Have you heard all the scuttle bug about Jenifer Ringer and the NY Times critic who called her fat? Yowzers! This issue is a doozy. She is a 37 year old principal ballerina with the New York City Ballet. By definition of her employment, she is smaller than even a "normally thin" woman. I was very interested in ballet. Ballerinas are tiny. They have to be. This is a fact in the ballet world that is not changing anytime soon. Their bodies are part of their art, I agree that the line of a dancer is more beautiful when it is lithe. Because of this intense relationship between art & body and because of the insane pressure the ballet world puts on young women, ballet dancers are at a higher risk of developing disorderd eating and eating disorders. Jenifer Ringer has been very open about her depression and anorexia. She is a small woman. She is a prima-ballerina. How anyone could call her fat is outrageous. It makes me very nervous for all those ballerina wannabes who think that if they just lost some (more) weight, their dancing dreams could come true.
