Ballet teaching consigning too many girls to failure

By GILBERT WONG arts editor

Dance teacher turned researcher Marian McDermott did not exactly enjoy her 15 minutes of fame last week. Talkback lines ran hot. Television news did that rare thing: an arts story.

But lost in all the tales of eating disorders, scary stage parents and lost self-esteem were the reasons McDermott did what she did.

In an article in the April issue of danz, the magazine of Dance Aotearoa, McDermott wrote: "It is disconcerting to realise that there are obvious parallels to be seen between the 19th-century model of a perfect female and the 21st-century model of a desirable ballet student/dancer.

"The 19th-century female was expected to be submissive, genteel, mindless, pretty and ornamental and never complaining. Women were expected to suppress their individuality and personality for the pleasure of others. It is surprising that many of these anti-feminist and suppressive ideas continue in ballet classes today."

Speaking to the Herald, she stands by this, saying present teaching practice consigns too many girls to failure.

"I have so many accounts of underachievers who are not wanted - the girls who get breasts and hips, with the wrong figure, aren't wanted. They aren't made to feel valued. All of them are valuable."

McDermott is no failed wannabe. She trained in Wellington under Deirdre Tarrant, attained ballet and contemporary dance qualifications and helped to found the Footnote Dance Company. She taught ballet for Limbs and ran the community ballet programme for the Performing Arts School in Auckland.

The questionnaires, more than 100 of which she has gathered and will continue to gather, along with 40 interviews, were requested to build a more objective picture of what she witnessed in ballet competitions. Too many girls were silent, their sense of self seemingly caged by fear of failure, she says.

Coverage of McDermott's research has upset other dance teachers but she is unrepentant. "What I want to happen is the ballet experience to become positive so even the least-talented have a wonderful time. In the end we need those people to have a passion for dance, to carry it on so they go to support dance and we might get bigger audiences.

"Take rugby. There are piles of people who play but only a few can ever become All Blacks. But it's fine to play.

"I think the main goal for ballet teachers is for students to become ballerinas. But not everyone can become a professional dancer. I'd like us to move on to the idea that the very first time you dance, you are a dancer."