Clothing In The Ballet World

Picture a ballerina in your mind. What is she wearing? What does she look like? Chances are, she is wearing the stereotypical petal pink tutu, pink tights, and shiny pointe shoes, with her hair pulled back into a tight, hairsprayed bun. Chances are, that she is also white. The way that many people picture ballerinas as being white is in fact fairly accurate. The ballet world is, and always has been, dominated by white dancers. Only very recently has this world been penetrated, and the effects have reached far further than just the ballet community. Despite a rocky home life and extremely slim odds, Misty Copeland’s fiery determination and love for ballet prevailed, allowing her not only to become the first African American principal dancer
From then on, her mother never truly provided her kids with a stable home, and went through several husbands, most either being abusive or alcoholic (Copeland 11). Misty explains her dire situation like this, “We were pretty much homeless, and we were living in a motel trying to scrape up enough money just to go to the corner store and get a cup of noodle soup to eat. It was probably just the worst time in my childhood when ballet found me” (Tan). Because her homelife was so turbulent and unpredictable, ballet became her sanctuary, an escape from reality. She developed an undying love for the art form because it was one of the few things that she could count on in her life, and she could use it as a way to temporarily lift the crushing weight of poverty from her shoulders. Her deeply rooted love for ballet is one of the characteristics that lead her to success because her passion manifested itself through her movement and made her stand out from other dancers. Another one of her qualities that helped her succeed was was her fierce drive and determination. This is
George Balanchine, who is seen as one of the greatest choreographers in the history of ballet, immigrated to the United States from Europe in 1993 (ABT.org). He established the ideal “ballet body”, which was a must for all dancers wishing to dance with professional companies. “He [Balanchine] liked to see bones. He liked to see ribs. He liked hyperextension and strength that was mechanical yet lithe. It is Balanchine’s obsession with this impossible “structure” that is often blamed for the destructive eating and body disorders that plague the dance world”