explaining the ballet trend in fashion (balletcore)

PODCAST
for extra content every Wednesday 😈

Sources:

The Politics of Gender and the Revival of Ballet in Early Twentieth Century France by Ilyana Karthas

Reading the Ballerina's Body: Susan Bordo Sheds Light on Anastasia Volochkova and Heidi Guenther by Wendy Oliver

The dancer at work: The aesthetic and politics of practice clothes and leotard costumes in ballet performance by Tamara Tomic-Vajagic

In praise of sheer perfection: Ballet, clothing, and Japanese culture by Masafumi Monden

Girlhood, Ballet, and the Cult of the Tutu by Mariko Turk

0:00 - intro
0:31 - a brief history
7:57 - explaining balletcore
14:06 - why is it popular?

[Katamaricilla]

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.

[nerizaberlin]

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. I’m 22 now and i’ve been doing “adult ballet” for a year, i’m not very good, but it fills me with so much joy that I can now access that exclusive, prestigious femininity I was denied…as vapid as that sounds 😂

[mossmoss]

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

[bridgetf]

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 :/

[angeles]

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

[mirari_xvinyls]

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.

[kikiminaj]

I feel “the ballet fashion” always existed in fashion it just wasn’t fully processed as ballet Core. Like a leotard is almost like one piece. Corsets, leggings, stockings etc

[Stellalun_a]

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.)

[m_a_k_e_n_n_a]

This is 100% yet another “aesthetic” that at its core, is just showcasing thinness as its main accessory

[zaplepikachu]

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.

[liasharee]

as a ballet dancer i believe the aesthetic of “ballet core” started getting more popular during the surge of “fairy grunge”, “twilight core”, and “lolita themes”. 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 i’m super happy to see it getting it’s recognition, but shouldn’t be romanticized. it’s 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.

[anap]

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

[itsbasicboi]

I’m so glad you’re 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 Balanchine’s work. I also loved how talked about how men were looked down upon for dancing as I’ve faced that myself when I first started dancing.

[kristenjameson]

As a current professional ballet dancer and ballet professor, I’m just gonna say it: this trend irritates me. Someone else said this below, but I’ll 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 isn’t aesthetic to us, it’s 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 city’s 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!

[annievoss]

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!

[whatkindofnameisella]

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.

[teraphIl]

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.

[reillyg]

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. great video it was really well researched and thought out!

[sabinewallis]

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.

[valentinecore]

i also think its worth mentioning that the “coquette” aesthetic is only called that bc it used to be “nymphet” (from lolita originally) but they faced backlash for romanticizing pedophilia