Ballet parents, does this worry you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:S/o would you send your “chubby” kid to ballet classes?

Excuse the “chubby” word but she (like me) is not a naturally thin person. She is little but really wants to take ballet. I’m a bit worried it’s going to scar her for life. The other little girls in the class are rather thin.

She does not care - just wants a tutu and to twirl.

Let your child go and twirl and have fun wearing a tutu. Let her enjoy ballet. Go check out a few schools in your area and find one you are comfortable with. Look for one with girls of different sizes but I doubt it will be an issue. You can probably stay for the class and hear what the teacher is saying and the other kids are saying.

The body issues can be real but are more likely to occur at more serious schools then the Bella Ballerina franchised studio your child is likely to attend or when your child is far more advanced the twirling in a tutu.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My aunt was a professional ballerina, and danced with a company in Europe for a long time. Now she is 68 and her body is wrecked. Her feet are destroyed and she can't even walk in bare feet or socks without pain, and has to have supportive shoes all the time. She has osteoporosis. She openly speaks about the culture of eating disorders, and the insane things she did along with dancers in her company to stay thin, and she admits that this has destroyed her health permanently.

And she still has eating issues.

Yes, that can happen. The exact same thing can also be said of Olympic gymnasts, professional football players, marathon runners, and anyone else who has overuse injuries and lasting consequences from playing sports as their career. So it's a good thing we're not talking about professional athletes here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My aunt was a professional ballerina, and danced with a company in Europe for a long time. Now she is 68 and her body is wrecked. Her feet are destroyed and she can't even walk in bare feet or socks without pain, and has to have supportive shoes all the time. She has osteoporosis. She openly speaks about the culture of eating disorders, and the insane things she did along with dancers in her company to stay thin, and she admits that this has destroyed her health permanently.

And she still has eating issues.

Yes, that can happen. The exact same thing can also be said of Olympic gymnasts, professional football players, marathon runners, and anyone else who has overuse injuries and lasting consequences from playing sports as their career. So it's a good thing we're not talking about professional athletes here.

Or members of the Military who retire after 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+100 Have known several young ladies with eating disorders. Among them, 1 did ballet. 2 did equestrian. 1 swimmer. 1 runner. A few did no sports or dance at all. They all could be described as "higher-SES, type A, perfectionist, competitive girls." I'd add anxiety prone.

Anonymous wrote:Ballet has more than its fair share of higher-SES, type A, perfectionist, competitive girls. Just like gymnastics, where 100% attention to detail is required, and minute, particular movements are practiced for hours and hours every day.

I’d like to see the eating disorder stats for ballet vs gymnastics, diving and long-distance running. I bet it’s a lot closer.

+1

I am a former competitive equestrian and this was my experience as well. There are many ways to ride, even at high levels, and not deal directly with this, which is what I had and what I've found for my kids, but the top equitation teacher is famous for making comments about riders bodies. I'm not excusing it in any form, but I think if you're aware of it you can make smart choices with coaches, etc. It doesn't mean no girl should do ballet (or any of these other sports).

[Anonymous]

The body issues can be real but are more likely to occur at more serious schools then the Bella Ballerina franchised studio your child is likely to attend or when your child is far more advanced the twirling in a tutu.



The franchise studios go too far in the opposite direction. Their are plenty of kind, well trained, neighborhood studios that will not put appearance pressure on the kids.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, but those comparing high level ballet to high level baseball or riding—this is crazy. Friends of mine who danced in high school told me they’d been on diets since age 8. That is NOT pro. That’s a culture of thinness starting from almost the very beginning.

That obsession with thinness simply does not exist in the same way for riders or lax players or field hockey players at young ages (the only sport I have direct experience with).

[Anonymous]

DS 7 year old friend just tried out for travel soccer with the promise that the farthest away the games would be is 1 hour. A 7 year old with 3 practices a week and a game an hour away each week.

Yeah, it might not be dieting at 8 but it is pretty similar.

For every kid starting travel at 7, or dieting at 8, there is a kid playing rec and another kid who dropped out. The kids going to Bella or the neighborhood ballet school are not going to be dieting at 8 and there are probably far more kids in those programs then serious ballet school that are worried about their weight.

