yet ANOTHER one of THOSE stories! yawn...<P>it's about anorexia, missing out on parties, etc etc - might be something ofinterest here to someone.....<BR> <A HREF="http://www.washtimes.com/culture/default-200089214236.htm" TARGET=_blank>http://www.washtimes.com/culture/default-200089214236.htm</A>

Well, it's not quite a yawning subject, is it? I mean this is serious stuff, isn't it? Or are you suggesting this is just old material being rehashed for sensational reasons?

"Since lighter dancers are easier to lift, they jump higher, balance better and appear more attractive, female dancers often feel pressured to lose weight to win starring roles or to compete with other dancers."<P>This is a stupid sentence. Comments like these give me the impression the author is addressing a subject more for the sensation of it than to really shed much light. As a statement of the writer herself, and not a quote, I think she's perpetuating the bull that's got my friend vomiting after every meal. While I do get the impression many studios/companies/schools have different attitudes about eating disorders than in the past, the issue hasn't gone away. <P>Also, people outside of dance look to performers for an aesthetic to buy into - the prevalence of strappy tank tops is an example of dance's impact on fashion. We dance as part of our cultures - responding and being responded to, not in some rarefied alternate reality. Similarly, readers of this article may find uninformed and irresponsible comments like this reinforce stereotypes being blasted apart by dancers in this other, more interesting article in the Issues forum: <A HREF="http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000100.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.criticaldance.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000100.html</A> <P>I just disagree that you have to be a total shrimp to leap, balance, and be attractive. That's bull. At 90 lbs. I doubt I could get much liftoff - I'd be too tired, and I'd look awful and probably have poor balance from being dizzy. <P>While remembering the author is referring to a segment of the dance community I'm not really part of - ballet, I also note the article in the Issues forum has ballet dancers. So anyway, take my aggravation with a grain of Na.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>As a statement of the writer herself, and not a quote, I think she's perpetuating the bull that's got my friend vomiting after every meal. While I do get the impression many studios/companies/schools have different attitudes about eating disorders than in the past, the issue hasn't gone away.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Priscilla, this is frightening if it still happens. I often hear stories from current dancers about what they had to go through to stay "lean" when they were in ballet school. Some were weighed every Friday and Monday. One would hope that with today's awareness of the health risks and the recent lawsuit against Boston Ballet that schools are more sensitive to this issue.<P>Also, what with ballet companies performing more contemporary works, perhaps there won't be such a need for all dancers in a ballet company to fit the traditional mold.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>if it still happens<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>azlan, get real!

p.s. Priscilla: thanx for waking my brain up! haven't seen Na in a while! (since school!)

Ooooh, this issude is close to my heart. I was an anorexic dancer around the time they were finally coming up with a name for it. I constantly had teachers telling me to lose weight, eat less -- "gee, Cheryl, you're beginning to look at little healthy." Yes, I actually had a teacher say that to me. You know what? No one ever told me when to STOP losing the weight. They just waited until it got out of hand and then put me on a plane for home and told me to "get better". "You can't come back to school until you weigh such and such". <BR>People, don't be fooled. Nothing has changed (at least here in the states) concerning female ballet dancers' bodies. Even with the incident at the Boston Ballet, the powers to be in the dance world have yet to prove to anyone if they will stand by their word when stating that things will change. The summer dance intensives around the US are still full of the waif-like, mal-nourished 'sylphs' that the ballet world has become accustomed to. It's a shame...There are so many talented girls out there that will never be given a chance because they look too much like women. <BR>Hopefully, I will see a change come about sometime during my lifetime. In other words, I'll BELIEVE it when I SEE it.<BR>

Cherylb, thanks for that heartfelt reply. No doubt your personal experience gives you an insight into this issue.<P>However, and not meaning to be disrectful but merely curious, don't you see more dancers on stage now who don't quite fit the traditional "norm." I am seeing dancers in companies like NYCB, RB and SFB who actually look like "women." Is this not a change in the trend, albeit a small one?

While professional dancers may be the idols of young dancers, they and their world are still very far away from most young girls and their narrowly circumscribed worlds. And, for that matter - from the youngsters' teachers.<P>Sure, Azlan, it's a change in the trend, but it's small and I still know of at least one teacher who approvingly admires the ever-shrinkingness of one of his students. Perhaps he didn't get the Memo to Dance Teachers noting this as an attitude whose time has passed. And yes, I HAVE thought of forwarding to him. <P>

sounds like you should write THAT one, Priscilla!

