Skinny ballerinas. The art of being thin: an interview with a ballerina. Ballerina exercises for losing weight in legs
The world of classical ballet is known for its standards and strict rules. The weight of a ballerina is calculated using a special formula, and it should not exceed 50 kilograms. It is easy to guess that for any ballerina it is very important to hold correct weight so that she can continue to shine on stage. Such requirements seem too strict for women who have nothing to do with the world of ballet. However, some of the dietary habits of ballerinas should be adopted by those women who want to stay in shape and not suffer from excess weight. We have collected for you important recommendations which all ballerinas follow.
1. Dilute your drinks
Try diluting your favorite milk drinks with water: 1 ice cube per 1 glass of milk, for example. This simple trick will turn your drink into a low-fat drink. Plus, you can avoid feeling bloated.
2. Don't give up your favorite foods
If you're trying to give up junk food in general, try finding healthier alternatives. For example, if you really like hamburgers, you don’t have to give them up completely. You just have to choose a burger with salad rather than fries.
3. Choose Japanese and Chinese dishes
Japanese and Chinese dishes do not contain unnecessary fats and preservatives, as they are prepared from fresh ingredients: vegetables, mushrooms, seafood, seaweed and meat. It is also better to use chopsticks for these types of dishes, as they will allow you to eat more slowly and feel full with less food.
4. You also need to drink water correctly
We all know how important it is to drink at least 1.5-2 liters of water per day, but many people forget when exactly to drink it. Ballerinas do not drink water during or immediately after meals, as it dilutes stomach acid, which can lead to eating disorders.
5. Reduce your portion size
This trick is very simple: to lose weight, you don’t necessarily need a diet, you just need to reduce the portion of your usual food by half. To make it easier for you to get used to such changes, buy a new set of dishes. For example, you can replace a large plate with a cup that holds enough food for you.
6. Don't be afraid of carbs
Skipping carbs is a common mistake people make when dieting. But do not forget that carbohydrates are our main source of energy. That is why their absence in the diet can cause not only weakness and fatigue, but also serious health problems, especially in women.
7. Don't mix different proteins
If you want your digestive system worked correctly, do not mix the whites from different groups during one meal. For example, fish, meat, dairy products and eggs do not go well together. The interval between consumption of these products should be at least 18 hours.
8. Forget about the existence of mayonnaise
Mayonnaise should be completely excluded from your diet. This is a high-calorie product that is also digested too slowly. It is better to season the salad with olive oil or low-fat yogurt. If it’s too difficult for you to give up mayonnaise right away, you can try making it at home or dilute it with yogurt in a 1:1 ratio.
9. Fasting days every 2 weeks
If a ballerina needs to lose weight in a short period of time, she arranges a fasting day. However, this should not be done more than once a week. Even better - once every two weeks. Here's what your diet could be like: fasting day on tomato juice:
- Breakfast: 1 glass of tomato juice.
- Lunch: 2 glasses of juice and 1 or 2 pieces of rye bread.
- Dinner: 1 glass of juice.
10. Positive thinking
To set realistic goals and actually lose weight, you must think positively. Once you decide for yourself main goal and choose the right way achieving it, it will become much easier for you to take care of your own body, and you will be able to easily continue doing what you started.
In my first year at the institute, I became friends with a girl with the charming name Saule. She told about herself that until the 8th grade she studied at a choreographic school in the “classics” and could become a professional ballerina. She could, but she didn't want to. When we heard this, we didn’t believe it: to voluntarily quit studying in such an institution - thousands of girls dream about this, standing on tiptoe in front of the mirror, and then suddenly! - and quit?.. Something is wrong here... And Saule explained her decision very simply: she could not stand those crazy physical activity and on August 31, just before Knowledge Day, she huddled under the table and, sobbing and hysterically, begged her parents to transfer her to a normal school. Persuasion and persuasion did not help; on September 1, Saule entered the 9th grade of a regular high school...