So for the kids who want to learn a little bit and twirl around in a tutu, there is probably little risk. For the more serious student, parents need to be aware and focused on what their kid is doing.

[Anonymous]

Aside from MYB, what other serious ballet schools in the region promote a healthy body image? My daughter is serious about ballet, but likes modern too.

[Anonymous]

Three soccer practices a week will not kill you or give you lifelong health issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:S/o would you send your “chubby” kid to ballet classes?

Excuse the “chubby” word but she (like me) is not a naturally thin person. She is little but really wants to take ballet. I’m a bit worried it’s going to scar her for life. The other little girls in the class are rather thin.

She does not care - just wants a tutu and to twirl.

My DD wanted to take ballet at 4 so I cringed and signed her up. She had fun but wasn’t interested in any more sessions. I’m glad I let her try and make her own decision about it so I’d find a laid back studio and let your DD give it a try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three soccer practices a week will not kill you or give you lifelong health issues.

You have not looked at some of the concussion studies have you? Soccer is one of the high risk sports. Not to mention the problems that come from the knee and ankle injuries that players are having due to playing too much at an early age. Every sport has its risk. Soccer has a higher incidence of concussion related injuries and injuries that can leave a young person with early arthritis and the like from over training. It might be different then an eating disorder, but they are also serious.

Parents with kids in travel soccer need to be looking for programs where the coaches are worried about the kids well fare, teaching proper heading techniques, and doing their best to reduce the likelihood of injuries. That is harder then one would think because the travel teams Coaches make their money by coaching winning teams and the Coaches, and parents, take it very seriously.

The reality is that any sport that is played with any degree of seriousness is a massive time commitment for parent and child and can easily lead to a variety of health injuries that the parents need to be keeping an eye out for. And the earlier we push kids into a year round sport, and ballet is very much a sport with all of the physical demands, the more likely it is the kids are going to have life long health impacts from said sport.

I think that it is crazy that kids under high school are allowed to head a ball in soccer, the necks cannot handle the weight and force safely which increases the likelihood of concussion, kids are allowed to check in hockey, or play tackle football before high school. Those are all high risk activities for bodies that are not ready for them. I also think that it is crazy that body types and issues are being pushed on 8 year olds in ballet.

[Anonymous]

I have a DD who train to the professional level and Ballet but did end up moving on little while after high school. As she rose in the ranks the pressure regarding weight increased. I think most studios are conscientious about the whole weight issue while the children are young through about high school. It is then that the girls do you start sensing pressure, mostly from former professional ballet dancers, who are now teachers, both men and women, who do make sometimes out right comments about weight. There are definitely plenty of dancers with eating disorders but there are also just as many swimmers, equestrian riders and girls and boys out in the general population who have issues.

Ballet definitely encourages perfectionistic behavior but some kids are really drawn to it and it is a beautiful art form. Our daughter did not have an eating disorder and gained a ton of discipline which is carrying over now into her scholastic life more than we ever imagined it would. It did take a fair amount of monitoring and frank discussion on our part about eating and what it means to be healthy.

[Anonymous]

I like what I’ve seen at BalletNova so far, my DD is 12 and has been there for 6 years.

[Anonymous]

^^^ oops, in response to 23:18

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I have a DD who train to the professional level and Ballet but did end up moving on little while after high school. As she rose in the ranks the pressure regarding weight increased. I think most studios are conscientious about the whole weight issue while the children are young through about high school. It is then that the girls do you start sensing pressure, mostly from former professional ballet dancers, who are now teachers, both men and women, who do make sometimes out right comments about weight. There are definitely plenty of dancers with eating disorders but there are also just as many swimmers, equestrian riders and girls and boys out in the general population who have issues.

Ballet definitely encourages perfectionistic behavior but some kids are really drawn to it and it is a beautiful art form. Our daughter did not have an eating disorder and gained a ton of discipline which is carrying over now into her scholastic life more than we ever imagined it would. It did take a fair amount of monitoring and frank discussion on our part about eating and what it means to be healthy.

This is demonstrably untrue.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16715486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25675418/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22379716/