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Oversexualized and Underappreciated: Women in the Ballet World

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Close your eyes and think of the word ballet — hold the letters in your hands. Swish it around in your mouth. Do you see somebody onstage? Pointe shoes? The movie Black Swan?

I am not inside your head, but I bet I am right about this: You see a woman. What does she look like? Is she angular, sinewy, lanky, thin? Flexible?

Now stop. Are you sexualizing her?

Maybe you aren’t, but many people are. It’s somewhat innate — the culture of the ballet world has allowed for this perception of women but has failed to articulate the difference between appreciation of art and fetishization of a human being. Inside the studio, this line has always been blurry.

It is common knowledge that women are treated as objects in all forms of media. Women are overtly sexualized thanks to images of naked bodies thrown up on giant billboards, the entertainment industry’s ever-growing affinity for female nudity in entertainment, and the media’s exploitation of public interest in female celebrities’ sex lives.

The ballet world is no different, but those ever-so-glamorous ballerinas have perhaps even less agency and autonomy than women in other industries. Ballet dancers are trained in their craft and technique for years, but it is less known how they are coached in the art of silence and fear of authority. In the ballet studio, bodies are instruments, so voices are unnecessary and unvalued. A “perfect” ballerina will not step out of line. She will not talk back. She will not allude to dissatisfaction with the company she works for because this would make her “problematic” and “hard to work with.” She could get fired. Because of this, dancers are hesitant to paint this world — which has afforded them the dream many have fantasized about for years — in a negative light out of fear of retaliation. Will I still be cast if I tell the truth? Will I be fired for speaking out against misconduct and unfairness? This fear that is cultivated in the classroom bleeds through the lines of the gender binary and collects in puddles around the tutus and pointe shoes of women.

The late choreographer George Balanchine, a co-founder of the legendary New York City Ballet, pushed women to the forefront of the stage with more dynamic choreography, shorter skirts on costumes, and works that allowed more flexibility with how a woman could present her femininity onstage. Balanchine believed, “Woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women.” Upon first impression, this sounds feminist. However, through the lens of a former ballet dancer like myself who studied the Balanchine Technique for years, it is anything but.

Let’s start by breaking down Balanchine’s ideal ballet body type. In George Balanchine: The Human Cost of an Artistic Legacy, a book by Elizabeth Keim on legendary 1960s ballerina Suzanne Farrell, Balanchine is quoted as saying he wanted dancers who were “leggy, linear, beautiful, young, and tall.” He was also reportedly obsessed with seeing bones and ribs on dancers. Through word of mouth from friends of mine who train at Balanchine-centric schools, I discovered that many people blame his ideology for the rise of eating disorders and body image issues in the ballet world. “They only like the skinny girls,” an anonymous student who trains in the Balanchine Technique reports. “No one else gets attention in class, and if you want attention, you have to lose weight.”

Several schools around the country that prioritize the Balanchine Technique are known anecdotally for only accepting very young, very thin girls who have not yet hit puberty. The intense daily exercise these schools employ delays their students’ bodies’ natural developments, so if a dancer’s body has already begun to change, the school isn’t interested. An 18-year-old girl should not look like a 12-year-old girl, but in the ballet world, the younger your body looks, the better — a standard determined at the old, male artistic director’s discretion, of course.

What’s more, George Balanchine was known for having inappropriate intimate relations with his dancers, and that legacy continues today; many ballet companies have histories of intense sexual exploitation. Older male directors are known to offer ballerinas in the lowest ranks of their careers “deals” to engage in sexual activity with the director in exchange for promotion, bigger roles, and more stage time. These men get away with their actions because of the unspoken rule in the ballet world to not question authority.

“Ballerinas off-duty” are sexualized as well. There is an always-relevant “joke” in the ballet world relating to this: “You’re a ballerina? You must be flexible.” Again, the first thing that comes to mind when encountering a ballerina for some is an opportunity to violate and verbally harass her.

There is a difference between appreciating a graceful, powerful woman creating movement from an artistic perspective and enjoying the body of a young girl in tight clothing. Ballet is hard work, and female ballet dancers deserve better than being reduced to eye candy by nondancers, artistic staff, and teachers. The narrative about ballerinas must be reframed, and men must immediately stop assuming women exist solely for their pleasure.



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Sarah Yoak
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