One major issue that I would like to discuss is the scrutiny
of a dancer’s body. After reading
an article entitled, When Words Hurt, I wanted to share my thoughts on the
article. First of all, the article
is talking about how Alastair Macaulay, a New York Times critic, gave an
extremely harsh and unfair review of the New York City Ballet’s
Nutcracker. It wasn’t so much that
he was criticizing the performance itself, but one of the dancers in
particular. His exact words were,
“the Sugar Plum Fairy looked as if she’d eaten one sugar plum too many”. This is a disgusting statement to make,
especially after you see Jenifer Ringer, the dancer who played the sugar plum
fairy. I believe that Alastair
should have kept his comments regarding her body to himself. He should have just critiqued the
performance itself. Dancers have a
difficult enough time as it is trying to have the perfect look and trying to be
the best dancer and have the best technique without people scrutinizing them. For Alastair to make such a gross
comment about her body and nothing about her actual performance makes me sick
and I believe his focus should have been elsewhere. This is a harsh reality that dancers have to face
everyday. You have to look the
part to play the part, even if it means harming your body, which reminds me of
an article I read about a dancer who collapsed and died on a family trip to
Disneyland. This ballet dancer, Heidi Noelle Guenther, was
only 93 lbs. and after doing the autopsy, which was inconclusive, they discovered
that her heart walls were unusually thin.
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together. The girl was obviously so concerned
about her career as a dancer that she did whatever it took to maintain that
image. She was only 22 when she
died and that is way before her time.
My thought on this is that dancing should only be about dancing and
nothing more. Dancing is not like
modeling where you’re expected to be judged solely on your looks, it is about
so much more. It’s about the
performance, the passion, and the movements that emanate from your soul. To me, looks never matter, and the rest
of the world needs to jump on that bandwagon.
Here is a picture of Jenifer Ringer:
Image taken from:
I enjoyed reading your blog post about the issue in the dance world. I believe that people should be happy with the way that they look and shouldn't be affected by some critics words. I would like to see some of those critics do what these dancers do day in and day out. What happened to that girl at disney is tragic and I feel for that family. Those dancers should appreciate what they have instead of damaging their bodies and risking there lives.
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