Ballet is always going to hurt...”: attitudes surrounding female ballet dancers dancing in pain

Abstract

While female dancers performing classical ballet are expected to present an image of effortless grace, the actuality is often a much more painful experience. The current study examines questions related to this experience: What do dancers understand pain to be; why do they dance in pain; when should they stop dancing in pain; and how do they ultimately communicate this pain to others? This ethnographic research collects the views of current dancers, ex-dancers, dance teachers, choreographers, and artistic directors through in-depth individual interviews. The collected interviews are analyzed using Foucauldian perspectives of discipline, social hierarchies, power, knowledge, and discourse, along with feminist theory, prevalent physiological conceptions of pain, and contemporary theories of dance pedagogy, ethnography and subjectivity. It is revealed through the interviews that pain is often a part of the dancer’s life, a close acquaintance constantly watching over the dancer’s shoulder. Pain is also seen to be instigated, influenced, and reinforced by the aesthetics, technique, institutions, and culture of ballet. The collected narratives demonstrate the highly subjective nature of pain, and that the balletic environment still embrace a “no pain, no gain” mentality.