And indeed, looking from the darkness of the auditorium at the stage where fragile, airy girls create the magic of ballet, we forget at what price this lightness and grace that they so generously bestow on us is given to them.
I went online to see if ballerinas write about how they achieve this perfection and how they pay for it. I’ll say right away that I found little. Among ballerinas, it is probably not customary to tell the whole truth about their art. This is understandable: for them ballet is not just a profession, it is much more than just the meaning of life.
Girls are brought to ballet very early. Many people start training as early as kindergarten. Classes are usually quite tough, it’s not customary to bother with all sorts of subtleties like the delicate psyche of a child - you need a result.
If the teacher is not satisfied with the result, he will not find out what is going on with the child, he will say directly and harshly... We can’t talk about any absences from classes either, a valid reason can only be a temperature of under 40, options “mother I couldn’t bring my child” they don’t pass... If you can’t drive regularly, leave, no one is interested in your difficulties, we have a waiting list for your place. The main motto is: when you come to the gym, work! Feel sorry for yourself - go home, the doors are open, no one is being kept.
Stretching... Without stretching, NOTHING will work out, and stretching is PAIN. There is such a thing as “muscle memory”. If the knee is bent, they lightly slap it, and so on 100 times, which sometimes leaves bruises, the same goes for the rest of the body. Everyone is crying there, no one even reacts to tears. When a lot of bruises accumulate, mothers and fathers feel sorry for their children and they no longer come.
The mother of one little ballerina writes on the forum: “My daughter has been studying since she was 5 years old. We are considering entering the XU in two years, so at home we study every other day for one and a half to two hours. Otherwise, even if we have good data, there will be a rollback. Ideal natural "The data is from the realm of fantasy, there is a gap somewhere. But what will happen in two years - God knows, maybe all our studies will go down the drain, then it will be very disappointing."
And this is true, for a girl, when she is only 6-10 years old, it is difficult to say what she will be like at 14-15.
From the memoirs of ballerina Evgenia Petrova: “The problem of excess weight in ballet is associated with the transitional age when the body is forming, and concerns primarily girls. Girls in ballet are selected specifically, usually they physically develop later than their peers. If anyone is “lucky” to acquire breasts by the age of 13-14 and become round in the hips, suffering and the most barbaric diets begin. The fact is that it is at this age that girls move to the ballet 5th grade, after which, according to tradition, a great purge takes place in choreographic schools: everyone is expelled - both those who are clearly incapable and just early-ripened girls. Teachers will not wait for them to lose weight naturally by the age of 20. By this milestone, almost everyone loses weight.
Everyone is trying their best. The most brutal diets using medications are kept in deep secret. Girls who quickly and radically lose weight usually lie that they were on fruit and mineral water. In the 1970s, the weight of high school girls should not exceed 50 kg, regardless of height. After the milestone 5th grade, the program included a duet dance, and it was believed that it was harmful for boys to lift more than half a centner. Every week we had a control weigh-in. The day before, we ate a lot of furosemide, a strong diuretic, and tried to drink less.
Another milestone is final exams. We took the “classics” in short pink tunics, all our bodies were striking, we ourselves were disgusted. One of the girls, who still had to go to the Musical Comedy Theater in Saransk, so there was no need to worry about her form, out of pure perfectionism, sat down on hard cheese and dry wine for two weeks. From such a diet she was constantly slightly tipsy and immediately after the exam she fainted. Some, not so risky, ate unleavened buckwheat porridge: two spoons three times a day, snacking on dried fruits. The most vulnerable, oddly enough, were children from wealthy families: they were always experimenting with unknown medicines.
Happened tragic stories. The daughter of a famous TV announcer was graduating from college. Before graduation, she lost a lot of weight, and, apparently, her body’s metabolism was disrupted; something happened to her psyche. After any accidental apple, she ran to the toilet to induce vomiting, and then to the mirror to see if she had added too much. When she became completely weak, she was admitted to the hospital, fed artificially, intravenously - she tore out the tubes. It all ended horribly, she died. They say that in recent days this tall girl weighed 38 kilograms and had the stomach of a three-year-old child.
