The Dark Side of Ballet Schools - Panorama investigation

Ironic really considering SAB was founded by Balanchine who was arguably the person who inventd this particular aesthetic

The UK schools have this too.

Why are the UK schools so far behind?

It isn't just a UK thing. It's a ballet thing. Obviously some schools are much better than others but similar abuse is common in schools and companies all over the world.

Here's examples in the U.S, Austria, Australia and New Zealand to name but a few.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/stage-and-theatre/100421852/humiliating-weighins-at-ballet-schools-dancers-tell-of-their-eating-disorder-battless_

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/ballet-alice-robb-ellen-oconnell-whittet//_

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-22/ballet-dancing-trauma-eating-disorders-mental-health-education/1018220922_

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/19/europe/vienna-opera-house-abuse-report-scli-intl/index.htmll_

Haha yes, as if AI had generated a photo but got it wrong. It’s actually freakish. Poor dancers!

Exactly what I used to try to drum into my daughter when she was dancing. That cars can’t run without fuel, and nor can bodies.

A friend's daughter goes to School of American Ballet, and the emphasis there is very different - they have weekly nutrition seminars on the importance of food as fuel, and how they have to eat to avoid energy deficiency, and if they aren't thought to be eating properly they have 1:1 nutritionist support. Why are the UK schools so far behind?

😲
That "after" picture of the girl in the fairy costume looks so odd, the head is so out of proportion. There was nothing wrong with the original pictures. They looked like humans doing amazing things. The photoshopped version is a computer-generated, slightly disturbing ,not very relatable fantasy.

I don't get it. For me ballet should be about gracefulness, tetechnique, rhythm, the telling of a story and conveying of feelings through dance. Physical fitness, strength, flexibility and yes beauty come into it - extreme thinness isn't essential.

Whoever photoshopped those pictures clearly doesn't agree with me and has lost sight of what humans look like.

Personal opinion; if it were me, I would steer well clear. Rambert School, on the other hand, has an excellent reputation for student care.

It is shocking. Young dancers will aspire to achieve these ideals when they’re not even an accurate representation. Photoshop really!

BTUK was on our list of potential schools (post 16) for one of my DC.

If it's true that girls are getting taller and bigger, is there pressure on the male dancers who lift them to get bigger (more muscle bound) and stronger? A preference for taller boys and men? Or are we just asking the girls to rewind to the 30s and 40s and somehow remain petite?

I would be interested to know if there has been a change, though men do usually need to be fairly tall to partner someone on pointe. I think people like Darcey Bussell and Sylvie Guillem (former around 5ft 7) would have more trouble securing a taller partner in the UK, but I can't quite remember.

I know of one UK ballet company, who I shan't name, who until recently had a height max of 5ft 4 ish for women, which if unchanged seems terribly old fashioned to be requesting when they claim to be progressive in other areas. Though the same place uses the code for thin for young dancers and associates.

Though I agree with the dancers from the Panorama programme that code for being thin is used. So they'll talk about fitness and so on.

Weight and height of child is sometimes still asked for on audition forms (where photos are included). We were asked as recently as last year.

Yep! Absolutely shocking, aren’t they. What message does that send to young dancers or students? “Muscles not permitted”.

“None of this is “new or modern” - true, but what is “new” in the last decade or two is the practice of photoshopping ballet dancers’ feet and bodies. The poor girl whose RBS upper school teacher said “this is what I’d cut off, if I could”, meaning “I’d get rid of your bum, and your leg muscles” reminded me of the school of Ballet Theatre UK and the BTUK company, who have been photoshopping pictures of their students and dancers for several years now, to “improve” their lines. These are in the public domain and are “before” and “after”.

Curious about this...though glad to say my 5 year old has just dropped her ballet class of 2 years of her own volition having discovered that she detests performing!

If it's true that girls are getting taller and bigger, is there pressure on the male dancers who lift them to get bigger (more muscle bound) and stronger? A preference for taller boys and men? Or are we just asking the girls to rewind to the 30s and 40s and somehow remain petite?

Yes, the competition for places at these schools is fierce and coveted. The children easily replaced.

I've heard this too often, and very recently as in your case. A common response by these schools is that it's in the past and being addressed, but it is not, obviously including some of the examples in the programme.

The perfect 'line' really is behind the slim aesthetic in ballet.

I'll read the thread properly later, but I watched this last night. From the age of around 7-8 my daughter had the word 'ballet physique' banded around about her, in assessment and audition feedback, and you get used to that. Hers being 'ideal' apparently, but the problem, as this programme touched upon, is often when they reach puberty and change.

It's probably already been said but on top of all of that, these training methods, a tiny number of those RB (for example) students make it into upper school, then an even tinier number make it into the company as they recruit from abroad; so is their own training not fit for purpose?

Those poor students, and parents, and so brave of them to agree to appear on the programme.

I can understand why they focused on eating disorders, but the problem is much more than that, and it hasn't stopped. A parent cannot complain or their child will essentially be finished at the schools, assessed out, or their lives made difficult. This even happens in the local dance schools - there is a culture of being unable to complain.

I watched this last night.

What puzzles me (as I dont know anything about this sort of athleticism) is why and how the teachers want people to lose more and more weight, when surely the needs of a dancer is strength (ie muscle mass), fitness and flexibility

Why the need to be as thin as possible?

Felt so bad for the parents of the boy who died 😥

Thank you for asking - we have a distant relationship so I don't really know. He has had therapy - looking back I think the whole experience of him being away from his family changed him.

We are not surprised in the slightest. I know a lot of people in the industry and my own dc trained professionally. Some of us have been campaigning against it for years and got nowhere. At least a programme like this can shine a light on an issue that has for a long time been accepted as part and parcel of the job. As an adult, you accept a job knowing what it entails. As a child at boarding school in an environment where you will literally do anything to please your teachers and not be assessed out, it is far more mentally damaging.