In class today we talked about dance and focused on ballet. In the past I have attended many ballet and dance performances. I have two sisters that are just older than me and were huge into dancing growing up. One of them actually got a dance scholarship at the university that she went to and so you can see that it was a major part of her life. They started out with ballet and had several performances throughout the year. I always dreaded going to the nutcracker every December and then several other performances during the year. I don’t think that any young boy would want to go to those but I was forced to. I tell you this so you can see why I started to have the distaste for ballet. My dislike would grow even more when my sisters would try and teach me ballet.
Later on in life I would date a dancer and would learn more about how the actual culture of ballet would catch on to the girls. Ballet seemed to demand perfection in every way and seemed to diminish the self esteem of many of the girls that I knew. Now this is one of the biggest concerns that I have with ballet. I am an exercise science major and have a huge concern for people’s health. Now I can’t watch ballet without focusing on the health of the individuals dancing. When we watched Swan Lake the girl just looked sick to me. Sure she had muscle to do some of the moves that she did but seeing her rib bones distracted me throughout the whole scene. I understand that ballet can be beautiful but I just can’t focus on it.
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I completely agree with you. The girl in Swan Lake looked like a skeleton. Ballet kind of has a sick culture. I danced with a company when I was young and I quit when I was almost 11 and have never looked back because at that ages all the other girls could talk about was what they ate and how much they've worked out and how they're never good enough. It was infuriating! Especially when they started doing weird things like taping down their chest and eating cotton balls so they would feel full. I just can't look at ballet as beautiful anymore when the culture represents something so disordered and unnatural.
ReplyDeletei think ballet can be too disciplined in some areas but it is also a big reason of why i like it. I think it promotes a good work ethic and can send a good message of be the best you can be. i have never been in that environment but the idea sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI like you insight. There are a lot of things in this world where people go the extremes to try to be the best, in the case "skinny" to fit the role of a ballerina.
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