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bodyimageindance · 6 years ago

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Hyla’s Story:

In my research, I have come to find some interesting conclusions. For starters the dance world, while very small, can also be seen as very large and there is a lot of variety within it. There are a lot of different styles of dance such as ballet, tap, jazz, modern, and hip hop to name a few. While majority of choreographers are looking for a slimmer figured dancer, you don’t have to be stick thin to be successful in a lot of dance styles. The main style that has a very specific dancer body is ballet. Paul Vasterling Artistic Director of Nashville Ballet tells Pointe Magazine,“really good dancers can make you forget that they might not have an ideal body” (pointemagazine.com). It’s interesting to look at what different choreographers seek from a dancers facility.

Hyla, age nineteen is a student at Marymount. She is a part of the Dance Department here on campus. She sat down with me to discuss her body and how she feels as a dancer. When asked if she feels she fits the description of a dancer body, she proceeded to answer, “no” but then followed up with, “but I feel like majority of girls in the dance world do not. I’m not looking to be a ballerina. So I try to remind myself that that is not my path and I don’t need to fit that specific mold to be successful.” Everyone has a different body type and all successful dancers use their body to their advantage. So it’s interesting that many dancers still struggle with wanting to have the “perfect body”. When asked if she could change anything about her body, she responded with, “I wish that I was taller and thinner.” I then followed up with asking if she feels this would improve her dancing. To which she answered, “yes. I think it would make me more confident which in itself would improve my dancing. However being taller is something that is out of my control. Which almost makes it more annoying that I want it, because I am done growing. So there is absolutely no way I will be getting taller.”

As I did more research, I came to find that the only people who listed a specific body type were in the ballet world. While the vast majority of dancers and choreographers not in the ballet world described their ideal dancer as slim, those in the ballet world described their body type more specifically. They all based their ideal body off of that of Balanchine’s, who many people blame for the body dysmorphia complex that a lot of dancers experience. Balanchine believed the ideal dancer is, “very lean with long legs and arms, small hips, short torso, small ribcage, and long neck” (Jenna Siroky.com). However, these are anatomical features that many people cannot control. Which brings us into genetics. The ideal ballet body has turned into something that is either in your genes or out of the question for you. Many dancers who are not in the ballet world still struggle with this idea of having the perfect body because ballet is the foundation of dance. Whether you want to pursue it or not, it is your technical base. So it’s hard for dancers to understand that you don’t have to have that facility to be successful in your dance path.

The three images I attached to my story show three different dancers all performing the same jump. This jump has many different names, but is most commonly referred to as either a ring jump or fire bird. All three of these dancers shown are doing the jump correctly, yet it looks different on each of them. This is because they all have a different facility. The first dancer is very petite and little. The second dancer has a longer torso and shorter legs. While the third dancer is quite muscular. These three photographs demonstrate that sometimes it comes down to what you want to see and your preference of what you want your dancers to look like.

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