Turning Pointe: How a New Generation of Dancers Is Saving Ballet from Itself

by Chloe Angyal

An earlier study found that dancers had a 61 percent chance of being injured in an eight-month period and got injured with the same frequency and severity as athletes playing contact sports like football and wrestling.

For boys, this is a common path into ballet: where big sister goes, little brother follows.

There is the famous quote from Balanchine: “Ballet is Woman.” Well, it’s a woman made by a man.

They must also accept that a dancing body has value even if it hasn’t achieved—and cannot achieve, and never will achieve—the “perfect” shape or line.

Ballet should be a place where children learn the power, grace, and beauty of their own bodies, and the value of their own minds and creative energies.