Ballet does not exist in a vacuum. It is a laboratory of femaleness—a test-tube world in the middle of modern New York or London or Paris in which traditional femininity is exaggerated. The traits ballet takes to an extreme—the beauty, the thinness, the stoicism and silence and submission—are valued in girls and women everywhere. By excavating the psyche of a dancer, we can understand the contradictions and challenges of being a woman today.
