Blog 1 ｜ Fri 28 June

As my Project is getting more and more developed and I’m about to move into practice, I’m feeling a lot of anxiety and stress in my psyche, part of which comes from the pressure I feel when I’m driving a project, but a lot of the anxiety that’s holding me back seems to come from the damage I’ve done from past ballet experiences.

So I decided to give myself a two-week break and started seeing a therapist and reading books to try and adjust my mindset as quickly as possible. The psychological damage from my past experiences didn’t hit me until five years after I had stopped dancing, and as I struggled with this psychological torment, I wondered how many dancers were suffering alone at this time? And I wonder how many dancers are still unaware of the challenges they are about to face. Maybe that’s why I’m doing this project, not to change most of the rules, but to help as many people as I can.

Blog2 ｜Fri 5 July

In my recent research I have been following the words of Dance Psychologist Dr Peter Lovatt, who points out directly that perfectionism is the devil in ballet, and that when we blindly pursue the ultimate slim but powerful body and perfect technique out of perfectionism, the culture of ballet will be gradually destroyed in the process. The dancers will also be hindered in the sustainable development of the body and cause anxiety, lack of confidence, distortion and other psychological problems.

Blog 3｜Fri 12 July

I am looking for information that will help me to create a questionnaire for my Intervention with ballet dancers, I will divide the survey into a general survey and an in-depth survey.

The general survey will involve a large group of people, collecting a wide range of professional ballet dancers’ current approximate physical condition, with the aim of collecting data on a large scale and updating the current status of body image requirements in the ballet industry in the country. The questionnaire in the general survey will be expected to be completed in 5-7 minutes, in order to ensure that accurate information can still be collected with a small number of questions, I have read the following literature and drawn on the survey methodology.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3435916/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2530926/

Based on the logic of the Female Athlete Triad in the literature, I have learnt that eating disorders, menstrual irregularities and osteoporosis are common symptoms in young female athletes, and that these three symptoms are closely related and contribute to the psychological problems of dancers, so I have decided to approach the background research and intervention from this perspective.

The general questionnaire will include:

1. Basic information (gender, age, height, weight, dance years)
2. Physical condition: menstruation, whether they have ever had a broken bone,
3. Dietary status: whether dieting, skipping staple foods, binge eating, hyperventilating, ingesting diet pills

References：Healthy dieting is considered a modest lowering of daily calories, while harmful dieting or disordered eating includes restrictive behaviors, such as fasting, skipping meals, use of diet pills or laxatives, and binging and purging.^11,108 Some athletes practice what has been called dietary restraint, an intent to limit food intake, regardless of how successful it is in execution.¹¹

References：Disordered eating associated with low energy availability also has serious psychological ramifications, including depression, low self-esteem, and various anxiety disorders.⁷³ It can be a slippery slope, leading to body image issues and severe eating disorders.¹¹⁶ A 2011 meta-analysis examined outcomes in patients with AN during 166 642 person years, BN during 32 798 person years, and EDNOS during 22 644 person years.⁶ There was an increased mortality rate among women with disordered eating, especially associated with AN. The standardized mortality ratios were 5.86 for AN, 1.93 for BN, and 1.92 for EDNOS; 20% of those with AN who died had committed suicide.⁶

5.Professional support: availability of health care professionals, psychotherapists and dieticians in the team

References：Support from a primary care and/or sports physician, as well as a nutritionist or dietitian, psychiatrist or therapist, the team coach, and family members, is extremely important throughout the rehabilitation process.

References：Many have placed blame on the coach, who often fails to teach athletes about healthy dieting or cultivates an environment in which weight loss is encouraged regardless of the methods employed to attain it.

