Judging the Bodies in Ballet

I found this article in the New York Times. The article discusses the criticism that dancers, especially ballerinas, face when they perform. And sometimes, that criticism has nothing to do with their technique, but their physical appearance and weight.

Their was an uproar by readers of the New York Times when writer Alastair Macaulay criticized Jenifer Ringer’s weight in his review of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.” Macaulay wrote that Ringer, who played the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy, “looked as if she’d eaten one sugarplum too many.” While many readers thought this critique was too harsh, it is important to note that there has always been a particular standard that ballerinas should be very thin. The article also mentions that if Jenifer Ringer had been performing the flamenco or any other form of contemporary dance, she would be considered very slim.

Size in ballet is not just a recent issue. In the mid-18th century at the Paris Opera, ballerina Marie Allard was fired because of her inability to lose weight, even though she was considered to be a very talented dancer. I myself remember going to a dance recital at Frank Sinatra School of Performing Arts, and when a dancer (she looked healthy, but was just slightly bigger than the rest of the dancers) came out, a woman sitting behind me said in disbelief, “She thinks she can be a ballerina looking like that?”

I don’t think it’s fair to judge ballerinas based on how their bodies look. They should be praised or criticized based on their talents and technique. But with a stereotype stretching back centuries, is it even possible for that to happen? Even in the movie “Black Swan,” (which Beth posted about earlier) the already-slim Natalie Portman had to lose weight to look like a ballerina. So, can ballerinas be judged based on their dancing alone, instead of being criticized for their weight? The article doesn’t end on a happy note (“If you want to make your appearance irrelevant to criticism, do not choose ballet as a career. The body in ballet becomes a subject of the keenest observation and the most intense discussion.”) What do you think?