There are happy people who can eat whatever they want and as much as they want, without any consequences for their figure. Ballerina Alla Mikhalchenko had excellent proportions: long legs, small head, graceful neck. She had narrow bone, which is also important for ballet - the silhouette is thin and graphic. She had no problems with weight. Not suffering from lack of appetite, she always ate a full lunch, bought a cake or five sweets from the buffet and immediately went to the rehearsal. We all sighed heavily and enviously."
At the choreographic school there are quite strict limits regarding weight: younger ones - height minus 115, older ones - height minus 120, although each teacher has his own criteria. In a private conversation with parents, they all understand “yes, calcium, yes, vitamins, yes, good nutrition,” but meanwhile they lower their grades and expel them. THIS IS A CHOREOGRAPHIC SCHOOL!
Diet of ballerinas
First fasting day:
Breakfast - a glass of tomato juice
Lunch - 2 glasses of tomato juice and one piece of black bread
Dinner - a glass of tomato juice.
Second fasting day:
Breakfast - a glass of milk or kefir
Lunch - a glass of kefir and a piece of black bread
Dinner - a glass of milk or a glass of kefir.
Ballerina diet (another option)
Breakfast - 1/3 pack of low-fat 0% cottage cheese and a glass of warm milk 1%-3% or kefir.
2 breakfast - a cup of coffee, a piece of bread with butter, a teaspoon of honey
Lunch - eat a tablespoon of boiled rice. Then drink one cup of broth and eat a piece of meat, no more than 150 g.
Afternoon snack - orange or apple. If you're hungry, you can do both.
Dinner - two hours before bedtime, drink a glass of warm milk or kefir with one teaspoon of honey.
One can only wonder how, with such a menu, they are able to withstand such loads.
Professional ballerinas - like all young women who experience heavy physical activity - get sick four times more often than ordinary people. As a rule, ballerinas suffer from poor nutrition, menstrual irregularities, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases- this is the so-called "tetrad".
Anna Hoch, an employee at the Medical College of Wisconsin (USA), found out what happens to ballerinas when the amount of energy that was spent during training is not replenished. As a result, the menstrual cycle is disrupted, and the girl experiences the same problems that older women face during the postmenopausal period of their lives.
Anna Hoch conducted examination 22 professional ballerinas, working for the Milwaukee Ballet Company. Average age artists - 23 years old, body weight - 51 kg. 86% of ballerinas already have at least one “tetrad” component. 14% have all four.
The study showed that 36% of ballerinas do not eat properly, 77% have a calorie deficiency, 59% have a calcium deficiency, 45% have an iron deficiency, and 23% have a bone mineral deficiency (early stage of osteoporosis). 27% stopped menstruating.
The most terrible conclusion was that 64% of ballerinas developed dysfunction of blood vessels - a direct path to atherosclerosis.
The most painful topic in the backstage life of ballet is the feet of ballerinas. The fact is that until the 18th century, both men and women danced in ballet in ordinary shoes with heels. With the advent of pointe shoes, ballet became an exclusively female phenomenon.
Below is an x-ray of a ballerina's leg standing on pointe shoes. This stance is fraught with many injuries. There is even a separate specialization in medicine that deals exclusively with injuries to dancers. The size of a ballet shoe is much smaller than the usual shoe size (almost 2 times), this allows you to rest on your toes, while the foot is deformed.
Ballet shoes are usually made of pink satin and pink ribbons are sewn to them, but this is only external tenderness, under which a hard frame is hidden. The toe of ballet pointe shoes is glued with hardened glue and lined with cardboard, forming a protective hard box for the toes, and the sole is lined with a thick cardboard insole and lined with thin leather.
A ballerina will never put on new pointe shoes right away; they need to be properly prepared. At first glance, they are treated cruelly: first, they break a hard sock with a hammer until it becomes soft, then they take on the insole. Sometimes it is completely torn out. Then the sole is rubbed on the most ordinary household grater.
