An Introduction to Barre None
- Oct 5, 2016
- 2 min read
Hi everyone!
Welcome to Barre None, a blog to discuss the prominence of eating disorders among young ballet dancers. Here, we believe every ballerina’s body is strong, beautiful, and BAR(RE) NONE.
As someone that has been involved in serious ballet training, I have seen first-hand the way ballet culture affects young girls and their body image. Yes—I do understand that ballet is an aesthetic art form that has to do with how your body looks and performs onstage. However, I also know that the severe body image issues that lead to eating disorders are far too common among preteen ballet dancers, and these issues can and SHOULD be avoided!
Even just today, I was in the girls’ change room before ballet class, and one of my close friends who is only 13 years old, mentioned that she is “too fat” for ballet, and that she aims to drop 30 pounds in the near future in order to meet the weight requirement to make it into one of the world’s best professional ballet companies. This dancer is already in the lower part of her healthy BMI range, which is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height. If she loses 30 pounds, she would become severely and dangerously underweight. However, her statement was met with nods of agreement, and other girls proceeded to point out different physical flaws that they also have to “fix”. Isn’t it frightening that this sort of conversation is considered normal?
In order to raise awareness about this troubling trend, I’ve created Barre None! This blog will share information about body image, eating disorders, and ballet culture. It will also offer preteen dancers strategies to help them develop positive body image. Comments and personal stories from dancers are encouraged and will be warmly received!
If you’re interested in weekly blog posts about body image, eating disorders, and ballet culture, please subscribe to Barre None by entering your email address below! This will notify you each time a new topic is posted. Also, feel free to follow Barre None on Instagram and Twitter @barre_none, or by clicking the Instagram or Twitter icons on the top right corner of this page! Please feel free to share this post, or comment with your thoughts down below as well!
Love,
Barre None
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