Starvation - The Price For Being A Swan Queen?

Since the La Scala 'scandal' many opinions and hypotheses have emerged as to what could drive a dancer to reach such an extreme point in their lives that they would starve themselves to the point of anorexia. This is an extreme and volatile social taboo. Anorexia still brings with it a stigma of shame and is shrouded in secrecy as it's victims hide themselves away from prying eyes in order to be able to fulfil their goal of beauty, yes, beauty. This is the goal of anorexia. The reason people starve themselves to this point is to attain beauty - the perfect body.

Dance and in particular ballet, has long had to battle the associations with eating disorders from binge eating to bulimia and anorexia. Many dancers (not every one) have suffered and do suffer from a less-than-ordinary relationship with food. The expectation on the dancers of today, and in particular the female dancers of today, is to have the perfect line, the perfect weight and a jaw line you could cut cheese with! What is not explained to these dancers when they are young, is the price that one needs to pay in order to attain this unreasonable body-shape goal. Even with the high cardiovascular and muscle workout that dance provides the expectation of female ballet dancers is a bust-less, fragile waif with razor sharp attack and strength that defies the visual. Some dancers are lucky enough too have a metabolism that allows them to eat all around them and still not gain a pound but most people have to be strict with what they eat while trying to get the most energy out of the least food as possible.

Anorexia is not a problem exclusively reserved for the dance world of course. It affects thousands of young women and men across the globe and is becoming increasingly common among young teens. The body-image projected by current society expects a thin, yet toned and beautifully lean body with a big bust and small waist. This is, of course, totally unreasonable to expect, but no matter how hard the magazines that advocate this image run articles countering this advocation, in the same issue they will have high fashion models in an editorial or on a catwalk with their collar bones sticking out. The problem of anorexia is one that all of society is responsible for and highlighting it and dragging it out of the metaphorical closet will force society to deal with this in a more open way. So people, and specifically the dancer at La Scala who 'outed' her situation, did the right thing. If we hide anorexia away it will get worse, if we force it into the cold light of day then we can deal with it and, hopefully, prevent young girls in ballet companies across the globe from going down the slippery slope of extreme attitudes towards food. Institutions that I have had the pleasure of working or studying in all have comprehensive structures in place for dealing with young dancers and professionals who show signs of struggling with food. Unfortunately this is not the norm across the globe, we should advocate and expect this kind of watchdog approach in all dance-orientated environments.