And at the end, they file down the very tip of the shoe with a blade, and stitch the resulting hole with thick threads. All this is done to ensure that the pointe shoes do not slip on the floor. To make them fit better on your leg, you can slightly wet them.
Many ballerinas are very sensitive to the choice of pointe shoes, because, in essence, it is the health and longevity of their feet.
Ballerinas are like air fairies, on whom gravity does not seem to affect. We only see how they rarely touch the stage with their feet, and spend the rest of the time flying.
Ordinary people have soft feet, but a ballerina’s feet are no softer than a chair leg in terms of hardness. A ballerina's muscles are strong, resilient and strong as iron. After all, otherwise, they would not be able to support their body weight on the heel of their pointe shoes with an area of no more than 2 square centimeters.
Most often, professional injuries in ballet are associated with fractures, dislocations and sprains, as well as injuries to the ligamentous apparatus of the joints. A significant part of ballet trauma is also trauma hip joint, which entails a whole range of problems involving the pelvic organs in inflammatory processes.
Ballerinas have a concept called “breaking the instep,” which involves forcibly stretching the ligaments of the upper part of the foot. Many people put their fingers under something and thus pull out the instep. As with any unnatural bending, this is what happens: those ligaments that work in tension are stretched and often partially torn, causing the ligamentous apparatus of the foot to weaken and become loose.
With age, this process brings certain inconveniences, that is, the leg easily twists, especially when running and jumping. Thrombophlebitis and arthritis-arthrosis are also common occupational diseases of ballet. You have to pay for beauty this way.
From the memoirs of ballerina Evgenia Petrova: " The burning question for the audience is: is it easy to lift ballerinas? It’s not easy, of course, but it doesn’t depend on weight.
Ballet is, first of all, a physical art. No matter what anyone says, no dramatic talent can replace a pair of beautiful trained legs and light singing hands. But at the same time, if the stage smells of emptiness and worthlessness, no amount of legs from the ears with giant lifts will compensate for this.
So what does the “ideal ballerina” consist of and do such things exist in nature?
Over the past decades, a completely understandable and clear set of parameters, according to which a strict selection committee selects professionally suitable girls for ballet schools. Among them:
Turnout. And the more, the better. Turnout is the basis of classical dance; without it, some elements will not only be ugly, but simply impossible to do. Turnout - that is, turning the leg outward - can be developed, BUT only if there is a predisposition to it from the beginning. If the joint in the acetabulum has no room to turn, no amount of “frogs”, “butterflies” and other ballet atrocities can turn it - only dislocate it .
Flexibility. Here, in fact, everything is clear - you just have to look at modern ballerinas and the height to which they raise their legs, and how gracefully they bend their backs, literally folding in half. Some people don’t like this because, supposedly, legs raised up to the ears violate the integrity and beauty of truly classical dance. Some are of the opinion that even the classics should not stand still, and modern high amplitudes only decorate them. I am rather on the side of the latter. When the leg easily flies up without tension, breaking all the laws of the human body, you understand that nothing is impossible. The main thing is not to flaunt your step, like “up, look how I can!”, which is the sin of the unforgettable Anastasia Volochkova, but to lift up your legs, so to speak, with meaning.
High rise. And not just tall, but with a so-called “slide”. Probably, an ordinary person not familiar with ballet will think that there is clearly something wrong with such a foot, but on stage in pointe shoes it looks great. Often, “lifting” feet go to the load of “X” legs - that is, as I already said, sunken in the knee. It is much harder to work with such legs, they require a special approach, but they are the ones that are valued the most. In general, the foot for a ballerina is very important: the big and “index” toes should ideally be the same length, without a predisposition to flat feet and valgus, with a long, soft Achilles tendon.
