Research Project —

‘The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.’ — George Balanchine The following publication is the result of my final year research project entitled ‘A Feminist Exploration into the Treatment of Female Dancers within the Ballet Industry.’ Gender Inequality is an issue prominent in all professions. Although ballet can be seen as a field controlled by women at a closer look one will see they are in fact the ones being controlled. The patriarchy system between men and women in our society is mirrored in the world of ballet. The essay explores the initial treatment of the female dancers in the Paris Opera during the 19th Century where they were forced into prostitution, how under the influence of male choreographers they have starved themselves to attain an unnatural body ideal and how ballet rejects women of colour as they don’t fit into the ballet ‘mould’. Women’s struggles in ballet can be seen as a microcosm of their struggles in society. The second part of this project includes the poster series ‘Reflections of the Ballerina’.