ABSTRACT
This 12-year-old child has been identified as talented in dance, particularly ballet, from a young age. She has had some success in annual audition processes and regular assessments in order to gain and maintain access to a place at an elite dance training institution. She now participates in a non-residential ballet training programme that includes a weekly class and performance opportunities alongside her local ballet classes. She dances for at least eight hours a week in the evenings and at weekends. Megan wishes to become a ballerina. She is able to articulate that the journey towards becoming a professional ballet dancer is not always pleasurable and expects and accepts pain and ‘knockbacks’ as part of that journey in order to ‘prove to herself what she can be’. She appears to be dancing for herself, to be self-motivated and determined and to be gaining from her achievements, affective engagement and developing identity as a dancer. Yet this is a painful pastime. Megan, from an early age, has set her goal on a highly competitive career that is
plagued with injuries and physical and emotional discomfort (Brinson and Dick 1996; Buckroyd 2000). Such features are often associated with traditional male sports (Young 1993; Young et al. 1994; White et al. 1995; Connell 2000; Gard and Meyenn 2000; Roderick et al. 2000), although, according to Cole (1993), physical education and sport, despite being based on hegemonic masculine principles, can challenge passive constructions of femininity and offer scope for the development of ‘progressive practicalities’ for girls and young women.
