explaining the ballet trend in fashion (balletcore)
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 22. 05. 2024
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Sources:
The Politics of Gender and the Revival of Ballet in Early Twentieth Century France by Ilyana Karthas
www.jstor.org/stable/41678946
Reading the Ballerina's Body: Susan Bordo Sheds Light on Anastasia Volochkova and Heidi Guenther by Wendy Oliver
www.jstor.org/stable/20444640
The dancer at work: The aesthetic and politics of practice clothes and leotard costumes in ballet performance by Tamara Tomic-Vajagic
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
In praise of sheer perfection: Ballet, clothing, and Japanese culture by Masafumi Monden
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Girlhood, Ballet, and the Cult of the Tutu by Mariko Turk
muse.jhu.edu/article/562066/pdf
www.crfashionbook.com/fashion...
www.thecut.com/2020/02/how-ba...
thefashionglobe.com/ballet-an...
www.34st.com/article/2020/07/...
âą Ballerina: Fashion's M...
www.crfashionbook.com/fashion...
www.bbc.com/culture/article/2...
www.vogue.com/article/ballet-...
www.history.com/news/sexual-e...
www.npr.org/transcripts/13202...
www.self.com/story/ballerina-...
sites.courtauld.ac.uk/documen...
0:00 - intro
0:31 - a brief history
7:57 - explaining balletcore
14:06 - why is it popular? - Jak na to + styl
In this trend I see the "That Girl" obsession repackaged: a ballerina has everything put together, has a routine, daily exercises, a carefully thought diet, clear goals, and is also classy, beautiful, delicate and unattainable.
This is such a good observation!
OH lord trueee
Which is hilarious, because there are definitely some very crass ballerinas out there.
so true!!
Sounds like modern day misogyny
Does anybody else thinks that this is a sign that the skinny body is becoming "trendy" again?
Its truly scary how society makes a type of body a valuable commodity for ten years
Yeah thinness is starting to become an âaccessoryâ again⊠meaning these aesthetics are only desirable on thin bodies
YES. You hope when fashions repeat they'll get more inclusive, but no. Fuck no, unfortunately
Itâs sickening to me that any body type is a trend.
@@m_a_k_e_n_n_a That's why I cheer on Jessica Blair for wearing low riders with her stomach.
@@m_a_k_e_n_n_a glad us skinny girls seen as pretty again. Ive always been flat and we are often seen as âmenâ
This is 100% yet another âaestheticâ that at its core, is just showcasing thinness as its main accessory
whats wrong with that? isnt america in an obesity epidemic?
@@tallulahlethalinjection6490 thinness as in disorded eating type of thin. too thin to be safe and focusing on this ideal of being skinny until it consumes you type of thin.
@@lochettes9791 I canât wait until we move past this trend⊠I dont know a single feminine raised person who hasnât had problems with food and their body
@@tallulahlethalinjection6490 health and weight shouldn't be conflated and grouped together. Let ppl be comfortable in their body regardless of weight in peace dammit
@@lunos5026 i dont know a single human who has never had problems with food and their body...
as a ballet dancer, i have REALLY mixed opinions on this that most other comments noted, but i wish that these balletcore girls would actually go see a ballet and support the arts right now. companies everywhere are really struggling due to the pandemic, and for how trendy ballet is right now, that trend could really help out keep ballet alive at a rough time :/
yes yes yes!! even the studio where I take classes is struggling to get teen/adult enrolments, and it hurts to see everybody romanticizing ballet like this but not even seeing a show or taking a class
I see what you're saying and hold space for your sentiments. I also think it's important to note here though that these trends might be trends because the person doing ballet at home doesn't need much money to get started. I like your solution, but feel like it's not applicable to the majority of working class people who are just trying to pay those bills right now
While I get the sentiment, I also sense a bit of gatekeeping. It reminds me of asking girls "how many songs can you name" when they wear band tees.
thisss ^^
and if you want to do ballet canât afford it because it is so expensive sometimes you can find some amazing books and cheap online courses that altho arenât necessarily as good as an irl class, if its by a proper ballet company then it can be really beneficial
ive been dancing for 12 ish years i think and in covid all our classes moved to zoom, and because of that i often did some online courses as an extra and i found that really helpful
^^^!!!!!!
As a young, poor, filipino girl I absolutely envied the (mostly white) girls who could afford to do ballet and who had present parents that would actually take them to their rehearsals. Iâm 22 now and iâve been doing âadult balletâ for a year, iâm not very good, but it fills me with so much joy that I can now access that exclusive, prestigious femininity I was deniedâŠas vapid as that sounds đ
I don't think it's vapid at all! It's like you're giving a gift to your younger self- that which you were denied đđđŸ
Don't feel ashamed of this!!! It's not vapid at all, plenty of people do this with other things, too--as soon as I had a steady career, I bought myself a Coach bag because it was something I always felt was out of reach. People do this with a variety of experiences and products.
No, it's not vapid! Being happy to do or have something you previously couldn't is such a basic impulse no one needs it explained. And of course something socially idealized feels to good to have- it's an ideal! You've made it! Go do something stereotypically feminine that women get shamed for, have a frou-frou coffee drink or watch a """""chick flick""""" or read a romance novel. Yes, you deserve it.
I can do ballet as adult??? I am 19 and this has been my wish for decade. Is training hard, how far do they push you?
im an 18 year old girl who just started ballet in college upon finally having access to it as well... relatable!!
i feel like balletcore is lowkey ballet flavoured repackaged proana. as a former ballet dancer, i love the look of the aesthetic but it's also deeply problematic
Agreed
you said it!!!
I was looking for this comment
literally. itâs shallow and almost insulting tbh
As a ballett dancer with an eating disorder.......
It absolutly is
i also think its worth mentioning that the âcoquetteâ aesthetic is only called that bc it used to be ânymphetâ (from lolita originally) but they faced backlash for romanticizing pedophilia
I mean, I am sooo into the coquette aesthetic, but as much as I'm not romanticizing pedophilia, I still find it a way to get closer to the girly childhood I was not allowed to have.
Wearing the ruffly White dresses, satin headbands, bow pins and coating my room in plushes and ethereal images of princesses and such, idolizing cinderella and listening to 50s music.
It all just takes me back to when I was 10 or 9 and I wished I could do these things but wasn't allowed to because I was too stuck up in the idea that I "needed to be not like other girls"..
Idk, personally I love the coquette aesthetic
if i'm not wrong i think coquette and nymphet are two different aesthetics? very similar but if i had to explain it, nymphet feels like summer, coquette feels like spring
@@dollieeatstoomuch5916 aesthetically I love coquette too, but I think it has been a way of reclaiming the nymphet aesthetic and trying to remove the bad connotations from it. The nymphet aesthetic from about 10 years ago was very blatantly about catering to men (from what I remember, at least there was a male focus in it) and although coquette is similar it seems to be more about embracing girlhood for its own sake
@@flamingmonkeyheads no, thay aren't coquette/nymphet are used interchangeably however, there are to different subsets the Americana Coquette and the Doll Coquette
@@flamingmonkeyheads it was born out of the nymphette aesthetic. They are different in that sense, but itâs important to remember that one was born out of the other.
I feel like I was so lucky that the dance studio I went to growing up was on the outskirts of Atlanta and specifically catered to girls of color. I am white, but I was one of 3 girls in my class who were pale, and one of them was half japanese. The rest of the girls were darker skinned, most of them black but a couple who were asian, and there was a huge range of body sizes. The most talented ballerina there was a very curvy black girl, who was always given the most important roles because of her sheer talent. To consider the aesthetics of ballet to be skinny white girls is extraordinarily limiting and prevents talents like hers from being recognized. It was also always hard work, with the dancers often spending 3 hours a day at the studio, doing ballet, modern, and jazz dance in order to be as flexible and multi-talented as possible.
this might sound weird but what studio? i grew up dancing in the studio at marietta square but iâd love to know what studio youâre talking abt!
@@sewerwolvez5202 Yeah, when I originally went it was Studio Dionne, but they changed the name in the last few years I was there to Atlanta Dance and Music Academy, and it's part of the CityDance group.
Cant agree more; i have been dancing for more than a decade but quitted because i cannot stand the toxic expectations from my parents who would say shit like "if you didnt reach xx pounds you will not go to thhis rehersal/performance because there are no point for fats girls to go ( i weigh 54kg and is 166cm) and it just reached the point where i decided my passion for ballet cannot exceed the mental stress from all the toxic talks. The sentence that says "aesthetics to only be white and thin girls" really voiced my thoughts out when i dont know how to put it
Exactly, Cuban ballet is breathtaking for example and that was achieved through sheer love for the art instead of seeking profit
as a dancer myself, the idea that the black swan is the new "it girl" is terrifying, because i think it's pretty easy to see both how damaging that is, but also how far-removed it is from a bunch of people experience's in the industry. ballet is, indeed, extremely demanding, gruesome and challenging, and there is a long history of colorism, sexism, s*xual assault and classism deep-seeded into it but it doesn't take away from the fact that many beautiful, expressive and athletic art pieces have come from it; and that we currently are in a sort of golden age, some of the greatest ballet dancers all-around are professionals right now.
it's difficult nowadays to actually have a nuanced conversation about ballet because so many people partaking on said conversation actually barely have any contact with this art form.
