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Brooke Rudebusch
English MO1A
Bradford
16 December 2014
Pointe(ing) Out the Flaws
Dance is such a beautiful art form; it speaks a language that is seen and felt by the
dancer as well as the audience and does not need words to translate it. A dancer can
move their body in such rhythmic patterns, looking graceful and even telling a story with
their motions at the same time. Seeing as they do this so elegantly many young girls
grow up aspiring to be the next “Black Swan” or even just wanting to participate in a
dance class. As a parent, you would want to adhere to your child’s needs and interests
and may even be excited that they have found a liking for a physical activity. However,
what if you knew the repercussions of the dance world before you entered your child into
it? Would you still enroll them in that dance course, or would you encourage them to try
something else? Many of the professional dancers in today’s society all say that they, at
one point or another were told that they must be thinner. Thus, leading them to do
harmful things to their bodies and health, creating a correlation between ballet dancers
and eating disorders and also the various expectations brought on by participating in it.
Ballet specifically takes a large toll on its participants and sets a high standard for looks
as well as an extreme level of talent to accompany it.
Through tedious research many scientists have explored the realm of eating
disorders and their effects on the body and health as a whole. The two most common
eating disorders among the dance world are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
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Anorexia consists of starving one’s self in order to lose weight and bulimia is the process
in which one binge eats and then later, before the food is digested, purges. The effects
these disorders have on the body are obviously losing weight at extreme measures, but
also to the point of malnutrition. Bulimia can even cause teeth to rot because of the
gastric acids that come up with the food when purging. According to the Recovery
Ranch, a treatment program center for people with these disorders, “bulimia damages the
nerves that signal to your brain that your stomach is full and oftentimes this damage is
irreversible.” Both habits are very gruesome means of losing weight that are clearly not
healthy by any standards.
Knowing the background of these two awful disorders can help us further
understand the suffering and pressure ballet dancers must endure in order to be successful
