Chapter 14: Between Sports and Art: Where Aesthetics Meets Athletics: Identifying the Characteristics and the Contributing Environment of Stress Experienced by Classical Ballet Dancers

Classical ballet is an art form that requires serious and intense training and stressful practice (Sekulic et al., 2010). The idealization of the exceptionally thin figure in ballet has been criticized as a component contributing to the high risk of eating disorders (ED) for dancers (Ringham et al., 2006). Research was conducted to investigate the subjective experiences of female ballet dancers who train with the goal of becoming a professional ballet dancer. A semistructured interview was conducted with 7 participants focusing on the types of stress and coping strategies.

The three most common types of stress reported were “stress regarding their weight and body shape,” “stress regarding their relationship with their teachers,” and “stress regarding their performance in dance.” Many different types of coping strategies were adopted. The findings suggest that one of the most effective for the participants was “changing the way they perceive ballet.” With this strategy, the participants changed their thought process from “dancing in order to get approval from others” to “dancing because I love ballet and I want to improve for my own sake.” By changing their cognition, the participants were able to break away from an obsessive practicing routine, the constant fear of mistakes, and the constant fear of disappointing the teacher.

This research suggests that an effective intervention for ballet dancers would include improving communication between teachers and students and encouraging students to replace the destructive thought processes of dancing for the approval of others with a way of thinking that says that you are dancing for your own sake.