Note: This story discusses eating disorders. If you or someone you know is struggling, support is available through the National Eating Disorders Association.
The body is the ballerina’s art. Hyper-extended knees and flexible feet are just some ways ballerinas are able to create and perform. The discipline required to be a ballerina can lead to the exposure of the high expectations surrounding how a dancer’s body should appear. This pursuit of perfection often leads to serious mental and physical health issues over time, such as body dysmorphia and eating disorders. The environment dancers are in can become stress inducing when they’re unsatisfied with their bodies.
Sophomore Iris Rowe has been dancing for eleven years. “I dance for six to eight hours six days a week, then I go home to do conditioning at night and in the morning,” Rowe said. “Extensive training is what dance is.” It’s common to see dancers train this often, especially when dancing through a company or competitively as she does.
What can lead dancers to mental health issues often, is the competitive environment. “We’re looking at ourselves in the mirror for hours a day,” Rowe said. “I’ve heard people say they want to look good on stage, so they lose weight [to] look better…being in that environment can accentuate that [way of thinking].” She has noticed dancers around her struggle with their body image, but at her studio, they don’t promote negative self-talk.
“We don’t encourage it ever,” Rowe said.
The technique of a ballerina is focused on more than what their body looks like.
“When we do auditions I see people go in [that are] super tiny, but if they cannot get over their box when they’re dancing they [won’t] get the part,” Rowe said. When Rowe sees others struggling she reminds her peers of the meaning of dance.
“Your body is never the issue, just learn how to move in [it]. Dance wasn’t created for any specific body type, it was created because we love to dance. Remember why you love to dance whenever you feel bad about yourself,” Rowe said.
Weight loss is another thing that dancers might pursue, even if they are a healthy weight some dancers will still try to lose more to appear better or to be able to get lifted in partner work.
“You’re supposed to be really thin, which definitely isn’t realistic…when we do Pas de Deux, which is girl and boy partnering– it comes up. If people are insecure about their weight [it] can be stressful,” Rowe said. She explains that ballerinas are expected to be thin, if a dancer wants to be thinner it could induce an eating disorder.
Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia are common in dancers and are extremely dangerous. They can also be hard to detect in people because they are a mental disorder, not a physical one.
Sophomore Mildred Johnson is a recovered anorexic.
“It started when my family couldn’t afford to buy much food; I got used to not eating lunch and breakfast. It turned into a habit where I would skip eating,” Johnson said.
Eating disorders can form in different ways, and for different reasons. For Johnson her environment aided her disorder into what it later became.
“I would go days without food [and] I ended up throwing up the food that I consumed,” she said. After not having any food for days, a result is your body throwing up leading to inflamed lymph nodes and irritation in your throat. “One day I ended up in the ER, I was told I could experience stomach or heart failure. That changed everything, I knew I needed to talk to someone.”
The dangers of starvation are significant enough to cause hospitalization and in extreme cases, death.
“I was shocked to hear that I had anorexia because in the media you have to be skinny to have anorexia, but that’s not it at all. One thing a lot of people don’t understand, you don’t have to be skin and bone to have an eating disorder,” Johnson said.
The mind can be altered by this disorder to think things that are irrational to others.
“Whenever I ate I would regret. It drove me to the lowest point of my life. If somebody had told me they thought I was pretty or gave me a compliment of any kind I would not believe them,” Johnson said.
It may not be easy to recover, but there are ways.
“I went to a counselor who specializes in eating disorders. She would help me through healthy eating habits; having snacks, at least two meals a day.”
Small steps can lead to recovery, but it won’t happen overnight. It can take months or even years to recover according to the National Eating Disorders Association. It’s also not uncommon to see relapse while recovering.
“You should reach out for help, and it doesn’t mean that you’re a freak. It’s okay to ask for help, you just need to realize you’re hurting yourself. I just needed that confidence and self-love, [recovery] is not near as scary as I thought it would be,” Johnson said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, some of the risks of restrictive eating disorders can be weak bones, infertility, tooth decay, heart disease, and organ failure. This can make it harder to dance and keep up with the class. Five percent of people who have anorexia nervosa will die. Eating disorders are the most fatal psychiatric disorder, more specifically among them all anorexia nervosa holds the highest mortality rate.
The “ideal” body image is different for everyone, the expectation some have that dancers should be thin to the extent of emaciation is dangerous. While ballet is known for its beauty, it is also demanding. The pressure to maintain a certain type of body creates an unhealthy idea of how the bodies of others should look which perpetuates harmful stereotypes.