AND black swanâs whole thing was about how bad the ballet industry is, itâs literally a thriller i hate the sensationalism of the film and just ballet in general, i think that black swan being romanticised is just foreshadowing the comeback of the romanticisation of EDs and the tumblr girl
@@am-zj4mq yup exactly. I did ballet for most of my life and struggled with an ed not even knowing what it was⊠itâs sad seeing the trend cycles coming back and it impacting our youth once again. when will we learn?
i am a Ballet dancer too, and i think the weirdest thing about this is that that is ACTUALLY the things we wear, but it is being done as none dancers.............
@@savspencer7695 i thought that we were finally past the romanticisation of eds and the "heroin-chic" look because of this whole body positivy movement (even though it does have it's problems) but it seems like we are repeating the same cycle again, like we didn't learn anything from it all
@@mirarie3391 I genuinely kind of feel excluded from my own damn hobby by the gatekeeping balletcore people. I am a fat woman, and I have danced modern ballet and jazz ballet since I was 6. And I might as well not exist to these types. I wonder if they would scoff at me if I wear the stuff I usually wear in the studio if they saw me, you know?
I feel âthe ballet fashionâ always existed in fashion it just wasnât fully processed as ballet Core. Like a leotard is almost like one piece. Corsets, leggings, stockings etc
basically the basic girl lol
The body romper things also kinda reminded me of it. Tight around the arms, covering the crotch but not always the hips.
Literally the mid 2000âs đ ballet flats, 3/4 length leggings, RaRa skirts and layering like 3 different tank tops, super 80âs but also very ballerina
And the tutus back in scene
Yeah. In a lot of ways balletcore seems to be just the french girl aesthetic + ballet
I love that you included Misty Copeland, as a young, black teen who did ballet as a hobby I very looked up to her. She was a brown diamond in a sea of white pearls for me and made me feel less like the odd one out in my classes.
Ngl, I would prefer tiger's eye than the phrase "brown diamond".
As a current professional ballet dancer and ballet professor, Iâm just gonna say it: this trend irritates me. Someone else said this below, but Iâll elaborate. Ballet companies along with other Broadway and theatre companies are STILL struggling after the C19. Many still struggle to find theaters that will allow us to perform, while events like astroworld and the super bowl rage on freely. This isnât aesthetic to us, itâs our job, our livelihood. We train like Olympic athletes, all for those few glorious stage moments. If you love the aesthetic, please for the love of anything purchase a ballet ticket. Get a season pass for your cityâs company. Actually support an industry that is struggling. And please NEVER put on a pair of pointe shoes for fun, you need YEARS of training for that!
If I wanna wear fucking ballet slipper I will . If Amy Winehouse wore than shall should I
@@Sabrina-teenage-witch omg she isnt talking about regular ballet shoes. shes talking about points shoes. as in the shoes they us to balance one their toes. its extremely dangerous to use them if you dont have proper training. dont do it.
@@Sabrina-teenage-witch Pointe shoes and ballet shoes are not the same thing đ. Pointe shoes without training will RUIN your feet.
@@Sabrina-teenage-witch babe she meant pointe shoes not ballet slippers, theyre different things
đ đ đ My stepmother is in the Ukraine and she took my dad to a large ballet when he came out to see her, Iâm ashamed I donât know the theater name. But the pictures were just⊠jaw dropping. We were talking about me going out there to visit and to see the ballet, but it looks like that may never happen now. Please support your local arts, and please help keep ballet and dance in schools if itâs still offered!
as a ballet dancer i believe the aesthetic of âballet coreâ started getting more popular during the surge of âfairy grungeâ, âtwilight coreâ, and âlolita themesâ. Mainly because lots of ballerinas are seen as ghostly, fairylike, and feminine which helped promote the aesthetics !
in my opinion ballet is a very pretty art form and iâm super happy to see it getting itâs recognition, but shouldnât be romanticized. itâs definitely way more then having long legs, a pretty arch, or the gracefulness. ballet faces many issues with exclusion b/c of skin color/race, eating disorders, anxiety, etc.
I also agree!! I've been in ballet for around about a decade and it's definitely not as pretty as it seems. Lots of mental health problems have stemmed from it and although the art of it is beautiful and I've made many friends along the way, it's a competitive and brutal industry just like any other and the romantisisation of it is very wrong.
disagree with the usage of ghostly i'd say quite the opposite: "angel-like"
As a ballet dancer myself, I could have not agreed more. Itâs a bit frustrating to see so many people romanticize ballet, and our hard work that we put into this art form. Iâm happy that ballet is getting more recognition it deserves, but people really needs to stop using our hours of work we spend, as a trend for something they could wear and romanticize. With eating disorders and our mental health being tarnished. Just for someone who has 0 to none experience in ballet to buy some pointe shoes and call themselves a ballerina. I know I donât put hours of work everyday, having my feet bruised 24/7, for someone to just see this all as a trend. Ballet is hard work, it isnât easy whatsoever, but it could also be amazing at the same time if you work for it.
@@kaylituh i agree ! i wanted to use ghostly because the âwhite actâ in Giselle where the dancers are in white costumes to imitate spirts. And the fact that ballet was originally made for pale/white people, but angel- like could work too!
@@liasharee that makes sense :)
As a ballet dancer, I have a very hard time looking at these ballet inspired outfits and photoshoots in media lot of the time because it's usually a very infantilized portrayal of what ballet dancers actually wear for rehearsals and performances. A lot of these examples here look, at least to me, like clothes children would wear for classes, and the fact that this type of image is in some cases sexualized makes it creepy and concerning
Yes! Most dancers I know don't want to wear black and pink because it's the limiting uniform we all had to wear as kids. The people in these very clean, boring outfits look like little kids playing dress up to me, not actual dancers. That's not to say they can enjoy wearing it or feel good in it, but it doesn't read "I just got out of class and now I'm running errands".
Now that you bring it up, it's definitely true that when I've watched behind-the-scenes videos from ballet companies, the dancers don't wear those colors. There's a lot of plum, teal, sky blue, and hot pink. Mostly the same sorts of colors that are trendy in athleisure wear.
and lets be honest at least 80% of the girls showing off ballet inspired clothing, have photo shopped there pictures, to be even thinner and younger.
yes thank you!! whereâs the trash bag pants, obnoxious-in-the-best-way prints, and puffy vests on top of like 4 layers of clothing?
as a dancer myself, this is honestly concerning. this kind of âaestheticâ romanticizes the negative aspects of dance including the EDs, the body comments, the historic exclusion of people of color from ballet (as a chicana, people ignoring this fact makes me rlly upset lol), and the obvious classism. dance is beautiful but has a problematic history and people aestheticizing this really reduces it. the toxicity is being taken, leaving behind the true beauty of the form.
and a lot of people dont even realy care about ballet and just the perception and thoght of ballet for the aesthetic
yes! sometimes it's really frustrating to see people in this "aesthetic" when the most athletic thing they do is pose in front of a mirror. not only does it diminish the hard work dancers, especially ballerinas, put into everyday training, but also encourages a body type that is sometimes unattainable for dancers due to the gain of muscle mass, which of course is the reason for the outstanding amount of eds amongst high level dancers
Fashion is totally cool by me, but romanticizing problematic issues is not cool. It makes me glad I'm a modern dancer, which has a very opposite history in comparison to ballet in how open it is to people of color like myself or with curvy body types (also like myself). It's definitely a fine line that kids tread when they don't have a legitimate understanding of something.
White people are allowed to enjoy things without including non-whites. If you think that they don't, you're by definition racist.
I feel like ballet core is also an extension of the late 2000's early 2010's tend cycle right now. Ballett is nostalgic for many girls, and it reflects a kind of childhood memory during that time period. It's just because our trend cycles move so fast that we are only in our late teens and early twenties when we experience it!
French ex-ballerina here ! Fun fact : "Petits rat'" is still used to talk about young ballerinas. The dance studio I was in was affiliated to l'Opéra de Paris (the successor to the Academy founded by Louis XIV) and we were called "Les petits rats de l'Opéra de Paris" (obviously it losts its original meaning.)
