40s) having stories to share about pressures put on them to stay thin. The first public outcry regarding the subject though was after Heidi’s death. Her passing opened the floodgates to a world of pushing eating disorders on dancers and body shaming in hopes of forcing ballerinas to slim down to the “ideal” dancer weight.
Some people outside the dance community might be thinking “okay but how widespread is body shaming in ballet really?”
It is difficult to say how many professional companies employ body shaming tactics to keep their dancers thin--because it would most definitely lead to huge backlash from the media and the public.
From Heidi and Kathryn’s personal stories, we know at the very least that body shaming was prevalent at Boston Ballet and Miami City Ballet, two major ballet companies in the industry. As an involved member of the dance community, this is enough to tell me that the issue is much bigger than I even originally thought.
So now that we know that body shaming is an issue, let’s talk about what some of the causes may be.
There are several causes of body shaming and eating disorders in ballet. According to Kaitlyn Pierce’s article, companies often have costumes for their performances that fit one size of dancer. If the dancer does not fit the costume, they do not get the role regardless of their talent. This essentially means that if a dancer wants to be a lead, they have to fit the artistic director’s ideal body type.
Kaitlyn Pierce also mentions that eight of the major ballet companies today are run by men. This means that men are choreographing roles, choosing parts, and in some cases encouraging their dancers to adopt an eating disorder. Pierce notes that hearing those words from a man often makes it sting more for dancers. In other words, having a man in power tell a dancer they need to lose weight makes them more willing to listen to his advice.
In most cases, it should also be noted that men are not fully aware of what is really required of a woman in order to lose weight. Women’s bodies are built to maintain a certain amount of fat, thus in order to get rid of that fat, women must resort to drastic measures.
The issue of body shaming extends beyond professional companies as well.
Oftentimes, young dancers will look up to signed members of companies as inspiration. If the dancers these young people look up to are suffering from an eating disorder encouraged by their company, many of their young fans can develop the idea that their bodies should look like that as well, causing younger and younger dancers to consider their weight for the first time ever.
The history of body shaming in dance is long and turbulent, but there are major steps being taken to change the way we see beauty in dance. Let’s talk about how the current ballet community sees body image.
The current outlook of body image in ballet is finally starting to move away from glorifying rigid, standardized aesthetics that encourage eating disorders and towards embracing and celebrating dancers of all sizes.
YouTubers Kathryn Morgan and Luna Montana have spoken about their experiences with poor body image throughout their ballet careers. Before 1997, people rarely talked about body image in ballet. With the help of these YouTubers, the community has grown to accept different body images and discourage body shaming practices.
According to an article in Swaay, there has been a recent shift in the ballet community in which dancers are now emphasizing the importance of a positive body image. Social media has helped reinforce this new narrative quite a bit with plus size dancers like Lizzy Howell, Iliana Vera, and Colleen Werner sharing their passion for dance on Instagram and in turn encouraging young plus size girls to embrace their shape and follow their dreams.
There are also many new companies that offer plus size dancewear for larger dancers like Jule Dancewear and Luckyleo. These small steps towards inclusion emphasize the growing trend of embracing plus size dancers and encouraging a positive body image.
As we can see, the ballet community has come a long way from body shaming girls to their deaths. Body shaming has an extensive presence among the ballet community; however, those ways are slowly being replaced with a more inclusive outlook. Whatever body you reside in, take pride in the fact that THIS BODY DANCES.
For more reading on eating disorders within the dance industry, read “Dance, My Eating Disorder, and Me” By Emma Neilson. If this is something you or someone you know struggle with, click HERE for a list of resources.
References
Baker, K (1999, April 4). Heidi Guenther’s Short Tragic Life – And Death. SFGate.
Grasso, N. (2018, April 5). Instilling Body Confidence Through the Art of Dance. Swaay.
Pierce, K. (2018, January 18). Body Shaming in the Dance Industry. The Daily Campus.