From ballet, to modern, to performance art, the trajectory of the dancer’s career changes drastically. Every dancer desires a long, healthy, and successful performance career. Here is how you can change that course for yourself as a dancer and create your own desired future.
In the ballet world, there is a strict trajectory about the path of a performer. The career of the ballet dancer typically goes like this: begin your dance training at a very young age, as young as three. Increase your dance training with age, and ideally be in a full-time dance program by age fourteen. By age seventeen, start an apprenticeship with a dance company. By nineteen, join the dance company. Retire from performing at age thirty. This is when you go into teaching for the rest of your life. Within a ballet company, there are strict rankings ranging from soloist to corps de ballet, and most ballet dancers never make it out of the corps as a background prop.
Specific to ballet, it’s true that dancers tend to start young and retire young. This unwritten rule comes from two reasons. The first reason is the ballet culture. The ballet world values competitiveness and youth. There is the idea of a Balanchine Ballerina. This was coined by George Balanchine who founded most of the New York City Ballet’s repertoire, and heavily influenced the ballet world. He stated that a ballet dancer must be “young and wide eyed.” This first reason is a preference that has no practical ties to dance, as it doesn’t affect the quality of movement.
The second reason ballerinas tend to retire young is from the toll it takes on your body and mind. Ballet is extremely tough on the body, with movements that are unnatural to the human body. Due to demanding training, most ballet dancers burn out at a young age, physically and mentally. Due to the Balanchine legacy, the competitiveness and narrow physical requirements of ballet leads to injury. The movements of ballet itself are hard on muscles and ligaments, even when done correctly. The rigorous training schedule gives no time for recovery.
Modern is a form of dance that is less rigid and a lot easier on the body, allowing the dancer to perform for much longer. Modern dance began as a rebellion against ballet, and the strict codified movement. One of the pillars of modern dance is that the movements are organic and natural to the body. Modern dance doesn’t have nearly as strict of physical requirements for performance. Both of these factors coupled together allows the dancer to perform longer; the average modern dancer retires much later than the average ballet dancer.
Although modern dance has broken out of the strict roles of ballet, there are still ways in which modern dance itself is codified and has its own constraints. For example, a dancer still must have optimal proportions for performing; long legs, long arms, a short torso, a small head. You will likely not see a curvy modern dancer- the thin, willowy dancer as the ideal still exists in the modern dance world. You do not usually see modern dancer with gray hair. It’s not typical to see a modern dancer with stretch marks or c-section scars.
But why? Gray hair doesn’t prevent one from dancing. A curvy body doesn’t prevent one from dancing. Short legs don’t prevent one from dancing. It all comes down to aesthetic preferences. There are preferences in individual companies as well: some modern dance companies prefer dancers of a specific stature, and even have hair length requirements. Many modern dance companies have rankings within the companies much like ballet. The unfortunate reality is that there are still similar constraints in modern dance as there are in ballet, but it’s largely unwritten.
If you take a step out of modern dance, you may step right into the enticing yet vague form of dance that is performance art. What is performance art anyway and is it even dance at all?!? If this question makes your head spin, that’s because it’s supposed to. Performance art often gets confused with modern or contemporary dance, but it is not. This is because unlike modern or contemporary dance, performance art knows no foot positions. Performance art doesn’t care if you’re five feet tall or six feet tall. Performance art is what you make it.
With that said, it is still extremely important to have a background in some form of codified dance; this allows the dancer to know the proper use of body mechanics. In order to have a long performance career, it’s absolutely vital to know the universal proper alignment of dance to prevent injury. Being proficient in a codified form of dance is like the foundation of a house- without it, you would crumble. Furthermore, having a background in a codified form of dance will set you apart from the average joe you pulled out of Walmart.
Once you have your foundation in the form of dance training, it can be scary to step out of codification. Having roles and regulations makes us feel safe. But there comes a point when creating roles and regulations around art, specifically dance, takes the art right out of it. This is why performance art is a virtue for dancers. There are so many different avenues one can take with performance art, and the possibilities for creation are endless. What’s the point in adhering to labels for dance? You are only limiting yourself by subscribing to one narrow box. You would be surprised what happens when you step out of this box, forget about the “ideals” in dance, and carve your own path.