Yeah iâve always heard âles petits rats de lâopĂ©ra â and thouht it was a cute rhyme
:0mg
in english its ballet rats
People always told me that Petit rat refers to the sound done by all the small dancers on training when they are on pointe and since they were not in the main stage to train
It sounded like small mouse or rats on the above or in the wall since they were so delicate
+ the rhyme of course
@@ameliefnlt yeah it's what I've been told too !
as a ballet dancer of 11 years, i get kinda tired of the sensationalizing of ballet. ballet is not all stick thin white women with eating disorders and it is also not all a romantic, innocent form of artistic expression. i feel like all ballet media these days just focuses on the "tortured artist" aspect, which then just makes suffering beautiful and digestible instead of addressing any of those issues -- many of which are still present today! racism is an issue! colorism is an issue! sexism is an issue! sizism is an issue! young dancers are still getting sexually exploited, and the only difference is that it's kept quieter! at the same time, ballet has produced a lot of beautiful art, and the athleticism encouraged in the current generation is creating a golden age where you can search up some of the best performances ever on stage and watch them from your home. it's a complicated subject. but creating an aesthetic out of ballet and producing reality tv drama after reality tv drama communicates none of that.
Iâm a ballet dancer too, and I completely agree! There are so many problems with the ballet world but the feeling of dancing and the feeling of watching ballet is like no other.
former dancer here and I COMPLETELY AGREE! i'm actually glad pointe shoe makers are making colored pointe shoes for POC ballerinasâšthough there are a lot of issues concerning ballet, we can still see the positive side of it all!
This!!! Is so true you worded it so well!!!
You worded this so well wow i didnt know a lot thanks for the insight, and also yeah im happy the ballet word is diversifying and yeah i noticed that most sports like ballet which are romanticised often have very problematic pasts and things eg gymnastics, figure skating, and while im happy that its getting better in these spaces for athletes and dancers i think people should see these sports beyond its aesthetic value cuz romanticisation can lead to issues like people not wanting to confront the problematic aspects of their idealised âescapistâ aesthetic. The problem with representation of these issues is that people want it to be aesthetic thats the problem with the commodification of everything because you now cant find a movie thats like serious that isnt an aesthetic that isnt a whole documentary like black swan is a serious movie about suffering and some people are like uh huh aesthetic, nothing wrong with that but i think it erases the conversation we couldve had around competitive sport being so grueling plus the body expectations to just oooo pretty suffering artist
I cannot believe that a sensible person would say that any girl wearing a tutu "devalues" ballet. I am a ballerina myself and I guarantee that this is not an issue. It is rather the opposite: it is nice for a ballerina to see that little girls appreciate you and your work! (plus, little girls and all other people should probably be allowed to wear whatever the f* they feel like)
no because like as a non-dancer that whole thing seems like the absolute lest of the issues here⊠like thereâs straight up racism and pronation eating disorders connected with the aesthetic and the actual career so it feels weirdly scapegoaty to say âwearing the athletic wear as an aesthetic devalues the workâ also why doesnât this apply to all athletic wear? like all sports involve extreme training yet i donât see professional baseball players saying wearing baseball hats is disrespectful to them. like seriously the things that actually harm people are the racism and promotion of eating disorders and we should focus on that when critiquing the aesthetic or career or literally anything ever even not related to ballet and fashion
@@the_devil4676 yep it's basically a non-issue
I am also a dancer and I had never heard this argument before. Specifically pancake tutus can signify a level of training and expertise. So potentially these should be left to dancers. But at the same time, that is the smallest issue with this trend. Additionally, lots of people wear tutus and it has never offended me.
@@the_devil4676 beautifully said
People who only see ballet dancers from the outside think "they're so graceful, light, happy, skinny" but the extreme physical and mental pressure, the injuries, the pain doesn't shine through
I usually think they are incredibly strong. The tights and tutu show off their amazing leg muscles.
It feels like every 2 weeks there is a new"Core" or "aesthetic"
welcome to the tik tok era
microdtrends will be the death of us fr
there really are new ones every week, don't even know how
That canât possibly be sustainable for the environment and our sanity.
I hate when people say core
im a brown ballerina and the ballet school where i go is so blatantly racist towards the non white ballerinas. we always have to work 10x harder to get the praise that the white girls get, the lack of representation is a huge problem & im glad u talked abt it
Im black french girl and used to do ballet from age 4 to age 14. I quit because of how racist the environment was, it was and still is my biggest regret but I really could not bear it anymore. I was the only black girl in my class and one of the three black girls in the whole school.
Not sure how the algorithm on comments work, but I respond so more people see this.
Is that a goat with sunglasses in your profile picture?!
Definitely
So sorry to hear youâre experiencing this :(
I'm an autistic girl, and my first hyperfixation was ballet when I was a child. Was discouraged for taking classes by everyone because I was a chubby kid tho. Still regret it to this day. So thank you for addressing the issue, it's quite terrible!
I always feel very empowered when I do things that I wasn't allowed to do when I was younger. I recommend you to try ballet classes now :)
@@ennaarts I should! Thank you đ
Same with me! I couldnât go to classes but I watched ballet programs and did the beginning poses constantly!
Should have quit being chubby then. When you really want something, you take the initiative.
this reminds me of the recent classical music surge with dark academia becoming a popular aesthetic! as a student in both classical music and ballet for 10+ years, it feels strange when these things no one seemed to care about before suddenly become a distilled, easily palatable mainstream trend. it can be tempting to "gatekeep" things like classical music and dance when you know how much work people put in to have that lifestyle, but really i'm just glad people are being introduced to types of art they haven't had much experience with and picking these things up as hobbies or casual interests đ
It is nice to hear that you see the positive, ie more people getting into these beautiful art forms thanks to fashion and aesthetics. Thank you for resisting the urge to gatekeep!
Former dancer and classical music lover here and happy we have the same thought. Thankfully I'm not the gatekeeping type. I personally feel relieved that classical music reaches young gens esp millenials and gen z with aesthetics like balletcore, dark & light academia, cottagecore, royalty-core etc. Check out the channel HalidonMusic. They compiled special playlists for these aesthetics, which strengthens the vibes of each of them and gives you the feels! đđ
Just FYI, the term *"petit rat"* was never a classist insult. Its origin is disputed, but historians believe it either came from school slang, is an apheresis of "opéra," or came about from the sound made by young performers' feet on the wooden floors of the dance studios.
aww rhats actually really cute. i could totally see that title being given to small ballerinas :(
kinda funny that that was probably the inspiration for Angelina Ballerina
Ty! I was actually very curious about where the term came from and what it meant.
Agreed. As someone who did ballet in France (shortly) and had lots of ballet dancer friends there as a child, it is in no way classist. A "petit rat" or "rat de l'opéra" is a very endearing term and it is also used in children's books in France. No negative connotations at all.
The term is still used to refer to the youngest dancers at my ballet school!
Iâm so glad youâre talking about this. As a dancer that studied ballet strictly for two years. You handheld this subject extremely well, your analysis is sooo accurate!!!! Most ballets were dominated by men such as notorious ballet companies American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet using George Balanchineâs work. I also loved how talked about how men were looked down upon for dancing as Iâve faced that myself when I first started dancing.
@Kisna Yela âïž no one cares
it's crazy the way male dancers are looked down upon by other men but put on a pedestal in the dance world. i'm ftm and have been dancing since long before my transition and the difference in treatment is unreal
The fact that there is a stigma against men for dancing is so mind-blowing when you now the history and the fact that it started off with male dancers!!! Sending love and support to a fellow dancer âšđ
Nice of you to write that more men should dance it's a beautiful art from.
Honestly, ballet core seems to be about 1. thinness 2. whiteness. Other aspects seem to have very little or no importance. Itâs hard not to find it concerning.
this was my first thought too
THISS
We can revert to toxic/ hegemonic standards SO fast
agreed. it feels very similar to the lizzy grant/coquette/waifcore aesthetic i've come across with increasing frequency on tumblr, and the overwhelming fixation on paleness and thinness worries the hell out of me. it really just feels like thinspo with a new coat of paint.
this is pretty true tbh. i've been dancing since i was 3 and gladly went to a very diverse dancing school with non-white and plus sized girls, however as someone who is neither skinny nor plus sized and fell in the middle, i was really able to pick up on the favouritism the skinny tall girls received and how overlooked the bigger girls at the school were. it's really sad to see- but i have hope that these 'skinnny, tall and white' expectations for ballerinas can eventually be abolished and ballet can be appreciated for the art and beauty of it- not the size or skin colour of the person performing it.
@@ecstasy5022 They were talking about the whiteness of balletcore, not ballet.
TW; Eating disorder
Also a big point is that there is a part of the community who have eating disorders and use this aesthetic for disordered things. I used to suffer from an ED and was on both edtwitter and tumble. The skinny ballerina aesthetic is EVERYWHERE, together with the coquette aesthetic. Threads were filled with beautiful pictures of ballerinas and other dancers, but instead of appreciating their arts, all what was being focused on was how skinny they were. There were threads of diets of those ballerinas, taken from articles where the ballerinas talked about their diets, and the part where those women recognized that it was disordered and bad is completely ignored. The idea of a perfect, petite, beautiful and emotional girl is for many a dream they are chasing by putting themselves in harms way, and ballerinas fit that dream perfectly
itâs sad these arts plus fashion trends are so intertwined with ed culture. i love coquetteâs, dollette/doelette fashion and the dainty look but itâs so hard to find the aesthetic without so many dark themes tied into it. even harder to find someone who looks like me when looking through tags/social media etc.
