Article:
What could ballet stores offer a serious student that would help
her/him work hard and develop a healthy perspective? Healthy
eating, weight loss or gain, and strength building all
contribute to a good dance technique. Getting exactly the right
fit in pointe shoes and ballet wear, is important too. Above
all, information.
When studying a fine art, discipline and perfectionism are not
the same thing. The talent and charisma of a performer must be
matched with physical abilities such as voice, aural perception,
rhythm, overall physique, and 'the right' looks. When it comes
to ballet, there are many detailed physical proportions,
flexibility requirements, general health necessities, and
psychological endurance needs to be factored in to a successful
training period and subsequent career.
Some students with a genetic predisposition to an eating
disorder or a tendency to perfectionism will choose ballet to
fullfill the attraction to a type of behaviour. Unhealthy
behaviour is not necessarily built in to the field of ballet,
although some studios or individual teachers may contribute to
an atmosphere of excess when it comes to weight loss or
obsessive practise over details that take years to fine tune.
Fortunately, there is more awareness now about eating disorders
and neurotic perfectionism. If it's not a family behaviour,
parents will notice. Anorexia results in hospitalization to
ensure survival, followed by years or life long therapy.
Fierce competition among children is extremely stressful. The
favoured and more able students may feel isolated. It's not
their fault they are better or more physically prepared to do
ballet! And the less talented have to make hard decisions at a
young age. Should they stick with the art they love to play
supporting roles with no expectation of reaching the top? Or
should they go into another art form that is less demanding in
some way?
Sometimes the parents decide for a child. If the guiding
opinions do not support that a child will make it to the top of
the field, often parents don't see the point of the gruelling
training, or expense that may infringe on the whole family.
Luckily, many dancers grow up and become professionals in other
professions, but their love of dance leads them to refer back to
dancers in their practices. Whether they end up in dance
medicine or psychology, they reach out to young dancers with
information and education. I chanced upon the article below and
felt compelled to point it out.
..."Eating disorders are more common among female dancers than
among the general population, but many factors can contribute to
the higher prevalence..." By Elizabeth Cooney Worcester TELEGRAM
& GAZETTE STAFF. The entire article can be read at
http://www.telegram.com/article/20071224/NEWS/712240378/1012
For more on all of the above go
About the author:
Dianne M. Buxton is a graduate of the National Ballet School of
Canada. She taught at, and choreographed for The National Ballet
School, York University, and George Brown College, in Canada,
and taught at Harvard University in the U.S.
shoes, pointe shoes, pre-pointe exercises, getting exactly the
right fit, dance books, ballet forum,diet and health for
dancers,DVD's and more.
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