Ballerina: Sex, Scandal, and Suffering Behind the Symbol of Perfection

Deirdre Kelly

sept 2012 · Greystone Books Ltd

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Throughout her history, the ballerina has been perceived as the embodiment of beauty and perfection— the feminine ideal. But the reality is another story. From the earliest ballerinas in the 17th century, who often led double lives as concubines, through the poverty of the corps de ballet dancers in the 1800’s and the anorexic and bulimic ballerinas of George Balanchine, starvation and exploitation have plagued ballerinas throughout history.

Using the stories of great dancers such as Anna Pavlova, Isadora Duncan, Suzanne Farrell, Gelsey Kirkland, and Evelyn Hart, Deirdre Kelly exposes the true rigors for women in ballet. She rounds her critique with examples of how the world of ballet is slowly evolving for the better. But to ensure that this most graceful of dance forms survives into the future, she says that the time has come to rethink ballet, to position the ballerina at its center and accord her the respect she deserves.

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Deirdre Kelly is a writer with the Globe and Mail and was the paper's dance critic for fifteen years. Her articles on dance have appeared in Dance Magazine, Vogue, Elle, and The International Dictionary of Ballet, and she is currently the Canadian correspondent for the Dance Gazette. She is the author of Paris Times Eight: Finding Myself in the City of Dreams. She lives in Toronto with her family.