@@lochettes9791 definetely. just trying to look through dollette pinterest boards without seeing ed stuff can be so hard, and the community has a real problem with racism and fatphobia, idolizing this idea of dainty skinny white girls. it's sad, considering the fashion itself is so pretty. During ed recovery i was in a coquette community and the times it almost caused a relapse are countless. I really hope that sooner or later we start to see more diversity in dollete fashion and a less closeminded approach to black people and people who aren't size 0
stan you stan you - a Asian ballet dancer
I know and it's really sad to see because ballet is not all about the aesthetic to most dancers, it's about focusing on the actual art form which is dance not romanticizing ed's which is something a lot of dancers actually struggle with and don't usually find cool. There's nothing wrong with ballet being an aesthetic as long as the main part of ballet is captured within it which is the dancing, hard work, and dedication put in along with other parts of it.
I feel that a lot of the romanticization and aestheticfication of ballet is explored by people who don't do ballet/don't have much contact with the art form. For us dancers, ballet clothes, such as leotards, warm up clothes, skirts, etc are obviously an important part of being comfortable and capable of self expression during class. Often times this aesthetic of ballet core with pink clothes and cigarettes (Black Swan movie style) reinforces offensive stereotypes of ballet dancers (an*rexic, mean, girl hating ultra feminine). If someone says that this is what ballet or ballet dancers are, they don't know ballet. It's very difficult, hard work, and absurdly rewarding. The range is huge, from Swan Lake to Spartacus, to Romeo and Juliet, to Wayne McGregor's Chroma. From Sleeping Beauty to Mayerling.
youre right and i hate it
Yeah this has been my thought process about the whole ~ballet aesthetic~ like it's really easy to use it to justify self destructive behaviors. Plus it's stereotypical and does nothing to help people who actually do or want to do ballet
@@unwieldypuffin the people who dont dance and use it as an aesthetic annoy me the most, as someone who has been dancing for 13 years, and then they just..use our pain as an aesthetic??
I am really happy for you that you find reward for the hard work in your performance! I think it is extremely interesting as an art form, and ... really bad to see it as an aesthetic only, because its peoples lives and real lifestyles, which are just so so much more complex
@@gingamingayoz7903 don't dance if you hate it. You don't get to be pissed people dress a certain way. You're not important in strangers' lives.
as a ballet dancer, seeing this literally made me gasp bc iâve seen sm of these posts on pinterest, I NEEDED YOU TO COVER IT !! itâs definitely surprising to see the rehearsal garments worn by people everyday, as they donât understand anything associated with those garments, such as sweat and soreness. as much as i love this type of attire, itâs not smth i want to be pushed into a negative light, where things like EDâs or body image issues, or racism, are glorified and praised
There is definitely a toxic side too ballet but it's so much more than all the stereotyping and hope others can participate in the more positive side of this art form âšđ that being said it's kinda funny to see ppl in rehearsal attire for aesthetics rather than for the intended purpose for movement, sweat and avoiding injuries.
I love to be a ballerina and there's also so many good sides in it (even tough my mental health is shattering). But l wouldn't ever wear my sportwears outside of the class.đ Also half of them are black, not pink.
i'm so glad you mentioned the fact that a lot of balletcore is based on thinness. i firmly believe that for people who aren't dancers, a huge part of this aesthetic is completely centered around glamorising this "waif" look, whether they're conscious of it or not.
PLEASE do a full video on the Coquette aesthetic
THIS
As a dancer/ballerina who's been dancing for 13 years, seeing people starting the ballet core trend was definitely a bit of a shocker for me lol. As much as I am excited for people to look into the world of ballet and dance in general, I have seen some things put in an odd/negative light. I saw a tiktok where a girl dresses in a leo, leg warmers, messy bun, warm up sweater, etc (normal things you would commonly see a dancer wear to rehearsal/class) and the caption was something like "I love dressing up as an off duty ballerina so that people ask if I'm a ballerina" or something along those terms. While I appreciate people enjoy the "themes" of a ballet dancer, it can feel almost insulting to the art form itself being reduced to "oooo skinny girl wearing a leotard and skirt is a ballerina." There's so many negative stereotypes that come along with dance as well things like, EDs, working out, how you look, etc. Again no insult to the people participating in this trend, but personally it feels a bit demeaning to have been working for so long, training, spending hours upon hours on my art, and have my career choice be turned into a fashion trend. Anywayyyyy great video it was really well researched and thought out!
i absolutely second this! and if they do acknowledge the difficult parts of ballet, they make it aesthetic and glamorize it rather than recognizing it as unhealthy. similar to how tumblr used to romanticize s/h and eds. the other problem is they will post videos/pictures of skinny white girls (some not even in ballet attire or environment) and put it under ballet aesthetic, which further puts across an already warped image to the public of what ballet dancers are âsupposedâ to look like. and as someone whoâs been in it for years, the ballet world is evolving (slowly) and trying to get away from these ideals, because they are extremely damaging and someoneâs value as a dancer does not come from their initial appearance. so to have tiktokers come in and reinforce what weâve been trying to stop for years (whether intentionally or not) it is a bit frustrating :/
Ballet for 10 years over here! Totally agree with you too. Honestly had no idea this was even a thing. There is so much more to ballet than just an aesthetic... Besides there are so many off duty ballet looks that look nothing like this...
I love people hopping on this but girls thinner than me apparently look more like a ballerina than I, a dancer
Ballet core was super popular in 2012. It was one of the looks I wore to school. It ainât new. Btw, I wish I could work out like a ballerina đ©°
@@user-hc2tu7ul7j never too late to start, even if youâre never going to go on pointe ballet still a good way to stay active and have fun.
The romanticization of smoking is also big in the balletcore aesthetic as well. Smoking has been associated with dance for a long time(It keeps you thin and makes you "less stressed") lot of famous dancers in the old days had really bad smoking addictions. I think smoking in the battle industry has definitely become less prevalent then it was an earlier years, But its still a problem. Even as a young child I remember one of my ballet teacher trying to kick the habit. I makes me sad to see that aspect romanticized as well as the racism and EDs
Edit: yes, it's as big as a problem it's almost 40 years ago, I think because most people understand the dangerous of smoking now there's days, but the glamorizing and romanticization of it in and aesthetic / lifestyle that mostly young girls try to embody is not good.
Smoking hasnât been a norm for ballet dancers since the 80âs, 90âs latest.
I 1000% agree.. I have a feeling that the trend of smoking cigarettes is going to have a comeback - in women especially. And I gotta say itâs shocking because once in a while I do catch myself thinking that smoking can make you look more elegant which Iâm aware of is total bullshit because in the end lung or other cancer, terrible skin that ages faster and will eventually make you look like a leather handbag as well as bad teeth and a terrible breath really fuckin donât.
So we really need to stop romanticising that shit
I remember one summer intensive I took, the company dancers wouldn't really eat anything on breaks! They'd smoke cigarettes and drink a can of diet coke, which to me was crazy because dancing takes so much energy. I'm glad I saw the negative sides of the art (EDs, fat shaming, unrealistic body standards) back then and never fell into that side. (Although I do acknowledge it was bc I mainly had the waif body type back then and was praised for it. A few of my peers who did not fit that ideal definitely got fat shamed by our teacher.... we weren't even 16!)
the smoking aesthetic was the reason i started smoking when i was 14 and iâm very much addicted now
@@uma3203 I'm so sorry, that's terrible. I hope your doing well.
I definitely remember incorporating what I called "off-duty ballerina" looks into my wardrobe after Black Swan came out. I think the root of the trend is casual femininity, so girly girls can have a more comfortable look while still maintaining their aesthetic. Plus, like most aesthetic fashion trends, it is like a form of dress-up or make-believe. But, this is always from the viewpoint of a young girl viewing ballet with stars in her eyes as opposed to an actual dancer.
As a previous ballet dancer, I'm so excited to see 'balletcore' come back in trend. I would be interested in seeing the ballet 'off-duty' look in gyms e.g. leotard with sweatpants and a wrap cardigan rather than a sports bra and butt wedgie leggings.