Blog 4｜Wed 17 July

This week I’m going to start building my network, I have a lot of connections in the ballet industry but out of some weird mental block I’ve been afraid to contact them, but I guess the day is going to come sooner or later so I should start by making a list of people I’d like to be able to interview:

• Chen zhenwei—— principal dancer of NewYork city ballet
• Chen yunshi —— HongKong Ballet company
• Yu hang —— Soloist dancer of Royal ballet
• Liu zheyu —— Tianjin ballet company
• Liu yan —— Graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and currently working as a professor in the Department of Dance, School of Music, South China Normal University.
• Zhang yuexin——Graduated from Beijing Dance Academy, currently working as a ballet professor in the Department of Dance, Conservatory of Music, South China Normal University.
• Tang Gege – Vice President of Guangdong Dancers Association, graduated from Beijing Dance Academy

TBC……

Blog 5 | Thu 18 July

• Project research questions: “How can the Chinese ballet industry improve unhealthy body standards and promote a healthier, more inclusive body image for dancers?”
• Questionnaire research question: For the dancers’ point of view, what are the dangers of unscientific body image standards in China’s dance industry to dancers in terms of physical, psychological and sustainable development?
• Target group: Individuals who are or have been recognised as professional dancers and are at least 18 years old.
• Questionnaire content:
  • Physical Health: The questions in the questionnaire about the dancer’s physical health were based on the article ‘The Female Athlete Triad’ . The Athlete Triad refers to three associated health problems that female athletes/dancers in aesthetic sports often suffer from: menstrual disorders, osteoporosis, and eating disorders, which often lead to other health problems such as reduced immunity, osteoporosis, bone fractures, muscle maintenance, repair of damaged tissues and ability to recover from injuries and illnesses, depression, low self-esteem and a variety of anxiety disorders, and cardiovascular disease.

The prevalence of menstrual irregularities, disordered eating, and low BMD varies widely in the general population and in the athletic community. In women who participate in sports that emphasize aesthetics or leanness, such as ballet or running, the prevalence of secondary amenorrhea can be as high as 69%, compared with 2% to 5% in the general population.

• • Mental health: Mental health is closely related to the dancers‘ environment and their personal life and diet, so in developing the questionnaire I considered the dancers’ internal emotions and mental health problems they are likely to face in terms of the social environment, the school and work environment, the family environment, and their personal diet. For example, eating disorders are most likely to cause dancers to be moody and anxious; the body image requirements of dance schools may lead to low self-esteem, self-doubt, stress and insomnia.
  • Sustainability: The main focus was on whether the measures taken to achieve body image standards during the period of being a professional dancer had an impact on the development of the dancer’s dance career or on the dancer’s life after retirement.
  • Dancers‘ views: The main focus is to collect dancers’ personal views on the current body image requirements in the Chinese dance industry.

Blog 6 | Thu 25th July

The questionnaire collected data from 120 professional dancers, the following documents are the detailed data information：

At the same time, I used the cross-comparison method to cross-reference the data from the male and female dancers and obtained the following interesting results：

Comparative analysis of the results of the dancers’ physical and mental health survey report

1. demographic characteristics:
   (1) Sample size: the sample size of female dancers (97) is more than four times as large as that of male dancers (22), suggesting that the ballet community is predominantly female.
   (2) Height and weight: The height of female dancers is mainly concentrated in 160-169cm (78.35%), and their weight is concentrated in 41-50kg (71.14%), while male dancers are relatively scattered, with 54.55% of male dancers in the 170-179cm height band and 40.91% in the 61-65kg weight band, suggesting that the This indicates that the industry may be relatively lax in its standards for male dancers, or that male dancers have different degrees of pursuit of body standards.
2. Physical and mental health conditions:
   (1) Menstrual problems: 50.52% of female dancers had menstrual problems during their dance career, suggesting that female dancers are more susceptible to physiological problems due to the influence of body standards.
   (2) Psychological problems: the proportion of female dancers who had mental health problems (low mood, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, etc.) during their dance career was 55.67%, compared with 22.73% for male dancers, and more than 50% of male dancers said they were not affected by the psychological effect of body size standards. It suggests that the psychological effect of body size standards on female dancers is greater, and side by side, it suggests that body size standards are more demanding on female dancers.
   (3) Dieting behaviour: a higher proportion of female dancers adopted unhealthy dieting behaviours during their dance career (67.01%), compared with 31.82% of male dancers, suggesting that female dancers are under more pressure to pursue body image standards and are more prone to take extreme measures.
   (4) Attitudes towards body image standards: Although both male and female dancers believe that the current industry body image standards are unscientific (65.98% of females compared to 59.09% of males), female dancers may have a higher level of awareness of the unscientific nature of this.
3. Sources of body image stress:

