Ballet.

A grueling sport. The mental and physical strength needed is astounding. Ballet dancers need energy to get through hours of classes and rehearsals. But some ballet schools, such as the St. Petersburg Ballet Academy in Russia, have standards that make it extremely hard to stay strong and energized. They have shocking weight requirements, and to maintain that weight their eating is minimal. These standards can ruin a young dancer’s self-esteem and gives them an unrealistic idea of what their own body should be like.

Are these fit standards for ballet dancers to be put under at such a young age? Is it healthy to have so much pressure about body weight? Do they still find the same enjoyment in dance?

By the age of ten, they are already concerned about gaining too much weight.

The Admission Examinations for ballet schools such as St. Petersburg are dreadfully strict. They have young dancers, around age ten, dance or simply stand in front of the academy’s directors and teachers. But not only that, they are only wearing undergarments. Their bodies are measured to see if they fit the standards, and then they do minimal dancing during that test.

Is this an appropriate exam for such a young girl?

Modern times have brought a new image for dancers. Ballerina’s in the 1930’s and 40’s were thin, but always healthy looking. Dancer’s nowadays have a more skeletal and fragile frame. But this isn’t always their choice. Prestigious ballet companies put stress on dancers to stay thin.

It is not an uncommon event for a dancer to walk into a ballet class and find a scale placed in the center of the room. Unannounced weight exams take place every once in a while in places such as the American Ballet Theater. But they do not inform the dancers when they will be weighed. “A forewarned dancer is a forestarved dancer,” says a former dancer of the ABT. They record the weights, and sometimes even read them aloud to the class. Humiliation is common in the ballet world.

Ballerina’s self-esteem is low, in most part because of the hateful comments and a name-calling from their teachers. In a world where girls dream of being a princess, a swan, a fairy, and more, is this a fair way to let them live their dreams?

But a dancer will live through the pain and the harsh comments for one moment on stage. Members of a company will do virtually anything for their directors and to land a good role in a ballet. But these standards are not healthy, and it isn’t fair to beat their self- esteem down to the bare roots. There’s a fine line between strict and hateful. There’s a fine line between good discipline and bad training environments. There’s a fine line between the real and ideal life of a ballerina.

Ballet, in my opinion, is the most beautiful thing in our world that is manifested by man. It has the ability to make young women and men look like they are defying gravity, and it looks effortless. But when companies are shedding dancers and not hiring them because of their weight, this fairytale land turns into a cynical place.

Altynai Asylmuratova, the artistic director of the St. Petersburg Ballet Academy, knows exactly what she wants from her dancers. “The ideal image for a ballerina is a small head, long neck, long arms, long legs. She must have a slender figure and be feminine,” she says. Directors and teachers say that a dancer needs to be thin a feminine to be a ballet dancer. Of course there is always truth in these statements. A dancer is thinner because of all the calories they burn and the exercise they endure. But they lose enough weight already just by dancing six days a week. Pressuring them to lose weight, and to even scare some into bulimia, is not fair.

Dancing, a sport that people devote their lives to, goes too far back into history and requires too much mental and physical strength to push dancers into these situations.

A four-foot dancer at the St. Petersburg Ballet Academy is required to be around 46 pounds. An average four-foot child should be 60-80 pounds.

Think about it.