Thank you! There are so many ballerinas in the comments who act as if it were appropriation of their clothes and culture and... It's just clothes? Very nice clothes for that matter? Very pretty, feminine, not exactly ballerina, but like... The aesthetics. And even though we should acknowledge the horrors of the industry, some of the commentators are just... Trying to gatekeep it?
that girl that you saw on tiktok is in her mid 20s and described herself as adolescent looking, constantly talks about having the body of a child, wanting to be weak in the presence of, and i quote, âstrong menâ, and used the lana del rey quote about âfeminism is just not an interesting conceptâđ
it's so strange đ especially as someone who has that body type, i'm insecure that this is how others view me, like someone referring to my body as childlike when i'm a 20 yo woman is just ew
Oh god I hope young girls arenât buying her nonsense.
i think i know exactly who ur talking about i JUST saw a screencap of that tiktok on twitter đ
yikes.jpg
When I was 21, a bunch of 12 year old boys thought I was one of them, and someone at a store asked if I was turning 16 when I was buying tacos for a birthday party. But I leaned into it a different way, I've always been more of a tomboy, so I went with it, and made my own style that doesn't fit women's fashion, but also doesn't make me more childish. Just more me.
this ballet/coquette era i think is what officially marks the return of pro-ana in the near future :( im afraid this will become a cycle that happens every 10 years seeing how many other elements from the late 00s/early 10s are coming back
This is what Iâve been thinking as well :/ Which is so exhausting to say the least
i meannn, "pro-instert an ed associated word" never died. It's very much happening everywhere on the internet, just hidden. I don't have an ed but I'm interested in the topic (not in getting sick, just exploring the whole culture of it as an observer) and these communities are huge
@@jagoda3714 This is true, personally I mean within mainstream/popular culture
ikr, i've accidentally stumbled upon pro-ana content while going through these kinda posts way too many times. i know no one owes me trigger warnings, but before i got into this trend it was much harder to come across it and most ED accounts on ig were private. guess i just have to be careful
Well yeah, being skinny and being curvy are just gonna keeping taking turns being trendy
i think itâs also coming back because of the growing obsession with skinny, unobtainable bodies. a couple years ago all i saw on social media was curvy (still sometimes unobtainable) bodies, and girls all strived to look like that. now every girl wants to be skinny
When did that curvy thing happen, cause I kinda missed it?đ đ€ I mean, I know the hourglass shape has been it for a while now, but I feel like the skinny thing never actually stopped during that
Everyone can be lean .We just have different body shape but we all can control our weight even if you are on meds or had an accident just train the rest that you can move ,even someone in a wheelchair can loose weight .Just look at wheelchair marathon ! We live in a lazy /consumerism society that don't want to take responsibility for themselves. Disable people can be lean and shredded and do the Olympic even if their bodies is different .
people has no excuses .We literally can have custom groceries with your own nutritional needs deliver to our door step plus we have access to the internet for healthy information . It laziness and lack of discipline that we have an obese pandemic not because they have "health problems " that such a shitty excuse my mom has heart problem she still move! not moving at all and making herself bed bound is more dangerous then having to exercise even with a heart condition .My child is disable too and her friends are all healthy weight they are lean been skinny fat is not healthy .Adults saying that they cant are full of shit!
@@funnygaming2672 yk that eating disorders exist right? Also being skinny isnât healthier being medium size is đ€Ł
I fear that young eyes will fall on this trend and only see the skinny bodies that they may or may not have already. Taking care of your body is one thing, but comparing it to a body that has trained for countless hours is a story that unfortunately ends so often in problems with mental health. Love this vid!
i think thereâs also something to be said about the rise in popularity of ballet core coinciding with extremely thin bodies becoming super trendy again. iâve noticed most fashion trends lately have thin bodies as a core aspect of the trend, like y2k coming back with the low rise jeans and flat stomachs, and tumblr fashion coming back along with thigh gaps and pro ana culture. iâm super worried about the next couple years, as it seems weâve completely fallen back to the unhealthy trends of the past without modifying them to include various body types :(
these trends also predominantly highlight and uplift white, upper class women.
Seriously.I knew skinny/curvy go in-out of trend in cycles, but seeing it with my own eyes is so strange.
So true! I myself do enjoy a very feminine style and like the ballet core aesthetic but Iâll admit Iâve notice how the body beauty standards are changing again! Iâve also noticed that lots of people that enjoy this very feminine aesthetic tend to romanticise Edâs and unhealthy habits like smoking and drugs and only praise thin bodies. those people ruin the aesthetic for everyone else. I canât imagine how damaging it is for others who want to take part in this aesthetic but feel like they canât because they arenât thin enough :/
Tumblr romanticism has moved to tiktok , it never left , it just moved platforms
i was worried too about the new upcoming trends of the past like skinny, white girls.. but I still have some hope. The fashion is becoming more inclusive and I wish this path will continue as the trends will go by.
Most heartbreaking thing as a little girl is when your ballet teacher pulls you aside and tells you you need to lose weight and that your feet are to big (I was 10 ). So i never danced again cause all i can remeber is that mean old woman.
I have huge feet. Whenever someone comments on it I say in a joking or sweet tone "Yeah, makes it easier to kick someone's ass" and smile.
I am a dancer with really wide feet. I say it gives me better balance! I'm so sorry you experienced this. I hope you can reassociate joy with dance & movement
Its fucking mean. Try ballet again love đ
i was 12 when my russian classical ballet teacher told me i was fat (i was 90 pounds) and that my personality was horrendous and i was the most annoying person she had ever met for talking even though i was not talking đ ballet is fun!
a similar thing happened to me actually, it werenât my weight or feet but my glasses.As a young girl I had extremely bad eyesight (now at 21 still have but not as bad as when I was younger). I literally couldnât see further than about 5 meters without glasses, couldnât even draw a straight line on the paper or predict distances and stuff. (Actually once had a terrible accident at an indoor playground because of that, wasnât wearing glasses and crashed into another kid which lead to me biting a hole through my lip but thatâs another story). I had to wear my glasses as much as possible so my eyesight had a chance of improvement.
But then when we were about to have our first stage experience (with Flight of the Bumblebee of course đ), like 1 week before the performance my ballet teacher told my mum I was âof course forbidden to wear glasses for the performanceâ my mum was like wtf and told her that I needed my glasses to .. well see decently and that I wouldnât be able to participate without because I wouldnât be able to see where I or the other girls were going. So my mum of course insisted that I would be wearing my glasses but my teacher told her that she would rather have me not performing than me performing with glasses because âa prima ballerina simply doesnât wear glassesâ.. we were maybe 5 or 6 years old .. like come on
my mum was more pissed than any mum at dance mums ever đ but she kept her cool.. I wasnât present when my mum had that talk with her and my teacher was always really really nice to us but after that situation(and literally because she hated every other mum and kid there lol) my mum did try and in the end managed to âtalk me out of balletâ
I mean I can understand since back then I was also belly dancing and horse riding and swimming and my mum started feeling how stressed I was with the whole ballet situation because the whole atmosphere was already very competitive and very toxic and even though I enjoyed all of these activities it was a little much in general so one day she was like âyou gotta chose one that you want to stop doingâ.
Today I gotta say Iâm sometimes âmadâ that she talked me out of it because ballet is beautiful and I wish I could dance like that.. that little 6 year old girl is still inside me ngl
but it was probably for the best because first of all I was hella ugly during pre- puberty and puberty with acne bullying etc and already had low self esteem and ballet wouldâve probably given me the rest with all the girls there bullying me as well, probably even worse than at school so well I guess I wouldâve ended up with an ED or wouldâve practiced self harm or wouldâve gotten into drugs etc soo yeah..
business is so toxic, sorry not sorry even tho it looks beautiful and Iâm sometimes kinda jealous and wish I could be a ballerina đ©°
As a young black girl, I wanted to be a prima ballerina so badly. My family couldnât afford it. I remember looking online to find ballet schools, how to deepen my arch, how much leotards and shoes would cost, how many years I had left to squeeze myself into the ballerina window to be on pointe and possibly a professional. It truly was my dream. Iâm in my mid 20s now and I still love to dance on my own, but I can finally afford to go to different dance classes.
A part of me still wonders how far I couldâve gone under different circumstances and opportunities. Ballet is a beautiful yet dark art as youâve described. Will always be close to my heart though.
Oh, I have such a similar regret. I'm not black but iw as kinda poor growing up, and my parents didn't care to enroll me for ballet classes. I was Incredibly sad for years that I would never be a ballerina. Danced ballet for one year tho at 14 yo and loved it but had to stop it due to financial problems.
Ive seen a lot of great nuanced discourse from former ballet dancers in the comments and wanted to throw in a much less profound take
As someone who did ballet for most of their childhood/teen years this trend just really makes me giggle because during class, rehearsals, or essentially any time we were in the studio, there was absolutely none of this vibe. (At my studio, others may have different experiences) We wore black leotards and plain tights that had to be pre approved- and that was it. NO leg warmers, no sweaters, no off the wall leotards (colored wouldâve gotten you kick out of class) no hair clips and absolutely ZERO jewelry. We could perhaps get away with a black wrap skirt on a good day.
I find the balletcore trend divorcing the clothes from the athletic work of ballet similar to cottagecore. I feel like a lot of the cottagecore aesthetic ignores the physical labor of agricultural work. Iâm not making a value judgement of those who like the aesthetic but I just find it intriguing.
I completely agree on the cottagecore thing. Everyone was saying "I just want to sell everything and live in a cottage in the woods" but only want to if the cottage has running water, Wi-Fi and a Whole Foods near by. My cousin owns her own land and her hands are pretty rough from all the upkeep she does and work tending to the animals.
