Ballerinas Are Athletes, Too

When I walked into my first ballet class, I was expecting it to be easy. I was not expecting the workout I received and I did not anticipate the sore muscles which followed. I was surprised at how something that looked so effortless could be so demanding on one’s body. I quickly learned otherwise.

Although dance is not categorized as a sport but rather as an art form, ballerinas and their male counterparts are athletes. Few non-dancers understand the level of athleticism required to be a professional ballet dancer. Multiple myths suggesting simplicity surround ballet, perhaps as a result of the glittery costumes, stage makeup, and tights. However, a normal workday for a professional dancer, occurring 6 days per week, includes 10 hours of intense exercise, including evening performances. Outside work hours, dancers still make time to go to the gym and work on their upper body strength or do yoga and cardiovascular exercises to keep up their flexibility, strength, and endurance. It takes 8-10 years of ballet training before one can become a professional, and even then dance jobs are scarce, as the field is wildly competitive just like that of professional sports careers. Most hopefuls will never achieve a career in dance because of the required flexibility, strength, agility, and other abilities which are expected of a dancer.

Ballet is generally regarded as a girl’s activity, and football as a boy’s, but a fact many people find surprising is that football and ballet share multiple similarities. Many of the same muscle groups and skills used in football are also used in ballet. Both activities require finesse, strength, and balance, and similar injuries can be found in both football players and ballet dancers. Numerous football players take ballet classes in order to improve their skills and their sports performance, as cross-training in dance is proven to benefit those in sports. Professional dancers burn almost the same number of calories per hour as football players and retire around the same age. Ballet dancers practice around 7.5 hours per day, and football players practice 2-8 hours per day. Why do these facts so astonish, so shock, so many people? Ballet and football are much more similar, as far as athleticism goes, than most spectators think.

In recent years, the country has begun to see an increase in professional categorization of ballerinas as athletes. For example, the athletic clothing brand Puma recently began a relationship with the New York City Ballet as their official activewear partner, providing athletic rehearsal clothing for the dancers and featuring them in their advertisement campaigns. Puma officially referred to the New York City ballerinas as “phenomenal,” “truly top athletes.” In addition to Puma’s recognition of ballet’s athleticism, Under Armour also has a ballerina ambassador: American Ballet Theatre dancer Misty Copeland, who has represented the popular athletic wear brand since 2014.

Dance is an art form. Dancers have to make difficult and painful things look easy, requiring even more strength and endurance, which is why so few people recognize them as the athletes they are. Although a male dancer is lifting another human above his head with one arm, he has to smile. He can’t show on his face how difficult his job is, because he is performing. A dancer’s every muscle may be throbbing, he may be exhausted on the brink of collapse, and sweat might be dripping down his face and into his eyes, but still he must convey a sense of effortlessness, serenity, and grace. Dancers, unlike sports players, have to act and remain in character even while working so physically hard.

When I say the word ‘ballerina’ what image comes to mind? Immediately you think of a skinny Barbie doll in a frilly pink tutu, tiara, and delicate satin pointe shoes. This is a misleading representation. Yes, ballerinas are thin—mainly because their lifestyle requires them to be in peak shape—and yes, ballerinas are often costumed as princesses or fairies—mainly because the aforementioned represent important roles in several different ballets—but pointe shoes are not at all the delicate fashion statement which society thinks they are.  Made of leather, plastic, cardstock, and burlap and wrapped in satin or canvas, pointe shoes result in blisters, bunions, and bleeding as ballerinas are forced to support their entire body weight on the tips of their toes and balance only on the flat tip of their shoes. Unsurprisingly, the average ballet dancer’s pain threshold has been scientifically proven to be three times higher than that of an average non-dancer. The pleasant and carefree façade which dancers place over their exertion and pain is what has developed the cultural misrepresentation of ballet.

If more people were exposed to the truth about how challenging ballet is, dancers would see more respect for their profession. Although they work just as hard, if not sometimes harder, than professional sports players, ballet dancers are paid 55 times less than the average NFL player. Because of this, they often have to work an extra job in addition to their 10 hours of dance per day, just to make ends meet. If more people were exposed to the truth about how challenging ballet is, less male dancers would be bullied and beaten down because of their hobby. If boys in football are celebrated, then why can’t boys in ballet be, too? In both sports, the men have to wear tight pants—I don’t see much of a difference between the two. In football, men catch balls; in ballet, men catch women. Both are admirable ways to spend one’s time, and both should be respected as such.

Dance is an art form, yes, but no one should ever be able to say that dance is not hard, or that ballerinas and male ballet dancers are not athletes. They are athletes just as football, basketball, and baseball players are athletes, and hopefully more of society will begin to treat these groups more equally.