Long limbs. Legs and arms are the main instrument of a ballerina. The longer and more endless the leg, the easier it is to “sing” the movements with it. Short legs and the hands, of course, are more comfortable - especially in fast dance, allegro. It’s easy to get confused in the long ones, but how beautiful they are in the adagio! There is even such a thing as the “long-legged index.” It is calculated upon admission to a ballet school: the child’s height is measured standing and sitting (from the top of the head to the soft spot), then the sitting height is divided by the standing height and multiplied by 100%. Ballet norm: 49-52%. The lower the %, the better. Actually, this notorious index can be assessed with the naked eye - the legs should be much longer than the body.
Nice jump. Jumping, just like agility, comes from nature. You can practice it, you can learn to create its illusion on stage, as Zakharova does, for example, but jumping under the grate with a hover, the so-called “balloon,” is rare. It was thanks to her phenomenal jump that the once young Natalya Osipova became famous - sometimes it seems that she really knows how to fly!
All of the above is included in the concept of “form”.
Here portrait of an ideal ballerina: tall, incredibly thin, long-legged-long-armed-long-necked, walking, that is, able to throw a leg 180 degrees without any strain, with a high instep and soft turning legs. The weight of an adult ballerina, despite her height, should not exceed 50 kg. During training, the rules are even stricter - ideal weight calculated using the formula “height minus 122”. Anyone who goes beyond these limits is excluded. Body type is preferable to ectomorphs, they have thin “wiry” muscles that are practically unable to “grow meat”, narrow feet and hands, and a short body. It’s easier for them to stay in shape; they don’t have to follow strict diets– the metabolism is quite fast, everything eaten is simply burned.
The ideal ballerina is a healthy ballerina. Ballet does not forgive any problems with the heart or eyesight, and even more so, diseases of the joints. Only a healthy person with a very good immune system is able to withstand inhuman ballet stress, constant psychological pressure and competition.
Moreover, ideal a ballerina must be beautiful. The scene is not prone to political correctness: it does not forgive a big nose, a protruding chin, or chubby cheeks. Yes, you can use makeup to paint any face you want and hide some minor imperfections, but today we are talking about the ideal. Without a beautiful or at least pretty face, it’s somehow difficult to portray the beautiful Odette or the gentle Giselle.
Summing up the “technical parameters” of our ideal ballerina, I cannot help but mention training. Even perfect legs will be powerless without a good school and a competent teacher. In Russia, three schools are considered the best - the Academy. Vaganova in St. Petersburg, the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (MGAC) and the Perm School. Of course, they do not guarantee excellent training and filigree technique. each graduates, but even now, when the level of training has fallen even in these institutions, they remain qualitatively better than everyone else in the world.
In conclusion, I cannot help but name “my” ballerina with ideal parameters – Svetlana Zakharov A. She is incredibly beautiful from a ballet point of view.
Which ballet dancer is ideal in appearance from your point of view? What would you add to the list of technical characteristics?
*And about spirituality, energy and fullness - that is, we will talk about NON-physical components next time)
Photos were used in preparing this post Mark Olic. Last photo of Svetlana Zakharova – Irina Lepneva
Prima ballerina of the Mikhailovsky Theater Ekaterina Borchenko about her favorite cocktail, ice cream and other pleasures.
Ekaterina is an Honored Artist of Russia. In 2000 she graduated from the Academy of Russian Ballet. A. Ya. Vaganova. In 2000–2003 - soloist of the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after. K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, in 2003–2007 - soloist of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus.
Since 2008, Ekaterina has been serving in the ballet troupe of the Mikhailovsky Theater. The ballerina's current repertoire includes leading solo roles in the ballets “Giselle, or the Vilis”, “Swan Lake”, “La Bayadère”, “Don Quixote”, “Corsair”, “Laurencia”, “Flames of Paris”, “Class Concert”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “In the Forest”, “Without Words”, “Prelude”, Nunc Dimittis. Nacho Duato created the main female part in the ballet Nunc Dimittis especially for Ekaterina Borchenko.