Definitely, as a ballet dancer it does feel a little like the hard work and training we do is being devalued by this 'trend', I don't want to sound like I'm gatekeeping but I hope it ends soon lol. Especially because of the issues surrounding ballet like EDs/racism/gender roles etc. And I totally agree about the cottagecore aesthetic. I've never seen anyone talk about that online before. It's like on social media we have an obsession with romanticising things and seeing only the pretty, edited version of them.
as a ballerina itâs definitely exciting to see ballet transferring to the fashion world but it is a little strange lol
yeah same. i for sure like it when ballet gets popularity but it's such a complicated art form that sometimes it leads into really interesting results xdd
I think it's funny to see all the leg-warmers and layering for aesthetics, when we do it, it's more for comfort and avoiding injuries during classes/practice and we often end up taking them off by the end of the class lol like I never intentionally chose my outfit for class because it was about what was clean (bcuz damn we go thru so much clothes with all that sweating đŠ) and comfortable to move in
this is so TRUEEE. i used to hide the fact i did do ballet but nowww... meh
@@lila-bp9fl yes, this hobby was worth keeping x)
being a ballet dancer is very complex emotionally! to love something so much but also know that it's inherently abusive really messes with your head!
I know so many people in the comments have already said this, but it really bothers me as a ballet dancer that ballet is a trend when half of these people don't even know anything about ballet.
@@natalie4649 Yeah, I understand a lot of people just like the ballet aesthetic, which is totally understandable.. I should have clarified that it's the people who claim to know more than me that annoy me. :)
iâm a ballerina and iâm honestly so tired of these other 14-15 year olds who romanticize the art form with eating disorder and white frail women. thatâs not what ballet is about. most of these people who romanticize it have usually never done ballet or took a couple classes when they were 4. itâs upsetting when people only appreciate the rehearsal attire or the movies about ballet dancers and not the actual ballerinas or the performance
So true! I hate most dance movies because they so often push this image of it being so dramatic and dark. I wouldn't do this if it were like that! I dance because it brings me joy. Yes there's pain, and yes the industry has a lot of work to do, but romanticizing the drama leaves you with something that doesn't even remotely resemble my experience of dancing.
yeah how many of these girls are buying tickets for their local company or taking adult ballet classes in the community? it's not a real appreciation for the art form.
@@elizabethsaltmarsh8306 YESSS
I completely agree. I'm not a ballerina, but I am a jazz dancer and I've been taught the basics that ballet and all the Western dance forms revolve around. Jazz uses these particular jazz shoes and I think I'd be quite upset if people who could not give a shit about the actual artform were seen wearing the same shoes. So I know where you're coming from.
@@nekomancer09 agree!
the duolingo "correct!" noise after the pronunciation the French girls name absolutely took me out. anyways lovely video
i feel like the _renaissance_ of edtwt and edtiktok has also contributed to the balletcore aesthetic
Ballet is a beautiful type of dance and is so creative when put with beautiful music. Thereâs so much more behind ballet and the balletcore aesthetic
As a boy from a small rural town, when I was a kid, I wanted so hard to enroll into a ballet academy. However, my parents were worried of suffering bullying and my teachers dissuaded them. Now in my thirties, I still want to learn ballet. Once I said it at home and my father ask me to forgive them because the decision they made. They told me that if they had known then how resilient and costant I was going to be, they would have enrolled me. You know, 'cause, although I suffered some bullying, I never cared about it. This year I'm ending my PhD in literature and it will be the first time in my life when I will have free time to pursue ballet. And I am seriously wondering it.
Go for it!! Taking an adult ballet class is fun, you'll meet people who have never taken a dance class in thier life to experienced dancers wanting to try something new. I recommend a community College for beg. Ballet. Ps. A friend of mine started when she was in her early 40s and is still taking classes
Please go for it! I did ballet for a while in college (so started in my 20's; moved to another dance genre after... but not the point here!) and I had the great privilege of having an inspiring classmate who started ballet IN HIS 70's :) He really showed me that it's never too late to start something you want to try. I hope you have an absolute blast with a fun teacher and friendly classmates âĄ
There are tons of adult ballet classes in many regions. Also there are tons of classes from beginner to advanced on youtube and other platforms. I sometimes follow along with Kathryn Morgan, Lazy Dancer Tips, Move with Nicole, and Madfit when I can't make it to an in person class and want to work on building strength or want to do a more ballet inspired workout.
Do it!! It's never too late to start!
do it!!
I think the ballet trend "resurgence" goes hand in hand with the 2014 aesthetic resurgence. Like there is something about the warm-up gear fashion in the ballet world that is perpetually stuck in the early 2010s: Low-waisted leggings, uggs, incoherent patterning, jersey knits, *wired headphones*, an unadulterated love for glitter, and the 2014 chokehold on the pink and grey colour scheme.
Balletcore feels like a spectacle of my trauma, told in a romanticized version to an audience of starstuck viewers.
Recently I've found out I really love ballet. It started with watching clips from the royal ballet, I realized ballets were like operas, just wordless operas. They're a wonderful often overlooked medium of storytelling
My love for ballet can specifically be credited to Angelina Ballerina
she was an inspiration to us all
Me too!
Me too!
And barbie swan lake!
As someone who's sitting here watching this in a leo and tights after Sunday rehearsal, I find it very funny how most non-dancers' image of us is blush pink, black, and clean. Most dancers I know prefer bright colors (or at the very least not black or pink, since that's what we were forced to wear as uniforms when we were younger). Most wear multiple layers of baggy warm ups, and often these clothes have holes in them or are unraveling around the edges. Lots of people cut the feet off their tights or wear them over the leotard, whatever makes it easier for you to move and remove layers as you get warm. The fashion version is often a lot more fashionable than an actual dancer (if you don't look homeless are you even ready for class?)
As for appropriation, I don't really get annoyed by little girls wearing tutus. I do get annoyed by pop stars or cosplayers wearing pointe shoes without properly training their feet and ankles, because it's dangerous. Yes there is also an element of "I earned that" gatekeeping going on, but considering how much work you do to prepare for your first pair of pointe shoes, it really doesn't feel great when someone tries a pair on for funsies. Anyone is welcome to wear legwarmers, ballet flats, tulle skirts, and wrap sweaters as far as I'm concerned, but please leave pointe shoes for people who know what they're doing.
Yes, to baggy, unending warm up layers! That's the real dancer aesthetic! Plus, I agree that children wearing tutus isn't an issue, and it's much more annoying to see popstars were pointe shoes.
agreed, the real ballerina aesthetic is more geared towards functionality
@@meganpeitzcobarescobar8137 I want to see a comedy sketch of someone taking off a dancer's layers and finding more clothes underneath until at the end it's like a picture of Misty Copeland and a Nutcracker CD dressed up as a human đ€Ł
Also the cut out tights doubling as sweaters , and people always forget the no rings no necklaces no bracelets no earrings and no nails (no makeup either at least for me some places arent like that tho)
You canât wear point shoes, theyâre stiff blocks. You can only wear slippers. I know the pinnacle of ballet is to do a group or couple performance wearing not rehearsal wear. So far, Iâm at the afford basic classes level lol. Pointe shoes are almost shrouded in mystery, as some people donât know if the shoe is hard or the dancer is just that strong/that itâs humanly possible. Itâs a gatekept world and people want to know
Black swan was based on the anime 'Perfect Blue'. I really suggest that movie and Satoshi Kon's other works!
...........it was not based from it, some scenes were inspired by it... just as it was inspired by many other things/real life characters.
@@ecstasy5022 He literally bought the rights so Satoshi Kons movies đ
@@dearvermin No he didn't, Aronofsky acknowledged the similarities in 2010, but denied that Black Swan was inspired by Perfect Blue. As a matter of fact, read about the development of the film, it was inspired by many other things and real life character .
@@ecstasy5022 My mistake, turns out he only attempted to buy it meaning he blatantly copied things from Statoshi Kons movie!
I suggest you watch Perfect Blue and realise that people can very much lie about not taking any inspiration.
@@dearvermin bruh its like 2 unoriginal scenes out of an almost 2 h movie... its not that deep
I feel it also taps on the fact that really thin bodies are back on style again, with the rebirth of the Tumblr girl and all the memes saying the Kardashians removed their bbls, an anesthetic that revolves around thin bodies seems natural in that context
Iâm a professional male ballet dancer with âAmerican Ballet Theatreâ there has always been ties between ballet and fashion. Its cool too see people take inspiration from what we wear on a daily basis to warm up.
But that being said this whole âballetcoreâ thing makes me cringe.
Agreed, very cringey đŹ seems more inspired by what children wear to class than what actual professional dancers wear.
