The Struggles of Perfection in Dance Culture

Starving for Perfection
Why I Chose My Topic
I have been in dance my whole life; it is what I have always known. Starting at the age of 3 and slowly adding more classes. I then joined the competitive team at age ten, putting in 25 plus hours a week. Nothing seemed different until we got older. Our coaches would tell us to skip meals before shows so we wouldn’t bloat and could fit into our costumes. I never really listened to this, while others did and it started to become very noticeable. Some girls started skipping meals all the time to try and strive for the image of “perfect” as a dancer. Being a dancer is very hard if you don’t fit into the mold of a tall skinny girl. There are some girls willing to do anything to achieve that goal.
What I Already Know.
I already know what it is like to be a dancer and the pressures that get put on us: the need to be the best and strive for a perfection that is simply never possible. We work constantly to be better,

I began the actual research by going to Google to figure out the basic statistics on the different types of eating disorders and which ones are more common in dancers. I found that anorexia is more common in dancing because of what it requires to be categorized as

There I found articles about anorexia and how how it affects the body of dancers. I also found out about different theories which explained different ways in which the disease can be more common and how it can be treated, even though doctors don’t have a proven treatment yet. While searching I also found an article written by a professional dancer from the San Francisco Ballet that detailed how she struggled with anorexia from the ages of 15-18. This story also opened my eyes to how much strain is put on our bodies because her career ended when she was just