• Both male and female dancers perceived self-demand as a major source of body image stress. However, female dancers tended to rank ‘selection system of schools and dance companies and teachers’ requirements’ as the second main source (25.33%), while male dancers ranked “competition with colleagues” as the second main source (28.57%). This suggests that female dancers are more likely to be restricted and influenced by industry standards and selection systems.

Summary Conclusions:

• The prevalence of unscientific body image standards in the ballet industry has a negative impact on the physical and mental health of dancers.
• Female dancers are more likely to be affected by unscientific body standards, they face greater pressure in the pursuit of an ideal body, and they are more likely to adopt unhealthy ways

Blog 7 | Thu 01 Aug

This week my main focus was on designing an intervention for the dancers and making a list of dancers to contact. Considering that intervening with the ballet dancers‘ eating habits and weight would take a long time and may affect the dancers’ daily work, I have adopted an informational intervention for the dancers where I will share the data collected with the ballet dancers and allow them to express their views.

The core of the informational intervention is to provide information that will allow the dancers to understand the problem and lead them to reflect and make changes.

I hope that by sharing data as an informative intervention, dancers will become aware:

1. The dance industry has a problem with body image standards
2. What the impact of unscientific body standards can be
3. Many dancers face similar dilemmas

This transfer of information can help the dancer:

1. Recognise that a problem exists
2. Understand that they are not alone
3. Think about how to make a difference within their current abilities

Information interventions actually elicit other interventions for the dancer at the same time:

1. Behavioural interventions: Encourage dancers to change their behaviour, e.g. change eating habits, reduce unhealthy weight loss behaviours, etc.
2. Psychological interventions: Helping dancers to recognise stress and psychological problems and to seek help.

I also plan to produce a mini-documentary of the dancers’ interviews, which will serve as a powerful source of material for subsequent interventions with audiences and with industry leaders.

Blog 8 ｜ Thu 08 Aug

The main thing I did this week was to start contacting relevant stakeholders, mainly focusing on the dancers, but also some of them are former dancers who are also current leaders in the industry, here is a list of the ones I interviewed:

1. Alina Zhantieva
   • Graduated from the Russian Ballet School, now works at the Russian Bolshoi Theatre.
2. Ma Faxing
   • Attached to Guangzhou Ballet and Dance Academy, graduated from the Ballet Department of Beijing Dance Academy
3. Liu Yu
   • Russian Ballet and Dance Academy
4. Xiaoxiao
   • Graduated from the Ballet Department of the Shenzhen Art Academy and worked at the Chongqing Ballet after graduation
5. lulu
   • Dance Department of South China University of Technology, currently studying in the Department of Modern Dance of Dankook University in Korea for her postgraduate and doctoral studies.
6. daney
   • Guangdong Academy of Arts

Below is the dancer interview/intervention plan:

Blog 9 ｜Fri 16 Aug

just finished the draft of the research report for unit 3, I’m thinking about a better way to show the information I collocated from research and intervention in the report.

Blog10 ｜ Wed 21 Aug

Today’s students and dancers are being bombarded with the image of dancers that are not their age but they’re really thin they are constantly controlling themselves because in a ballet class we have to be so focused on etching our bodies to look just the right way that we’re bound to start judging.