@@emilykarell-chu692 exactly!!!!!
omg iâm sorry to freak out but thatâs so cool that you dance at abt!! iâm a 16 year old ballet dancer and my dream is to dance there
edit: i may have looked you up and youâre so cool lol, keep up the amazing work :))
I took a ballet class once when I was 7, I got called fat by the instructor so I quit... or more so my mom got us kicked out of the building đł Ballet is such a beautiful art form though I just wish my introduction to it wasnât so brutal!
if itâs not brutal in the beginning it will eventually get there anywayâŠ
@@ashley-wk3zl So it's better to just scare away anyone who doesn't fit the standard?
Go Mom, but screw that teacher! I'm so sorry you're introduction into the art form was so horrible. As a curvy dance teacher who was fat-shamed dancer/student, it's extremely important for me to show that all bodies are capable of beautiful, expressive movement
@@meganpeitzcobarescobar8137 it sounds like youâre doing really great things!! â€ïž
a similar thing happened to me, but the teacher was homophobic I guess??? I was 6 and hugged my girl-friend from behind, the instructor went wild hahaha
I love how you are always experimenting with your outfits so boldly I find it inspiring
Low key Iâm so excited for this! I love a reason to wear costumes in every day situations and this one will definitely be fun to work with
I was talking about doing pointe to a stranger once and how long it took for me to get used to my feet in the shoes. He did not hesitate to say, â yeah well you donât get concussions like football players so itâs not that bad.â Sir, I have to deal with my toe nails coming off while looking happy, so please *shut up*.
omfg pointe shoes destroyed my feet i feel u đ
Not to mention you absolutely could get a concussion if you slipped and fell in a bad way
@@katniss425 exactly. When I first started pointe, I had a friend who had to go home. We where doing and exercise and she ended up falling. She didnât have to get stitches or anything, but it was pretty bad.
@@tayy3439 đ
Ugh what is it with men and oneupmanship?
I was hoping you'd mention the Alvin & Ailey Dance Company, the famous black-founded ballet theater opened in 1950's NYC combating the segregation and unfair racial advantages within the ballet industry (there's a documentary on YT) and Zelda Wynn Valdes who designed her own brand of diverse ballet shoe colors for the also famous Dance Theater of Harlem - side note she also created the Playboy bunny costume! Ballet representation is very white but the history isn't. So many unsung hidden figures.
I love Ailey, but his company performs modern dance, not ballet. (Although their dancers are highly trained in ballet, as well.) Dance Theater of Harlem is a ballet company.
Yeah same, unfortunately, if you dont dig that hard you wont know abt the unsung heroes, like i learnt this just last week
@@cicihouston6965 ohh cool
Ballet history is 100% white. Ballet is a european art form, it is integrally tied to european culture. It was invented in 16th century italy then spread around the rest of europe. From the music to the costumes to the choreography it's all european culture
What an amazing video!
I'm a Brazilian, in training to be a ballerina, I've always loved ballet.
I loved how you did an extensive study on the history of ballet.
TW: mentions of EDâs, body image issues, racism and SA.
I started dancing even before I could write or even memorise my own name. I did a variety of dancing such as jazz, hip-hop, regional, aerial dancing, and even more. Of course, I also did ballet. I did multiple other sports and I can tell you that there is not a single place out there, in my experience and opinion, as toxic and perpetuating EDâs than ballet. At that very young age youâre taught that what matters most is your âshapeâ. Your weight, your body, and even your hair are more important than your individuality and your health.
For a number of reasons I left ballet, one of them (not the most important to me but important nevertheless) was because of how much it matters for you to go up the ladder if you have connections in that world. There was this one girl that would always get the main roles just because she knew personally our teacher.
I left, a few years went by, and I was missing it so much. I came back at the academy I formerly was. They inspected me, made me do some exercises and after I was done they told me that my form and shape was perfect, I was very flexible, that I was still ver strong but that in order for me to come back I had to lose weight. They told me to go get on a diet, mind you I wasnât even 16. I already had a bad relationship with food but that worsened it because I kept thinking I had to get into that ballerina shape. I had that image of myself taking parts of myself with scissors just so I could go back.
I want to also add the countless accusations of sexual assault that I have heard of from multiple ballerinas is absolutely horrendous. It is awful how not only is it not being talked about enough but also how normalised it is. It is sickening how ballerinas have to keep their mouths shut in order for them to keep their position in whatever place they are.
Regarding the racism, if I had it bad, the women (girls at that point) who werenât white would have it even worse with how they looked. Either they were being asked 10 times more of what any other white girls were or they were blatantly ignored.
I am now trying to get back on ballet as a 20 year old but the world of ballet, as pretty and âaesthetically pleasingâ as it is, it shouldnât be romanticised. I wish for ballet core to finally have people outside of the dancing community the countless issues the dancing world, especially ballet, has.
If you wish to see further about body image issues and EDâs in the ballet world, please watch Kathryn Morganâs videos on the topic, especially her âWhy I Left Miami City Ballet Videoâ and her videos of her autoimmune disease. She is such an inspiration.
as a ballet dancer i'm conflicted about this trend. on one hand it's super cute and i'm glad ballet is in the spotlight, but it feels like these people are commodifying the exhausting, strenuous experience that ballet actually is. when i think of dance i don't think of the pinterest ballet aesthetic. hell, i'm not even allowed to wear skirts and legwarmers and shit most of the time. maybe i'm just jealous they get the cutesy aesthetic with none of the pain, or maybe i feel like they don't deserve to parade around pinterest without even understanding and ounce of what it takes to be a dancer.
For me this feels like a different way of experiencing those people who would go "oh u do ballet hahaha i can do ballet too look its just spinning around like this " *proceeds to turn with the arms somewhat up *
It reminds me of an old teacher of mine, who explained that teachers were allowed to wear long skirts to class because they had dedicated their whole life to the art. Like, you're not allowed to express yourself in class AT ALL until you become an adult professional. Before that, you're in a uniform usually.
@@blondie9909 EXACTLY that always makes me so mad
@@jessicatatum7769 perfect analogy
basically summed up exactly how i feel as a ballet dancer about this whole thing lolll
Young dancers at the Opéra de Paris being called "petits rats" had nothing to do with social status or low morals. The young dancers ran around the corridors of the Opéra, took classes in various dance studios in the upper parts of the Opéra and the sound of their feet striking the floor bords was compared to that of rats running around... Hence "petits rats" (not "petite", rat in French is a masculine word). The school is no longer in the Opéra, but in a more modern building. But young students of the Paris Opéra School are still called "petits rats".
I love this aesthetic it flows very well into the coquette aesthetic which I also love đđ itâs so pretty and doesnât have to be about whiteness and thinness if you donât let it be and wear the style of you like it!
I love how much effort you put into reaserch, thank youu
If this is your first time she does not usually say "hello my beautiful swans" she says "hello my beautiful doves"
As an ex-classical ballet dancer I see this trend as particularly shallow. Taking anything that people have to work their asses off to achieve, that people make incredible sacrifices in order to pursue, just to make it *trendy* feels insulting. Mina, you really covered this well. Thank you.
Edit: Iâd love to underscore how hugely problematic it would be for the whole waif aesthetic to return, thanks to this ballet core nonsense. While eating disorders, from my experience, do rage throughout the ballet world, there is also a need to be very strong while lean as a dancer. Dancers have a ton of muscle. And yes, ballet historically has excluded people of color and that is changing. I hope the ballet core people recognize this and change with the times, just like the ballet world has begun to.
Exactly!!
A lot of people with earring disorders have lithe muscles and work out a lot. Working out a lot is often associated with EDs
@@kirag9509 totally. I didn't mean to imply that this (what you said) can't be the case.
I suffered from an ED for a good decade while I danced and for a bit after and I remember at one point being insulted because someone said I looked lean but strong because I have muscles. I was barely eating and dancing 5+ hours a day.
I don't think ballet is racist. If it has European origins it would make sense that it is mostly people of European descent that are part of the ballet community, after all it is their heritage. However, I do. think that it is needed that brown and black ballerinas are able to find the appropriate shoes. I know of two companies that specialise in ballet shoes for people with darker complections so it is becoming more available.
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mina always gives the best most informative video essays, you seriously never disappoint .
I am hoping the rise of âballet coreâ will lead to an increase in sizes available in dancewear. I take adult ballet classes (like itâs my hobby, Iâm not a pro dancer or anything) and am on the mid to larger side. There is dancewear available for my size but not a lot and Iâd love to see more including leotards structurally created for someone my size.
Iâm in the same boat as you dancewear wise, but idk how much this trend will affect the sizing as a lot appear to be waif/very thin
Yes yes!!!
And more options for younger boys!!! Let everyone feel comfortable in dance gear!!
Yes Snag Tights finally started selling plus size dance tights
i know ballet isnât super size inclusive, and finding dance wear isnât something i struggle with but the brand cloud and victory has sizes xs-3xl and they have the prettiest leotards
nođ
Another thing that boosted the rise of the ballet aesthetic is that the ideal or "trendy" body type for women changed from Kardashian hourglass to ballerina thin
It definitely also has smt to do with 2000s fashion being in trend again so sadly the body will be in trend again
As someone who is naturally ballerina thin and wishes I could be Kardashian curvy⊠I welcome the change. I think itâs unfair to say being thin is unnatural. Real womenâs bodies are every body type.
