Pointe of perfection: ballet’s harsh teaching methods under scrutiny

One student, weighing barely more than 40kg, reported being called a “dancing hamburger”. Another was belittled at the age of 15 because her movements were “not sexy enough”. Others have been forced to dance through their pain.

In Switzerland, hot on the slippered heels of similar scandals in ballet schools across Europe, a spotlight is being shone on the abuse that dancers suffer in training that result in anxiety disorders and anorexia.

An investigation is under way at the Zurich Dance Academy, where its two directors – who trained at the State Ballet School in Berlin, Germany – have been suspended.

The Ballet School Theatre in Basel, too, has dismissed its school director and has closed its entire professional training division as – thanks to its now tattered reputation – it has struggled to retain any public funding.

In 2019, a similar scandal rocked the academy at Vienna’s State Opera in Austria, while Berlin’s State Ballet School – amid charges it was fostering a “culture of fear” – made headlines in 2020 for its treatment of dancers.

The trouble lies in questionable teaching methods and the harsh enforcement of what is generally seen to be the “ideal” ballerina body.

“It’s amazing that all of us in classical dance education have put up with it for so long,” Anna Beke, a lecturer in dance history at the Ballet Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, says. “This is the last chance – something has to happen, otherwise confidence in this art form may be shaken even further.”

“We cannot teach the way we did 10, 20 or 100 years ago,” says

Kathleen McNurney, the president of Switzerland’s Danse Suisse – the Swiss Association of Professional Dance. “There used to be masters and apprentices [and] it was perfectly normal for a star dancer to become a teacher later, even without [teaching] training – but that’s no longer possible.”

Urgently needed changes in the world of dance were the topic of the Dance Education in Transition symposium, held in Munich in November – but why are punishing training methods only being questioned now?

“It’s a generational phenomenon,” says David Russo, a dancer, choreographer and lecturer at the Ballet Academy in Munich. While these problems have existed for a long time, people did not feel ready to talk about them.

“Our students today are millennials [and Gen Z] – this is the Fridays for Future [an environmental activist group] generation, these are people who have an opinion and express it.”

Russo says sporting excellence is possible without needing to do constant practise – his dance academy instead employs teaching methods that focus on the health of the dancers. Many dance academies offer nutritional counselling and physiotherapy, and have people on staff students can turn to if they have problems.

“Keeping the body healthy is now almost a bigger issue for us than training,” says Martina Räther, the acting director of Berlin’s State Ballet School.

Some 2½ years after its scandal, the school has implemented a child protection policy and introduced a code of conduct that everyone must follow.

The idea that a ballerina should float weightlessly across a stage, however, remains. Many dancers will put themselves under extreme pressure to attain the figure they think is needed for this, practising daily for hours in front of mirrors and their competitors.

“Body shaming is undeniably a problem,” Räther says, and finding that balance where everyone is happy can feel like walking a tightrope. “How slim do we have to be? After all, we have to train the students so that they can get a job later on.”

Ballet companies across the world are beginning to accept that they can and should work with many different body shapes. “Even with a few kilos more, with hips and a bust, a ballerina can look weightless,” says McNurney of Danse Suisse, adding that it is only a question of technique.

Controversial Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger took a hard look at the rigours of dance training in her 2019 ballet Tanz. There, a dance lesson on stage resembled a horror show, with naked dancers on bloody pointe shoes showed how they keep themselves trim for peak performance.

In this, as in most of her other productions, the artists endured genuine physical torment for their portrayal.

Classical ballet was developed in the 19th century through the male gaze and has changed very little, which accounts for why such a narrow view of what a ballerina should look like exists.

Holzinger’s work – “How can you stage women’s bodies to satisfy that gaze?” – goes some way to explore that.

Until now, audiences have had certain expectations of what a ballerina should look like, says Räther. “Something has to be done about that.”