What Ballet Taught Me About Femininity

As an adult who started ballet only 3 years ago, I can say that my interest in this art form is at its peak. I recently bought my pointe shoes on my trip to Melbourne as a promise to myself that I am elevating this art form from "trial" to "passion". Time to be serious!

Looking back on how I first came in contact with the performance dance, I realised that ballet has always been woven into my childhood. All the Disney and Barbie movies that I loved featured beautiful dresses and protaganists as ballerinas. Not to mention, the songs I have played in the state orchestra had also a heavy influence on me. I always loved Tchaikovsky's music, then I began to explore his other compositions and eventually discovered the entire ballet of Swan Lake. As I grew up, body dysmorphia in our society, especially the fashion industry was apparent to me and at a certain point, I felt like the ideal body was a ballerina's. I still think so.

Ballet Body

In the Vaganova Academy, Russia's famous ballet school, ballerinas are told to maintain a certain weight that corresponds to their height. I know this comes across as toxic when put out of context, but this actually helps the dancers. Certain dances require the male character to lift the female up in the air, hence it helps if they were lighter. The Ballerina-Ideal is seen as having a lean and elongated physique, while moving with delicate and petite movements, even though it takes an immense amount of strength, making it look effortless.

Immense Strength

As mentioned above, underneath all the petite and beautiful movements, we have tremendous pressure asserted on the toes of the ballerina as she stands en pointe. For her to get to this stage, she has gone through rigorous training to improve muscular strength, core stability and endurance. When a ballerina jumps, she is expected to jump about 50cm high above the ground, but land softly. I interprete this as, "you can possess vast knowledge and power, but not everyone needs to know". In other words, it does teach you elegance and humility.

The Pas de Deux

In ballet, the pas de deux means a dance duet, involving a male and female character. Often times you will see that the main pas de deux demonstrates romance and intense feelings between the characters, or the male saving the female character. This shows the vulnerability of females, something that is contradictive in our modern society. I learnt that admitting that we are vulnerable allows us to seek for and accept the help that we deserve, though it is a difficult quality that I am still familiarising with.

Maybe I look into things too much and I get too attached very quickly, but isn't that the joy of living? Finding meaning in everything we do, even the small things. I find passion and inspiration in ballet to apply to my daily life, similar to how the "balletcore" aesthetic came about.

I hope this read gave you a peek into the ballet world, and I hope it inspired you.