@Ariana Fox itâs every body type but we keep bouncing back and forth between stick thin cokette and unrealistic coke body proportions. I donât welcome the change at all. Now weâre just gonna go from the skinny girls feeling bad to non skinny, non ideally proportioned, curvy or fat women feeling bad. Which statistically, most women in the US at least fall into the latter group. Lmao letâs stop celebrating oscillating between two extremes of the TWO options that are allowed for women s bodies. Itâs disheartening. i guess weâre gonna go from the dangerous rise in BBLs to another cosmetic surgery that gives the coveted thigh gap and protruding bones in all the right places. Edit: by âtwo extremesâ I donât mean thatâs itâs unnatural or that there arenât people who naturally have either body type that shouldnât be just as celebrated. But theyâre typically body types that are just that, often influenced almost 100% by genetics or gained through rigorous dieting or cosmetic maintenance that are enforced as the standard ALL women should aspire to.
your videos are so well researched and you talk about it in a captivating manner. thanks!
This video is so incredibly well put together, I love this channel.
About early ballets costumes : I did my art history thesis on the russian artist Erté who worked for Poiret before designing clothes and doing illustrations for Harper's Bazaar magazine. Erté worked on many ballets and operas and his decors and costumes are truly amazing, I recommend to check his work since he's not really well known outside of Russia and France !
yesss definitely! also if you like this style check out violet chachki, she sometimes takes inspo from him and it's just *chef's kiss*
Thank for bringing up the fact that Bardot is racist⊠sheâs been sued for racist insults against my people from Reunion island and I am always upset that people are admiring her
I think admiring her is ok when it's only about her talent which most people do anything else is obviously not
Yup, she's racist and sexist. She has tried to pass off both as being a reflection of her time but honestly it's bull crap because she continued to spout the same crap well into old age.
Imo Brigitte Bardot is entitled to the views she holds. No one has to agree. But she is an iconic figure in cinematic history, so of course people are still going to idolize her...people are not one dimensional and I wish more would understand this. You can have an unpopular view and still be a fascinating and great person in many other ways. To reduce them to just "problematic" due to one singular view You disagree with is in itself problematic.
@@belladonna5904 yeah letâs normalize sexism and racism. Do yall even think?
@@belladonna5904 You can appreciate someoneâs work/talent and still acknowledge that theyâre a problematic person though...especially in the film industry
out of topic your outfit in this video is absolutely adorable mina !!
Listening to you talk about stuff I learned in my dance appreciation class last semester is cool because we learned about the costumes but not about this larger topic of influencing fashion so thank you for sharing this
just a frame of reference,
long calf length tulle skirts=romantic tutu
short, plate/disk shaped tulle skirts= classical tutu
short, floppier skirts= neoclassical tutu
We love the black swan look bc we too are deranged and paranoid sheâs the joker of the girlbosses
I hope this is satire. Agreed but if you genuinely believe the Amy dune etc jokes that's...
God I love a good fashion history video. So well done!!
As a dancer and fashion enthusiast, this is so well researched! Thank you dear. Another brilliant video x
i did ballet when i was a little girl. admittedly, my favourite part of going was wearing pastel coloured wrap skirts and cardigans - they're so pretty!
i definitely have seen some people who participate in this subculture also romanticise the early 2000's off duty model looks (specifically for how skinny those models looked back then) and also encourage ED within their own circles,, for example the other day i accidentally stumbled on ED twt and a lot of those accs would make sort of like moodboards of balletcore and off duty model looks while at the same time encouraging each other to fast (and not for healthy amounts of time) in otder to achieve those looks. so whenever i see aesthetics like this i cant help but wonder if its popular for the look or the body type that it encourages
unfortunately ED twt, ED tiktok and other pro-ana/pro-ED social media communities have been using similar trends as thinspo for years, although it has definitely been out of the mainstream for the past half decade or so. Iâm recovering from my ED (Iâm in my early 20s) and was definitely badly affected by the mainstream pro-ana tumblr aesthetic when I was a young teen. I worry a lot for the young teenagers now who will be badly affected by this aesthetic :(
@@Sarah-oy2lr heyoo in early 20's also recovering from an ED. Hope you are doing well !
It's honestly really sad to hear that Instagram and Twitter are becoming pro-ana spaces just like Tumblr used to be:( I think those spaces are way more damaging than we think, and I really feel like Tumblr had A LOT of pro-ana content. Most people roughly my age that I've met in treatment remembers Tumblr specifically being really pervasive and unhealthy for their eating disorder early on in teen years.
I really wish social media companies would actually censor the content that needs to be like any pro ED content.
I deleted all my social media and I highly encourage you to do the same, especially if you struggle with an ED. Social media is just such a bad trigger and super toxic for anyone imo
I just...really like the colors and fabric
You captured the history of ballet very well, I feel like you just contextualized my college dance history course đ. Also, thank you a million times for touching on black dancers in ballet and in this aesthetic. Ive been dancing for 15+ yrs and im honestly excited about rehearsal wear getting popularized. its unfortunate that the rigidity of the aesthetic extends into the industry as well but maybe that will change with more people interested in the art form
i don't know how it happened but this 35 married white cis guy, who has not cared about fashion for a second of his life find your videos some of the most interesting. i think it is your genuine enthusiasm with a mix of genuine knowledge.
I feel like ballet core feels like something I could wear at home without looking plain/not put together. It's like a more beautiful style if what I already wear in my day to day. I live in sweat pants, cotton tank tops, and fluffy socks. So the transition to tights, tank tops with thinner straps, sweaters, and skirts wouldn't be hard for me.
I really appreciate your take on this trend; you clearly did your research! As an Asian American who danced for 12 years, I felt very heard and seen from what you said. I was also excited to see you reference dancers such as Misty Copeland and Gelsey Kirkland (I've read both of their autobiographies). Thank you for putting this all into words!
I love how well researched your videos are!
I have been doing neoclassical ballet for over 12 years and still take ballet at 30. I went in Kroger recently with my footless tights, and Leo with a skort and a group of like 20 somethings was like that's so cute and was raving over my outfit and I was so confused. Thank you for explaining this because I did NOT know ballet core was a thing
thank you for your well thought out content, these deep dives of yours are really something else đđ
i gave up doing ballet after doing it off and on for a few years in my childhood and ive always regretted it. ballet core is like my way of recapturing my youth and lets me relive the joy ballet brought me. i should definitely look into doing a ballet hobby class
As a side comment regarding the "ballet has a racist history" line - I honestly think people in general need to remember that the majority of the world has a racist history, because historically, societies have been racist. It shouldn't be taken as a critique of something or as a political statement to say "XYZ has a racist history" because that's going to be true of the majority of things, and to avoid that discussion/statement is to undermine + discredit both the topic and yourself (the person discussing it).
History being recognized as what is it instead of what we wish it was is not a negative thing. And the only way to make the present and future less racist (or sexist, transphobic, etc etc) is to acknowledge the full history + use it to inform us moving forward.
Edit: to avoid confusion;
I think racism is BAD and SHOULD BE DISCUSSED when talking about any/all topics, as is it a pervasive aspect of human history.
I DO NOT THINK that racism is POSITIVE or that racism should be excused because "that's in the past, why do you keep bringing it up, it's over now" etc bullshit excuses.
If you think RACISM IS BAD, we agree on my main point.
This.
I love this comment so much! I completely agree. On another comment I replied with this information about the history and changes racially in ballet:
When speaking about racist history in ballet, many companies have performed in blackface (especially in Russia) for hundreds of years. This has been brought to light recently, and one of the most famous ballet companies (Mariinsky) has decided to change the name from something that is VERY non PC to "The Arab" dance. It is worth mentioning that most of the ballet companies that continued to support these stereotypes are countries with a very rich history in ballet. Marius Petipa's (choreographer of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, etc.) work is so heavily worshipped, that Russians are unwilling to change it. They argue that this is part of the history of ballet, and to change that work is to paint over a piece of art. This in turn makes us question social ethics and the history of art.
No, it has to be acknowledged
It is recently history though, and racism continues to be present in the industry.
@@tammyb5607 I completely agreed with the original comment. I hope knowing this information as well also will put your mind at ease⊠they have been changing the dances and removing the blackface characters⊠I have never supported it, I simply think this cultural history is something that is important to ponder. Why did they do it? Why was it allowed then? How has this changed society?How are we to justify our morals if we have no knowledge of the history of which they came from? My original comment was by no means an acceptance of this unjustifiable situation, but a way to allow others to create their own moral grounds. I also would like to give a shout out to the historic poc who helped with the sets and stage, yet received very little recognition. Though no one receives recognition today, it is another thing I wanted to point out. Anyway, hope you all do well and question your environment so that way you can make it the way you wish it to be! â€ïž