IN A previous entry, a reader discussed the athletic, manly appearance of ballerinas performing The Nutcracker. Another reader, Rita Jane, here explains how American ballet has embraced technical mastery, a development evident in musical training as well. Her comment includes video clips in which you can see the difference between the athleticism of American ballerinas and dancers who follow an older European style.

Rita Jane writes:

Ballet has changed radically in the last 50 or so years. It has become much more athletic, and the sheer physical strength required to perform a ballerina’s steps is much, much greater. Larger muscles and less body fat (much easier to jump high if you have less weight to make airborne) are an inevitable result of this choreography. Being a ballerina has always been rigorous, but your average ballerina today is both an artist and an athlete on the level of your average Olympian or NFL player. Consider, for instance, Odile’s 32 fouettes in Swan Lake. (See here.) This used
to be a virtuoso’s move, one only the greatest, most seasoned dancers could attempt to perform. Now any 16 year old in a serious ballet school can manage it. Jumps are also higher and more frequent. Lifts are higher, more daring, and more frequent, which  means women need to be lighter to lessen the very real physical strain this puts on their male partners. Much of this stems from the influence of George Balanchine, who promoted a much more athletic and aerobic ballet style. Balanchine also favored extremely thin dancers, and it is impossible to overstate his influence on the aesthetics of American ballet. For the purposes of my comparison, it’s also worth watching these excepts from the Balanchine ballet Allegro Brillante. (See here.) 
 
The Royal Danish Ballet has preserved a much older style of ballet that is much less athletic and danced lower to the ground, for both men and women. Compare the physique of Gillian Murphy (see video above), on the the principal dancers in one of the best American ballet companies with these dancers of the Royal Danish Ballet. Note that both the men AND the women are significantly heavier (not fat, just clearly bigger and lacking the hyper-toned, very lean look). Note also how much lower the men jump. The whole style is radically different.  Even the costumes are of a more antiquated style, with longer, fuller skirts on the women, and with the skirt cut to emphasize the hips, rather than waist.
 
 Of course, due to pointework, one significant aspect of gender differentiation, the fact that women are so much shorter than men, will always be minimized. If I go en pointe, I go from 5’2″ to 5’9″,
rivaling many men in height, and topping my husband by 2″. The increased use of pointework due to improved training, shoes and changes in dance style means women now spend much of a show en pointe, as opposed to only going en pointe to emphasize particularly impressive steps as was common in the earlier parts of the twentieth century. Note that the Danish ballerinas spend far less time en pointe than their American counterparts. The increased pointework also requires women to remain extremely thin–you aren’t naturally capable of supporting your whole body weight on one toe, and it is extremely difficult. Injuries are rampant, it destroys the feet of dancers, and an extra 20 pounds will do that damage much faster.
 
This race to technical mastery has happened in other arts as well. My husband, a classically trained pianist, tells me that every 16 year old studying in a serious, preprofessional conservatory can now play piano and violin works that were once only attempted at the peaks of their careers. Make no mistake, these are incredibly difficult pieces, technically, artistically, even physically, and yet every teenager at Julliard can play them, just as every teenaged girl at the School of American Ballet can turn 32 fouettes without breaking a sweat. Much artistry is lost in this race for technical perfection.

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