<BR>L:Jane Burn of the Royal Ballet<BR>R: Sofia Gumerova of the Kirov Ballet<P>not quite sure where to put this article, so this will do! 2 ballerinas - 1 RB and 1 Kirov, talk about diet and health etc.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>FOR ballet dancers, getting a diet right must sometimes seem<BR> impossible. One moment, their world is fraught with hysterical tales<BR> of anorexic misery; the next, the press sneers about<BR> over-indulgence and unattractive pear shapes.<P> A recent book by Julia Buckroyd, a British dance psychotherapist,<BR> caused controversy with its claims of widespread eating disorders<BR> and over-strict regimes, and yet Derek Deane, the artistic director<BR> of English National Ballet, has declared publicly that he finds<BR> foreign dancers more lithe and better-shaped than English ones.<BR> No wonder many pubertal girls in dance schools become<BR> obsessed by their size.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Burn says: "We are driving our bodies quite close to their limits at times, and you have to learn to look after yourself: get food, rest, sleep. You've got to be healthy to do this. You can't survive if you are obsessive or anorexic. And I don't think the audience likes to see very thin people, anyway."<BR> <A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000148269364269&rtmo=0ii2bK0q&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/8/15/thbalet15.html" TARGET=_blank>read article here</A> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited August 16, 2000).]

An interesting comparison of two dancers' views and lives.<P>Here's the Harkness Center's website - the place was "founded as a program of the Hospital for Joint Diseases Orthopaedic Institute (HJDOI) in 1989 in response to the New York Dance community's critical need for specialized and affordable health care"<BR> <A HREF="http://www.danceinjury.com/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.danceinjury.com/</A>

AT ISSUE: HOW THIN IS THIN????<BR> <P>I thought I would post this since some people mentioned Ms. Ringer. She is in either a practice tu tu or a lousy Serenade costume......not sure which....color is right and the hip placement correct for Serenade, but the tulle is only one or two layers thick. Anyway.<P>THIS IS THE COPY!!!<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>THE COMEBACK KID <P>In a tutu-free zone, Jenifer Ringer would've been considered plenty thin, but in the highly competitive world of dance, a few extra pounds can cost an artist her toe shoes. "My body didn't fit the classical ideal. So, I'd feel bad about myself - and I'd eat," says Ringer, by way of explaining her much-talked about 1997 departure from the New York City Ballet. <P>Fortunately, NYCB soloist James Fayette didn't mind her womanly shape. "I just want to dance with you," he said, encouraging her to quit her secretarial job and accept an outside gig with him. This season, the twenty-seven year old is back on pointe, with a new understanding of "the pure pleasure of dancing." Having returned to the company, she has critics raving over her performances, now imbued with confidence and striking lyricism. <P>In the coming months, as a newly named principle, she'll dance the Sugar Plum Fairy in George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, and is<BR>expected to tackle "In the Night" by Jerome Robbins, one of ballet's most rigorous choreographers. After years of sruggle, Jenifer Ringer is exactly where she belongs: center stage.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>..... we <B>haven't</B> gotten too far in our search for getting away from the ultra skinny look of the ballerina.<P>I just think it a crime for such gifted dancers to have such head trips put<BR>upon them. <P>bek, CCA CREATIONS<BR><A HREF="http://members.tripod.com/~Casalino" TARGET=_blank>http://members.tripod.com/~Casalino</A> <BR><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited September 16, 2000).]

i have added the above photograph from 'Elle' to bek's post, but not until after a few more posts had occurred - so, if you are reading this thread AFTER he fact, this is to explain that the post and the photo weren't up at the same time, originally.<P>it's just great that someone persuaded her to give dance another go, isn't it? where would we be without friends?<P><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited September 04, 2000).]

someone has written to me with the following expression of concern re bek's post above (which has now been edited - see below):<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I'm concerned about these comments about Jennifer Ringer - - - I suspect that Ms Ringer would find it offensive. I don't have a problem with someone saying that a dancer is, for instance, worryingly thin. But bek has personalised it in a way I find very unpalatable. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>here is part of my response: <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>i am afraid i honestly cannot see anything at all wrong with this.....i am quite puzzled.<P>personally i can only imagine a dancer laughing good-naturedly at these comments when about herself. dancers take such stuff as compliments, in my experience.<P>OK, i have a good sense of humour - some other people don't, especially when it comes to themselves. <P>i WAS one such person as a dancer, self-conscious and over-sensitive, but i would have been quite thrilled by this sort of comment - believe me, the attitude in ballet companies is still that you can't possibly be thin enough....there is no such thing as too thin. any expressions of amazement about how thin someone is, are considered great compliments!<P>MY test for such things is: how would i feel if it was said about me?<P>i'd feel complimented. and laugh, with pride.<P>so therein lies our gulf of understanding!<BR> - don't know what else to say or think or do......<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>posting this here, because, this way, at least the writer's concern has been expressed. bek's original message has now been edited, even though it didn't bother ME, rather than risk upsetting anyone. <p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited September 16, 2000).]