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kameliendame

Anonymous asked:

Is 5ft 8 too tall for a ballerina?

oh, not at all! it’s actually a desirable height- tall enough to fit the long limbed ideal but not too tall for the men to partner. I’d say if youre en pointe youd be around 5’9, and most male dancers being 6ft or taller it wont be an issue with partnering.

On a more general note- if youre asking this because youre thinking of going pro, i can assure you height wont matter as much as people would want you to believe. A good dancer is a good dancer no matter their height. You have short dancers who are/were very succesful in their careers (Clairemarie Osta and Tamara Rojo come to mind, also Alina Cojocaru and Maria Kochetkova) as well as tall dancers (Zenaida Yanowsky, Agnès Letestu, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Maria Alexandrova, Ulyana Lopatkina, Sylvie Guillem, etc). When youre auditioning the first and foremost thing the jury will be looking at is your technique, alignment, épaulement and musicality- all things that have absolutely nothing to do with how short or tall you are.

strechanadi

Hate to be pedantic, but…

“height won’t matter as much as people would want you to believe” - well it would matter more or less. There are still companies, that won’t accept ballerina shorter or taller than their preferred norm (for example national company at my country just announced this year’s audition - looking for ballerinas between 165 - 173 cm). I’m not saying, they won’t let taller/shorter dancer audition, however at the same time I know dancers were sent home from audition, purely because they were too tall for the company and they even didn’t let them do audition class. Which sounds crazy, and I admit it’s a few years old information, so maybe companies could be more open nowadays.

What it the most important in classical company for ballerinas - there have to be male dancers suitable for them. You can be gorgeous dancer with impeccable technique, musicality and all, but if every potential dance partner is 10 cm shorter than you (talking about classical ballets, where female dancers are on pointe plus have some tiara, that makes them even taller) …
And it’s not just about aesthetics (I personally hate, when ballerina is taller then her partner, but I’m not saying it’s the same for everyone) (and yes, I know Nureyev, who wasn’t exactly tall, danced with young Guillem… ), it is also about health. It’s considerably harder for male dancer to do all the classical partnering and overhead lifts with a girl, who is taller, or even the same height as they are.
One example again, there was a ballerina in one of the national companies, who left for Monte Carlo, purely because in her previous company wasn’t any suitable partner for her (she’s with J.C. Maillots company now since Maillot loves tall dancers). (Markéta Pospíšilová, if anyone is interested.)

BUT - your height shouldn’t stop you in your dance career! You maybe won’t be able to dance in your dream company and/or you would have to work harder than anyone (even dancer like Agnes Letestu always said she had to fight for certain roles like Giselle, Juliette, Aurora. And she actually HAD partners to dance with, so the problem of tall ballerinas is not just partnership, but also the fact, that many roles in classical repertoir are 16yo girls) but there would be another companies more diverse, or simply with taller dancers (I feel Mariinsky is surely one of them, or let’s try Netherlands, Dutch are one of the tallest nationalities… Or I feel like american companies could be more open in this diversity. Although I think I read some interviews with tall ballerinas, who said they had to go to Europe, because they won’t find a company in the US, so who knows.)

Oh and “most male dancers being 6ft or taller” - IF ONLY!

(side note - I’m not particularly good with numbers, but if someone is 5ft 8 I guess they won’t be 5ft 9 on pointe. I’m 5ft 11 and on pointe I’m nearly 6ft 3 (but I admit, my feet are as big as an ocean liner, so I probably shouldn’t assume a thing!))

kameliendame

Im sorry but I think you misunderstood my answer. I agree that being tall has its downsides like not being able to dance leadroles for lack of a tall partner, or being overlooked for promotions because of that. but being tall wont stop them from being able to enter a company per se, if theyre good enough. Dancers like Gillot, Letestu, Alexandova et al made it all the way to principal because of their exceptional talent, but if there is a tall dancer that doesnt necessarily have their talent but are suitable for the company in terms of technique and style theyre height will be overlooked. Just look at corps dancers Emilie Hasboun and Lucie Fenwick for example who are super tall but still made it in the company. I doubt any of them will ever get past sujet or dance a leadrole in a classical piece but they are there, in the corps de ballet, which means that despite their unusual height the jury found them good enough to pass the concours. Even the dancer you talked about who left for monte carlo, did get in the company initially. What i was trying to say was that if a dancer has good enough technique, musicality, etc. to compensate for their tall (or short!) height, the jury wont care about their “only ballerinas between 1.60-1.75” regulation. It wont be easy for a dancer if they fall outside of the norm but its not completely impossible either.