The lowest a woman’s body fat percentage can go before critical functions such as concentration and mental abilities are affected is 10 percent. Yet a Russian ballerina with only 9 percent body fat was fired recently for being “too fat.”
Anastasia Volochkova was a world reknown dancer with Russia’s Bolshoi Ballet until company officials decided this summer that at 5’6”, 110 lbs., Volochkova was simply “too heavy to lift.”
Volochkova was one of the company’s most popular ballerinas, and after her partner resigned due to an injury, the theater tried to find a new partner for their star dancer. Shortly thereafter, male dancers in the company began to complain that the self-professed “ice-cream loving” ballerina was too tall and too heavy to lift.
Now the outraged ballerina is threatening legal action after being fired for “ridiculous reasons,” and suffering an alleged smear campaign by money-hungry company managers.
“The pressure is always really high to be thin enough and pretty enough in the dance world,” Wisconsin’s Dance Elite coach Dawin Wu said. “I mean, the pressure is already so intense worldwide for girls to be thin and beautiful, but in dance, it is even stronger because you are on stage.”
According to Volochkova, company managers spread lies that she was too tall and too heavy so that they could fire her without conflict. The ballerina alleges that she was really fired so that the company could hire a newer, younger ballerina.
“They said I was standing in someone’s way,” 27-year-old Volochkova announced to the press last week.
And according to the ballerina’s publicist, Volochkova is in excellent shape and has not eaten meat since the age of seven. She does have one vice, ice cream, but she reportedly limits herself to low-fat versions and has said that she “cannot imagine life without it.”
The dispute first erupted two weeks ago when the Bolshoi offered Volochkova her new contract. The ballerina, who was starring in “Swan Lake” at the time, was not offered a standard yearlong contract, but rather a shortened four-month contract.
In addition to the reduced contract, the Bolshoi also refused to schedule Volochkova in any performances. On the company’s upcoming tour of Paris, Volochkova had hoped to dance in three of the five scheduled “Swan Lake” performances, but the Bolshoi’s director, Anatoly Iksanov, deemed these demands unacceptable and fired Volochkova after she refused to sign the contract.
The dance world is known to have incredibly high standards regarding a dancer’s height, weight and looks because it is a performing art, and people are paying to see live art.
Wu, who is a junior at the Univeristy of Wisconsin as well as coach of it’s dance team, is no stranger to the pressures of the dance environment.
“As dancers, we do have to be thin so that partners can lift us easily,” Wu said. “But I don’t think height, weight or looks should matter so much. Dancers should be judged on how well they can dance, not how tall or thin they are.”
Wu realizes that dance company directors are always looking for a certain height, weight and level of attractiveness, but she feels that the pressure can be too high sometimes.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Sport Medicine for UW David Bernhardt also has experience with performing artists and even athletes who have succumbed to the visible pressures of the industry.
“We know that disordered eating is more common among performing artists and athletes where appearance is stressed,” Bernhardt said.
Disordered eating is different then eating disorders, according to Bernhardt. Where eating disorders are only diagnosed through a set of strict criteria including set weight limits and time-spans, disordered eating is defined as regularly eating in a disordered way.
Though negotiations are still in the works between Volochkova and the Bolshoi, no agreements have been made at this time, but company managers have not completely ruled out a completely.
