“Cling film?
I’m not a chicken drumstick!”

                                                                                                         

I was ‘gobsmacked’ (as we say in my part of the world) to read Hayley-Jane’s comment on my blog that a tutor at her college suggested she wrap herself in cling film for a whole ballet lesson in order to lose weight!

Remember Dave ( Mark Addy)  in ‘The Full Monty’, the lovable, insecure security guard who wraps himself in cling film in a desperate slimming attempt before the boys' big night?
He immortalised the line -  “Cling-film ? I'm not a chicken drumstick!”

And then there’s the really funny scene where he is sat in the shed wrapped in cling film eating a Mars bar!

It’s hard to believe a tutor could say that to a dance student and even harder to believe that they might be serious.
Ethical question again here I think? Is this 'Teaching by terror' - employing bullying and humiliating tactics to  try and get a desired effect? 

If you google the question;  Does cling film really help with weight loss? You may or may not be surprised how many hits you will get and how many desperate people have actually tried it. However according to most bloggers who tried it, it doesn’t work and I couldn’t find any evidence on any medical site to support it either so why on earth would a tutor at a dance college suggest it to a student and in front of other students. How degrading for Hayley-Jane?

Such inappropriate and humiliating tactics should not be allowed to happen in colleges and attitude such as this towards a dancer can cause a backlash of psychological problems and ruin someone’s life. I think there is a definite lack of understanding by professionals on the devastating effect this attitude can have on individuals. A dancer is a person! A dancer may not be 'average' but they are human beings.

Positive body image and support is needed not constant criticism and negative feedback.Just because a dancer’s particular body shape is out of the range of aesthetic requirements for such as the ballet world does not mean she/he cannot have a fulfilling career in dance. 

 One question I haven’t asked yet in relation to all this.
How come any of us were accepted in colleges in the first place – must have shown some potential in the audition?
Do these type of teachers think that they are just toughening us up for the professional world? This was suggested by tutors at my college.
Do they think that becasue unethical methods have been used in the past and dancers survived this makes it right?

I'm sure if challenged most would say they have only your 'best interests' at heart and I'm sure the majority do have 'good intentions' and only want the best for us but that does not justify those methods. I remember such a conversation with my ballet teacher at college.

Hayley – Jane also said in her comment that she inherited 'curvy hips' and cannot do anything to change them and this led me to think along the question of genetic influences on body composition and how this can be important in how dancers respond to the demands for thinness.

I read a research document conducted by former New York City Ballet dancer Linda Hamilton who compared dancers from a normal background to those who had gone through the strict regime and selection process from a very early age in company schools (eg; the Royal Ballet). She found that the dancers in company schools were naturally thinner, could eat more and maintain dance weight and had a significantly lower incidence of obesity in their families than those from a normal background.  She concludes that for dancers seeking a professional career within a ballet company they should carefully consider their DNA.

Dancers who do not naturally tend towards thiness may have to choose between battling their inherited body traits and modifying their dance goals. She suggests dancers who realise they were not born with sylph –producing DNA  should apply their energy to refocus towards dance careers that do not require an  ultra-thin body and also toward maintaining a healthy, fit body composition rather than trying to force an unhealthy skinny one. Her message is that counselling should be given to dancers whose family traits do not lend themselves to strict ballet standards as it does not mean that dancer is untalented or a failure as there are many other alternatives in performing, choreography and teaching that can be equally rewarding and fulfilling. (Hamilton et al.1988)

I never thought about it till now but this is obviously why when you audition at 11 for the Royal Ballet Associate Programme you have to put on your application form your parents height, weight, shoe size etc so they can consider you ‘genetically’.

 

Arlene Phillips in her review of the Black Swan in the Mail article says, “When I was 14, some of my friends went to the Royal Ballet School, but I wasn’t physically right. My body wasn’t perfectly ­proportioned; I had boobs and a bum. I went on to study tap, jazz, ­ballroom and musical theatre before setting up my own dance group and ­choreographing. But I never lost my love of ballet and was doing it up until my late 30s”.

According to one ex dancer with the New York City Ballet only 2% of the population are actually the perfect body shape for ballet.

Although appropriate diet and exercise may help a dancer get nearer to a desired goal weight, it seems we will be as curvy as our DNA dictates and it  seems it is widely accepted in the dance world that the aesthetics for ballet are written in ‘tablets of stone’ and therefore cannot be challenged.

I think I can easily answer my own question of why do dancers obsess? It is social pressure of what is accepted as the norm for a dancer and the expectation that all dancers will be 'skinny'. Discussing this issue on the SIG and blog shows this is still a very current issue in our college system and there is still a view amonst the teaching fraternity that  'skinny' has to be the expected norm so of course we obsess. 

My question not yet answered is why does this have to be?
Why can’t dancers be who they really are?
Why can't we embrace the good points in each and every one of us as individuals, not concentrating on defects or trying to re-shape us but respect us all so each can bring their own personality and individual colour to the world of dance?

Gene Kelly said, "If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I`m the Marlon Brando". Of course both had very successful acting careers in their own rights although very different so why shouldn't this apply to dancers?




Reference:

Diet for Dancers – Robin D. Chmelar & Sally S. Fitt.

 http://www.4dancers.org/2010/10/review-the-dancers-way-by-linda-hamilton-phd-and-new-york-city-ballet/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349062/Black-Swan-Anorexia-dark-sexual-encounters-ballet-brutal-film-portrays-it.html