Essay On Balanchine

The pressure to be physically perfect is so severe in dance studios today that young women and girls often suffer from a disease, anorexia nervosa. This disorder also affects male dancers, other men, young girls and women, and even children as young as four years of age (Cohen). An estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of females suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime (NIMH). However, anorexia is more severe and most recognized in the dance studio in the female dancers.

Elice McKinley is a ballet dancer at the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Mail Online, 2015). During the interview she admitted she was never anorexic but felt she always had the mentality of one, adding that for nearly a decade she ate very little on a daily basis, only ever eating the likes of boiled chicken and fruit. She also revealed how in the ballet world, weight is a topic that is constantly discussed and how they are told to dance all day, every day, and get by on very little sustenance (Mail Online, 2015). This may suggest how little support is received in an institutional environment and the extent of this concern. I believe some blame can be put on schooling for this low self-esteem and some experiencing body image issues due to being in such a closed minded environment for however many years. It is very important that advice is given to dance students, especially as they are in an environment that is based on appearance and have their bodies participate in such a physically demanding schedule. From experience, I am aware how easy it is to get caught up in wanting to look a certain way and to feel obliged to be a certain size. Without personal advice and support, I believe some dance students will be very uneducated when it comes to nutrition having never been in the environment that

“Dying to be Thin,” produced by PBS, is a documentary that examines the troubles that persons who are affected by eating disorders go through and the constant, daily struggles they face with health and body image. The film tells the story of a number of young women who battled mainly anorexia and bulimia and mixes a variety of ages to give a “during” and an “after” perspective. Many of the women in the video were ballet or some similar type of dancer. Dancers, by their own account, are encouraged to be thin. The issue really came to the forefront after a young ballet dancer from Boston died of heart failure at the young age of 22, with an eating disorder deemed to be the cause. The narrator goes on to introduce more young women and detail the potential illnesses that their eating disorders can cause. Chronic low blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, severe early osteoporosis, and heart failure are all common things seem in patients who suffer from eating disorders. Most patients have dangerously low body weights, body fat percentages, and, often, young women will experience amenorrhea, which is the loss of menstruation. All of the people in the video wanted to be better and were seeking a road to recovery. The video showed though, how difficult that can be since the eating disorders can be so wide ranging and have a number of different root causes. Often patients develop eating disorders as something that they have control over, in a world that they feel is out of their

Eating disorders have become very common today, not only with women but men too (Bordo 2). This fixation with being skinny can be seen most often with modeling. Men and women both are required to be a certain weight if they want to be accepted to a modeling agency. Failure to stay under the weight limit will most likely terminate their contract with that agency. Not only do we see this in modeling or fashion but professional sports. I will never forget watching the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders show a few years ago and watching how big of a deal that the cheerleaders stay within their set weight limit. One of the cheerleaders was five pounds over that limit and was called in for a warning or she would be kicked off the team. Her response, “I guess I’ll have to cut out my favorite snack, PB and J’s.” That moment forever stuck out to me, and made me realize I would never wish to be put under a weight limit for sports, jobs, etc. People often forget starving your body of nutrients is another form of an eating disorder. Bordo claims that, “Eating disorders are also linked to the contradictions of consumer culture, which is continually encouraging us to binge on our desires at the same time as it glamorizes self-discipline and scorns fat as a symbol of laziness and lack of willpower.” (Bordo 2). With the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders as just an example, it goes to show also how much of an effect

One of the most important and influential people in the world of ballet is George Balanchine. He became a legend long before he died. He brought the standards of dance up to a level that had never been seen before, and he created a new audience for ballet. Balanchine was one of the greatest and most prolific choreographers in ballet history, choreographing at least 300 ballets; he was rivaled in quantity only by Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa.

Pressure to reduce weight has been the common explanation for the increased prevalence of eating-related problems among athletes and dancers. One of the reasons that ballet dancers may be at risk for developing eating disorders is that they may have to diet in order to maintain the sylph-like bodies that are required for the discipline of ballet. Lowenkopf and Vincent (1982) have suggested that female adolescent dancers run eight times the risk of developing eating disorders compared to their non-dieting peers. Ballet is also an activity that is low in energy expenditure, and Cohen et al. (1982) reported that while age-matched swimmers or skaters might expend 500 calories in a similar length session, a dancer would only expend 200 calories.

In the video “Dying To Be Thin”, by PBS - NOVA, the video addressed anorexia in the world of dance. The Ballet world is especially vulnerable to anorexia as there is a rigid concept of the perfectionism of the ballerina. Although the dancers in the video were obviously thin, the ballet company expects each ballerina to be atleast thirty pounds thinner than the average model, which makes each ballerina become anorexic.

