Ballet Flander's Shelby Williams chats about dancing as Biscuit Ballerina, creating a fulfilling social media space, anxiety, body image balancing mental health with humour in ballet, and cross-training Crossfit while in lockdown! …
As an eating disorder survivor, I try to make a point of addressing the issue of eating disorders and recovery on C&V during Eating Disorder Awareness Week every year. I make the effort because I remember how lonely and difficult recovery is, and I know that the nature of ballet has meant that a fair number of dancers struggle with disordered eating. But this year, I didn’t want to do it. I got my act together enough to pitch an…
As part of Eating Disorders Awareness week (February 26 – March 4, 2017), I asked dancers at different stages of their career from companies around the world to send in a picture of a breakfast meal they had recently, which I posted on C&V’s social media with the hashtag #balletbreakfastclub. Eating Disorders are insidious, life-destroying illnesses that affect people from all walks of life. Ballet dancers especially face demands on their body, not just physically but aesthetically. That doesn’t negate the…
Outwit, outplay, outnut. In this guest post, English National Ballet corps member Jeanette Kakareka shares her tips on surviving a gruelling 48-show season of Nutcracker during the holidays.…
A personal anecdote on body image, ballet, sport and anorexia that was original posted on the C&V instagram. Something happened to me last week – I was at gymnastics, feeling particularly tired and nibbling at chocolate to keep my energy and focus up. My coach looked over and said half-jokingly, ‘stop eating! When I first came to the gym, you were so skinny! And now, because of chocolate…’ I was too taken aback to do anything but laugh and say…
Part 2 of my interview with Carling Talcott, in which a professional ballet dancer and an adult ballet beginner discuss eating disorders and recovery.…
Carling Talcott and I come from very different worlds. She’s an American living in Denmark, and I’m a Singaporean living in, well, Singapore. She’s a professional ballet dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet, while I’m an adult ballet beginner who totters off to class once a week. But there are a couple of things we have in common, like a love of pizza and burgers, and being able to find humour in the mundane and the things we love, such…