Title: A fall from grace? Examining retired ballet dancers’ experiences with body image across the life course
Supervisor: Dr. Erica Bennett
Committee members: Dr. Moss Norman, Dr. Meridith Griffin
Abstract:According to master choreographer George Balanchine, the ‘ideal ballet body’ for women is to be tall and incredibly slender, with small breasts, small hips, long limbs, and a short torso (Langdon, 2012). Due to these narrow body ideals, research suggests that women ballet dancers commonly experience facets of negative body image such as disordered eating (e.g., Abraham, 1996; Thomas et al., 2005), reduced self-esteem (Bettle et al., 2001), and from a young age, body ideal internalization (Pickard, 2013). Yet, what remains unexamined is the stories that ballet dancers tell about the role that the ballet environment has played in shaping their body image, not only during their dance career, but over time post-retirement from dance. As stories communicate the history, culture, and beliefs that constitute our sense of selves (Smith & Sparkes, 2007) and ballet dancers are most accustomed to communicating storied experiences creatively, the purpose of my research is to i.) examine how women’s history with ballet training shapes and constrains their body image over time and following retirement, and ii.) how women ballet retirees story their long-term body image experiences both verbally and through art. Adopting a narrative constructionist approach (Smith & Sparkes, 2009), I will conduct individual life history interviews and body mapping sessions. Then, through narrative thematic analysis (Reissman, 2008), I will identify themes pertaining to how ballet training can shape and constrain one’s body image throughout the life course. The findings from this research may offer practical suggestions for change in Canadian ballet pedagogy to help protect dancers’ long-term body image experiences and may also inform future body-mapping and arts-based research in the field of physical cultural and sport psychology studies.