Rebelling Against Perfection
On healing through the very practice that harmed you.
There’s this scene in Center Stage that’s been imprinted in my memory since I first saw the film in 2000. When one of the dancers Maureen is confronted about her bulimia by her boyfriend, she delivers one of the most famous lines in dance film history, “I am the best goddamn dancer in the American Ballet Academy. Who the hell are you? Nobody.”
While Maureen’s narrow-mindedness is obviously a result of her eating disorder, her words sting because there is an uncomfortable truth to them—it’s the guiding attitude of competitive dance. Like any artistic field, dance is cutthroat in the pursuit of perfection. Arguably no discipline exemplifies this perfection like ballet, whose foundational principle is control. The body must be contorted into “perfect” alignment with a straight line drawn the tip of your head to the root of your spine. Limbs must be long and lean to create elongated lines. Every finger must be just right. Your face must never express pain, eve…