When thinking about the causes of eating disorders, I used to think about the media and the emphasis put on being thin. Although that can play a role in the cause for some people, many times there is a deeper rooted cause. This video allowed me to hear the perspectives from the point of view of someone who experienced a severe eating disorder. In the case of a dancer, many times they are told at a very young age that they need to lose weight. They were expected to look a certain way and put a high priority on maintaining a weight that many times, is 15% below the normal weight for their height. Not only is this physically damaging, but it is psychologically damaging as well. Girls begin to think that they are not good enough or that skinny is better and starvation is the price of

In 1904 when Georgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the world had no idea of the ballet master mind that was going to be introduced 10 years later. Balanchine started dancing at the Imperial School of Theater and Ballet (Or as it is more well known, the Kirov Academy) in 1914, much to his dismay. As a young boy Balanchine had wished to become a naval officer or a priest, it had not been his wish to dance, he ended up in the school by mere chance. His sister, however, did not get accepted.

The dangerous obsession for dancers and models to be abnormally thin is sweeping the nation. The argument being is this a mental, physical or genetic disease? Women

To begin with, we need to know about the different types of eating disorders and why people develop them in order to find a solution. Anorexia is a type of eating disorder that involves people refusing to eat or eating extremely tiny amounts of food and exercise vigorously. Researchers hypothesize that anorexia may be caused by biological, psychological, and social factors (Ross-Flanigan 1329). One possible cause is that the parents of the people that develop anorexia are too overprotective and have set impractically high expectations from them (Ross-Flanigan 1329). A reason why this may cause people to develop an eating disorder, is that they are under such immense pressure to fulfill their parents’ ideals. Because of this pressure that they feel, they could start to think that not eating is

Dance has always been one of the most aesthetically-pleasing forms of art, but few realize what goes on backstage into the preparations. Eating disorders have become widespread throughout the dancing community, especially since the 20th century when the “Balanchine body” first became popular. This “perfect” body-type for dancers was classified by George Balanchine as "leggy, linear, musical, unsentimental and, of course, untouchably beautiful” (Kiem). Add to that: young, tall and slender to the point of alarm. He liked to see bones. He liked to see ribs. He liked hyperextension and strength that was mechanical yet lithe. According to Kiem, it is Balanchine's obsession with this impossible

The thing with eating disorders is that they usually accompanied by various other conditions inhibiting the individual from getting better. Depression, biological factors, cognitive factors, psychodynamic factors, racial and ethnic differences, family environment, gender differences, and societal pressures are ALL potential factors a person could have. The more factors they have, the more likely they are

Imagine waking up one day and feeling “fat, ugly, and sloppy”. Many individuals wake up with these feeling of disappointment from the way they look or what the scale may say. Due to an obsession of trying to look like others, many women tend to have a dangerous opposition with trying to lose weight so they begin to starve themselves by not eating. In the dance world, this is very common because of the fear of being or looking FAT! These individuals are considered to have an eating disorder, which can be anorexia, bulimia and/or binge eating disorder (BED).

The study claims that athletes are about three times more likely than people not involved in athletics to develop an eating disorder. In the study they also found that fourteen percent of the sample size of athletes had developed an eating disorder, while only five percent of the regular population did (Sundgot-Borgen. 2004). Athletes have a lot of pressure on them to be perfect, flawless, and to maintain a physical physique that is pristine. Most athletes are willing to do whatever it takes in order to be the best they can possibly be. There are certain sports that experience this type of pressure more than others because they are considered lean sports. According to Ron Thomson, PhD, “Eating disorders occur in all sports, but sports with the greatest risk for eating disorders include those referred to as ‘lean’ sports”(Bowers, 2014). Some of the sports that are considered lean include gymnastics, ballet, diving, running, cycling, and wrestling (Bowers, 2014). When analyzing lean sports, one can determine that the sports are ones that involve high impact on the individual him or herself. In gymnastics, the individual is expected to throw their body up in the air and defy the laws of physics. In diving, the same occurs. Ballerinas are expected to have very lengthy bodies in order for them to look graceful during the dances they are performing. While participants are involved in the sports mentioned above, they are typically in tight uniforms and constantly being judged by others. Every time these athletes step on the competition floor, they are critiqued on their appearance and their performance. This is one main reason that the coaches tend to enforce exceptional fitness levels and pristine body image on the athletes involved in the lean sports. The most frightening part about it all is that sometimes the disease sneaks up on the athletes and goes unnoticed