The Ballet Blog

A toe shoe is as eccentric as the ballerina who wears it: their marriage is a commitment.

-Toni Bentley-

theballetblog:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3fPL_TZAM4

Documentary: Dance of the Little Swans: The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet auditions young dancers

Worth the watch y’all. It’s terrifying, inspiring, intense, tragic, triggering and ummm…intimidating? The world of ballet is so wild. And the honesty of some words spoken in this is shocking. There’s no sugarcoating of anything. They speak to children like they are extremely thick-skinned adults. But, I’m upset at how far it’s taken at times. It easily crosses the line into childhood emotional abuse, and this is what we see ON camera.

I will say, my goodness, the children are so wise, well-spoken and intelligent. Far beyond their years. And they treat one another and speak of one another so well.

My main concern after viewing—Nikolay Tsiskaridze seems to be an evil dictator-like sociopath run amok in a place with no power balance checks and absolute worshipped authority. 27:17 (in this vid player it’s 20:50?) is very disturbing (along with some other sections). The kid in front of him is standing like everyone else and also clearly standing to the side of the stairs to let Nikolay pass through. Nikolay aggressively screams in his face a command in front of all his peers “SIT DOWN” to which he follows, defeated and misunderstood. The kid’s face is so sad and embarrassed after, he hears laughter behind him and doesn’t join, likely believing it’s about him. The kid did nothing wrong and should not have been spoken to like that. And no one speaks up for him. There’s no defending it whatsoever. He’s on a power trip, and if you have any intuition concerning human behavior you’ll see it watching this documentary. It’s as if he does it for his own amusement at times. He shouldn’t be around kids as a mentor and leader.

And that part where that lady gives positive reinforcement to the not overweight 9/10? year old for losing weight. (“Lost weight, Milana?” “Yes” “I can see, well done”.) Sick. There’s no defending that either. Ballerinas are 7 times as likely to have anorexia than the general population. And in a world where you’re sacrificing everything, you’re away from your family and feel powerless to authority continuously, these moments stick and shape you.

There’s a way to be brutally honest and borderline harsh/cold and strict and there’s a line that takes it too far and fucks up a kid’s mental health. There’s a lot of evidence it’s taken too far in this. These kids are entirely reliant upon and submissive to the authority of these adults who hold their futures in their hands. And I get it, ballet is hard. Harder than hard. I know first-hand that becoming a professional takes blood, sweat, tears, dedication, obsession and discipline. But the line can be crossed. Don’t glamorize emotional abuse.

Ballet dancers Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel announced their pregnancy!

“This might look like a pas de deux, but it’s actually a pas de trois 💗🤰👨🏼 …we are thrilled to be expecting our baby in early June.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3fPL_TZAM4

Documentary: Dance of the Little Swans: The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet auditions young dancers

Worth the watch y’all. It’s terrifying, inspiring, intense, tragic, triggering and ummm…intimidating? The world of ballet is so wild. And the honesty of some words spoken in this is shocking. There’s no sugarcoating of anything. They speak to children like they are extremely thick-skinned adults. But, I’m upset at how far it’s taken at times. It easily crosses the line into childhood emotional abuse, and this is what we see ON camera.

I will say, my goodness, the children are so wise, well-spoken and intelligent. Far beyond their years. And they treat one another and speak of one another so well.

My main concern after viewing—Nikolay Tsiskaridze seems to be an evil dictator-like sociopath run amok in a place with no power balance checks and absolute worshipped authority. 27:17 (in this vid player it’s 20:50?) is very disturbing (along with some other sections). The kid in front of him is standing like everyone else and also clearly standing to the side of the stairs to let Nikolay pass through. Nikolay aggressively screams in his face a command in front of all his peers “SIT DOWN” to which he follows, defeated and misunderstood. The kid’s face is so sad and embarrassed after, he hears laughter behind him and doesn’t join, likely believing it’s about him. The kid did nothing wrong and should not have been spoken to like that. And no one speaks up for him. There’s no defending it whatsoever. He’s on a power trip, and if you have any intuition concerning human behavior you’ll see it watching this documentary. It’s as if he does it for his own amusement at times. He shouldn’t be around kids as a mentor and leader.

And that part where that lady gives positive reinforcement to the not overweight 9/10? year old for losing weight. (“Lost weight, Milana?” “Yes” “I can see, well done”.) Sick. There’s no defending that either. Ballerinas are 7 times as likely to have anorexia than the general population. And in a world where you’re sacrificing everything, you’re away from your family and feel powerless to authority continuously, these moments stick and shape you.

There’s a way to be brutally honest and borderline harsh/cold and strict and there’s a line that takes it too far and fucks up a kid’s mental health. There’s a lot of evidence it’s taken too far in this. These kids are entirely reliant upon and submissive to the authority of these adults who hold their futures in their hands. And I get it, ballet is hard. Harder than hard. I know first-hand that becoming a professional takes blood, sweat, tears, dedication, obsession and discipline. But the line can be crossed. Don’t glamorize emotional abuse.

Ballet by the Numbers

45 the percentage of professional ballet dancers who are smokers

110 lb (7 stone 12 pounds): the weight reached by prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova which led to her firing from the Bolshoi Ballet

12 the age at which most girls are considered old enough to go on pointe

4350 the number of students at the Cuban National Ballet School in Havana, the biggest ballet school in the world

3 The pain threshold of ballerinas is 3 times higher than that of non-ballerinas

80 per cent: the injury rate among professional dancers in Britain

29 average retirement age of professional ballerinas in the 1990s

7 Ballet dancers are 7 times more likely to suffer from anorexia than non-ballerinas

22,000 the annual wage, in pounds, of second year corps de ballet dancers at the Royal Ballet

40 average retirement age of professional ballerinas in the 1980s

71 the age that Charin Yuthasastrkosol was when she won the Guinness World Record for oldest performing ballerina

A young Sarah Lane (Natalie Portman’s dance double in Black Swan)

Happy New Year to each and every one of my 39,000 followers!

Nathalie Harrison in a Royal Ballet class while seven months pregnant