The reason this tends to be true is that the dance community (dance studios, higher ed., dance companies) tends to reaching out to men because, rightly or wrongly, we believe we need more men in the field.

The outcome of this action is that male students tend to get more attention in class, receive the scholarship or grant, and/or be promoted. A larger question is why, in one of the few fields that is dominated by women (as far as numbers go) do we give more of the opportunities to our male counter-parts? I believe that this trend has had an adverse effect on the true development of women in dance, and unless it changes we will continue to have yet one more field where women are “upstaged”.

At least that’s from a dancer’s point of view.

When people find out I do ballet they are often very surprised as I am not the ‘pink, girly’ type.

Some dancers I know work dancing on cruise ships and the women get paid less than the men and do 1 more show a week than them.
This is what makes me angry.

I relate to all you wrote and must agree with the first response which commented on the anachronistic nature of classical ballet with all its gender bias.

I love ballet but am not a fan of the classical Ballet’s themselves – I keep thinking its such a waste of talent that dancers should spend many years of hard training only to tippy-toe about on stage in the ludicrous role of some silly fairy tale or another. I only go to watch these dancers showcase their dancing talent and I often wish I were a choreographer! ..as its very easy to visualize artistically better ideas on how to showcase such dancing talent – even dancing minus the silly fairy-tale narrative is a good start.

But regarding the thinness of dancers – I recently attended a modern ballet performance – geared towards breaking the classical bias and including all shapes and sizes in the cast. It was fun to watch the men doing all the pas de deux with very creative choreography.
But I very much doubt that any of them could have lifted the heavy girls that swayed and skipped around them. It is a sad truth that dancing (as an art form) doesn’t favor too much earth-bound flesh. The bodies that break through such earth bound limitations are always very lean. It isn’t just a classical ballet prejudice but is a genuine physical and aesthetic limitation. Sadly, the visual of a fleshy body trying to launch itself airborne for example is more comical than inspiring.

As a dancer of 20yrs experience I do not feel at all feminine and girly when I dance – I am a very strong and powerful – I make it look like I am light and whistful but it takes a lot of effort and practise to make it look so easy.

Many of my dancing associates have difficult relationships with food, and it all comes down to ballet.

I disagree with the previous poster – Yes we might do a lot of exercise but once puberty sets in all sorts of thoughts enter a girls head… unless these thoughts are healthy and helped to be moderated then annorexia and bulemia can easily become the natural state for non-dancers – let alone dancers who often are perfectionists by nature and I would argue that many of us a masochists also… so put the two together and you have a perfect recipe for either eating disorder to flourish…

these are my thoughts anyway…

And when girls do leaps, it requires strength too. Those things are NOT easy, I can tell you that. It took me three years to get them down.

Thanks so much for brightening my day, best wishes