ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses cultural influences on the development of ballet technique, the impossibility of perfection when the body is in a constant state of variability and the need to reframe the concept of perfection as optimal performance.
Research is now revealing that intensive ballet training and performing change some structural and functional aspects of dancers’ brains and minds. Most of the changes to the brain facilitate performance, with no apparent negative effect, but an intensive focus on training has been correlated with negative changes in dancers’ minds. It is suggested that teachers re-evaluate the increasing effort, time, energy, concentration, focus, and commitment required by vocational students during adolescence and reconsider ballet training’s narrow focus. It is suggested that the principle ‘First, do no harm’ must be as high a priority for ballet teachers as it is for the medical profession.
