Adolescent South African Ballet Dancers

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to address the severe paucity in both South African and international literature concerning eating disordered behaviour in young ballet dancers. Allegations suggest that for decades a conspiratorial silence has been maintained in the dancing world around the eating disordered behaviours of performers. The only serious suggestions alluding to high levels of eating disordered behaviour among performers in South Africa have appeared anecdotally in the popular media. Previous international research has suggested that dancers could not possibly maintain their sylph-like physiques with the amount of energy expended in daily training and simultaneously adhere to healthy nutritional standards. In fact, some studies cite high levels of malnutrition amongst members of the dance community (Peterson, 1984). The current research study confirms these findings showing highly significant differences in the drive for thinness in dancers compared with normative adolescent samples. Results also indicate tendencies to interpersonal distrust which could explain why this sensitive behaviour has been so difficult to identify and treat in the past. More detailed statistical analyses show that this sample of adolescent dancers exhibit strong similarities with eating disordered individuals, both anorexic and bulimic. These results provide the evidence required by interested parties to intervene in the neglected nutrition and psychological health of dancers.