To: Ballet World
A Need to Change Body Image Standard in Ballet
One of the greatest artistic demands in dance is physical shape, contributing to the desire of a thinner body and the continuous self-dissatisfaction state because of the standard of the supposed “perfect body.” By investigating gender aspects, body image and dancers' eating disorders symptoms, study done by Ravaldi et al. shows that over concern with the body aesthetics is present in dance.
There is a need to change the standard body image; the ballet world and the dance world needs to change their perceptions on body images and standard of being purely tall and skinny.
Why is this important?
Negative body images are more likely to develop conditions such as eating disorders, depression, isolation, low self-esteem, and obsessions with weight loss. One of the main symptoms of the eating disorders is body image disturb, marked by the negative self-evaluation of the individual related to their weight and body shape. Eating disorders are increasing in both genders as society puts forth unreasonable standards of what a dancer’s body or even just a regular body should look like.
Especially among professional dancers, there is a high frequency of dissatisfaction with their bodies. A lot of these dancers feel that to be accepted in their environment, they have to have very thin bodies and they self-objectify themselves. This again leads to stimulating the practice of risk behaviors to eating disorders, bringing severe consequence to the professional dancers health.