Ballet is a physical art form we cannot say that we’re not allowed to have a standard of way the body should look, but I think that we need to set that standard on an individual basis instead of a collective basis because we’re different

We can do a much better job job of making sure that the standards that have
been set don’t ruin the
dancer.
once again ballet can’t survive without the
person the dancer.

Blog10 ｜ Wed 26 Aug

Transcript of an interview with expert Alina Zhantieva

Graduated from: Russian Ballet School

Employment: Currently rehearsal director at the Russian Bolshoi Theatre

Q: What do you think about the fact that more than 60 % of dancers in Chinese dance schools and troupes currently use controlled diets and fasting to achieve body standards?

A: I am surprised about this. Dieting is very harmful to dancers’ body. Because of the amount of exercise dancers do every day, not consuming enough food to supply energy is a drain on the dancer’s body and is undoubtedly dangerous and unhealthy. At the same time not enough food intake will also hinder muscle development, further affecting the dancer’s expression in dance movement, affecting the dance texture and quality.

Q: What do you think about the fact that close to 50 % of the dance schools and companies in China do not have psychologists, nutritionists or rehabilitators? And only 30% of the organisations have psychologists or nutritionists.

A：Professional support is crucial for dancers. Russian dance schools usually have dozens of doctors and dietitians and rehabilitators working with dancers to ensure that every dancer receives guidance and care.

Dancers begin attending dance schools at the age of 9-11 years old, and many dancers are faced with physical growth and weight gain during puberty. This is when a dietitian’s scientifically tailored diet is very much needed to ensure a balance of balanced nutrition and a slimmer figure. Also the presence of a psychologist can help the dancer to share the psychological stress.

Q: The dancers at the Vaganova School of Dance and the Russian School of Dance are notorious for being slim yet possessing great muscular ability, how is this achieved if not through dieting and weight loss?

A:

1. Selection and genetics. Selection at Vaganova or Russian Ballet School is an extremely rigorous affair, we choose the dancers who are best suited to ballet body standards based on their body proportions, muscular qualities, soft openness, music perception, dance expression, as well as their parents’ body proportions and genes. At the same time the Russian genes determine that we are naturally more likely to achieve the conditions of high, slender but good muscular ability, genetic conditions give us an advantage.
2. Complete professional support. With dozens of doctors to serve the dancers, to ensure that the dancers in the case of scientific guidance to keep fit, rather than blindly lose weight.
3. Scientific training. In order for dancers to achieve a truly slim figure, in the first four years of entering the dance school, 90% of the training content is ground training, which ensures that dancers aged 9-14 years of bone development and muscle training, using the correct ground training to ensure that the dancer’s legs are straight as well as the muscle line is elongated rather than blocky. Wait until the dancer’s body is really ready before starting to leave the floor to train in the middle of the section.

Q: Do you think the current body standards in the ballet industry are scientific?

A: Ballet would no longer be ballet if it didn’t meet the traditionally accepted ballet aesthetic body standards. Ballet aesthetic body is a very important part of ballet. (Ballet aesthetic body standard means: long arms, long neck, long legs, small head, overall slenderness, high arches, knee hyperextension)

Q.How do you feel about the increasing number of ballet dancers in American companies who are emphasising more on muscularity rather than slenderness?

A. I still think that all dancers who are not slender and muscular need to be retrained and reshaped. Muscle shape that is lumpy rather than striated is not well trained and can be adjusted by retraining for a longer period of time. A ballet dancer who is slim and strong is certainly better.

I think the image of the ballet dancer must be in line with the image of the main character of the dance, for example, the dance drama ‘Sleeping Beauty’ must be a slender and soft princess, not a strong and powerful princess.

At the same time Alina provided me with a table of body standards at the Moscow Ballet School, which she said every dancer needs to follow, usually by a teacher giving instructions to the dancer, who in turn seeks scientific methods of weight control like a nutritionist doctor.