About stress in the theater and beyond
There is usually a lot of work in the theater. The day starts at 11.00: at this time I get up to the barre and start doing ballet class. The lesson consists of classic combinations, which are set by our teacher-tutor: first we do exercises at the barre, then in the middle of the hall, and then we perform jumping combinations. The lesson lasts about an hour, and after it there are rehearsals. They take place almost every day, one or several - depending on the repertoire and your employment in it. Sometimes rehearsals can last until 21.00-22.00.
Of course, the performance is a completely different story. When you go on stage, crazy energy soars and envelops you. It’s the orchestra, the audience, the partner, and the makeup and costume that transform you... And in a sense, you never know what awaits you at the performance, this is pure magic. One thing is absolutely certain: in order to get an excellent result and achieve success on stage, you need to devote yourself to rehearsals entirely and completely, give your best in the hall. I really like rehearsing, this is also a very interesting process: together with the teacher you are immersed in creativity, and you can create endlessly.
If we talk about another physical activity, then I also like to ride a bike around the park. But this happens extremely rarely, since usually there is neither energy nor time.
About eating habits and pleasure from eating
From childhood, even before my brother and I started doing ballet, our parents monitored our diet and taught us to eat proper nutrition. They themselves danced at the Mariinsky Theater and knew that it was very important. For example, we almost never had candy, cookies or cakes in our house. We ate them very little, only on holidays or if guests brought them as gifts. Mostly on our table there were porridges, soups, chicken breast and vegetable salad.
Now my daily diet looks something like this: for breakfast - an omelet, for lunch - breast with vegetables, for dinner - cottage cheese or squid. This, of course, is just the basis, because you won’t eat the same thing every day. Therefore, I look at the situation.
My diet on the day of the performance is slightly different: as a rule, before the performance I only eat cottage cheese and drink coffee. On a day of strength and physical activity, it is very important to feel light, and cottage cheese gives me just such a feeling.
I enjoy the food itself, the cooking process (although when I spend whole days at the theater, my husband has to “stand at the stove”). In general, you should always enjoy losing weight and doing anything. Only then will everything work out and there will be no stress from dieting. Masha taught me this, like many other things. She shared with me the secrets of how not to gain weight and always be energetic, no matter what the load. Of course, for a ballerina, following a routine and eating right is very important.
About your favorite dishes and gastronomic indulgences
Of course, over the years my diet changes. At one time I ate a lot of nuts and dried fruits, but now I don’t eat them at all. Apparently, she has been “full” of them for a long time. But fashion trends do not affect my gastronomic preferences. Although there is one cocktail that I adore and which you can eat as much as you like and never gain weight. My husband cooks it. These are cottage cheese, milk and fruits (I especially like bananas and kiwi).
In general, favorite dishes are those that give strength and at the same time lightness. Perhaps most of all I love chicken and my mother’s stewed vegetables. This is the perfect food for me.
Of course I love sweets. Sometimes I eat gelatin candies, they are tasty and are believed to be good for joints. One of my favorite summer pleasures is to walk through the park and breathe fresh air and eat delicious ice cream. As for weddings and other lavish feasts: such events occur extremely rarely, so I don’t even think much about eating behavior in such situations. In any case, I just try to never overeat. And if I need to lose weight, I work longer and harder in the gym. This is enough to get back in shape.
About the need for rest
Usually my vacation does not last very long; I can afford a vacation of no more than two weeks. But after a hard season, physical and emotional stress, you definitely need to relax at sea! The sun, salt water and warm climate give a lot of strength and energy for the new ballet season. After all, it is very important to start working in good mood and charged with the energy of the sun and nature. Therefore, at sea I allow myself to relax; the only physical activity I do is swimming and walking around the surrounding area. At the same time, I don’t want to completely lose shape either, so I eat more or less the same dishes. Eating habits have long been formed, so even on vacation you want tasty and healthy food.
If, nevertheless, by the end of the vacation it appears excess weight, it goes away quite quickly - thanks to the intense regime and a lot of work.
