The symptoms are often overlooked. You think it is just heartburn. Pressure builds around your chest. It feels mild at first. Then, you feel as if someone is squeezing your heart, steadily intensifying their grip. It is now that a sense of fear overcomes you. Your left arm goes limp. You feel beads of wetness drip down your brow as your body begins to sweat profusely. What used to be minor discomfort is now a sharp pain that has traveled down your back and into your shoulders. An unexplained shortness of breath leaves you screaming to yourself, what is happening to me?! What is happening is you are in cardiac arrest; you are having a heart attack.
On the afternoon of June 30, 1997, Heidi Guenther died from this very complication at the tender age of 22. On her way to Disneyland for what was to be a two-day vacation, she was in the car with her 14-year-old brother, Quinton, and her mother, Patti Harrington.
A former ballerina of the Boston Ballet’s main corps de baillet and the San Francisco Ballet, the dance prodigy was known for starring in such productions as Romeo and Juliet and The Sleeping Beauty. Graceful and delicate, her life consisted of high jumps and fast spins. The moves she completed were intricate, and at times, strenuous. Her only outfit was that of a skin tight leotard, and her only shoes were pointes, a ballet shoe that allows dancers to stand upright on the very tip of their toes.
At 5`5 and 96 pounds Guenther made nationwide headlines in 1995 for being told to lose weight by a ballet director. Fearing her spot in the company was at risk, she became infatuated with her weight, reportedly turning to laxatives and extreme dieting to maintain her frame. She was 93 pounds on the day of her death. While the autopsy report was inconclusive, the coroner’s report stated, “Emotional and dietary factors cannot be completely ruled out as having played some role.”
Despite the news of her untimely death, Guenther’s lifestyle choice continues to be a model in the lives of copious ballerinas.
“I have so many memories of myself and my classmates doing all kinds of crazy things to lose weight,” said Gina Helland, a former dancer and owner of Broadway Dance studio in East Haven, Conn. “We would wrap ourselves in saran wrap to promote sweating, we wore these heavy rubber pants, we also took salt pills to help you perspire.”
A work of art in itself, the body of a dancer is not easily achieved. With a motto of, “success at any cost”, some
form of an eating disorder often tends to develop in ballerinas. These disorders encompass self-starvation, purging and binging, and result in rapid weight loss at the risk of life threatening complications such as heart disease, dehydration, intestinal problems, anemia and a weakened immune system.
“Ballerinas are born to be ballerinas. It is a very specific body type. The body, the talent, the ambition and the discipline must all be present,” said Helland. “Standing on the top of your toes with a thin piece of wood and some wool as the only cushion between your toes and the floor requires a body with little to no fat.”
Without the proper body, even the most talented of ballerinas may be refused to a company. A factor that has shown great influence on the frequency of eating disorders in ballerinas is their daily practice in front of large mirrors. Practicing anywhere from five to eight hours a day, ballerinas are forced to stare at their own figures and the figures of their neighbors, often scrutinizing every move. Are my legs straight and are my toes pointed? Is my torso slender and are my arms extended? This constructive self-criticism is the first step to an unhealthy obsession.
“The mirror is a double edged sword for the dancer. It is often their most important tool and sometimes their worst nightmare,” said Helland.
In addition, increased societal pressure and an overwhelming preoccupation with success translates into dancers subsequently finding themselves experiencing psychological, physical and emotional disorders.
“Quite frankly, it’s the whole culture. The environment is conclusive with not feeling good enough and it easily can bread an eating disorder,” said Amy P. Dunham, the Nutrition Coordinator at the University of Connecticut Student Health Services. “Eating disorders in ballerinas are much more prevalent than the national statistic. Being so thin, it is just the look. There is also more pressure on the ballerina if she is being lifted by a partner. It’s all geared towards that number on the scale.”
While many ballerinas do manage to keep a healthy physique through proper nutrition and dieting, some ballerinas maintain a certain predisposition that makes them more vulnerable to the development of an eating disorder.
“Some embody a temperament around perfectionism, just competitive, perfectionist traits in general. Those are the traits of someone with an eating disorder. There life is about their body and how they perform. They have duel pressure. The pressures of society and the pressures of a ballerina,” said Dunham.
Pressure from society can be seen in the portrayal of ballerinas in the recent, very successful, film, “Black Swan.” In an effort to depict professional ballerinas, actresses Nathalie Portman and Mila Kunis reportedly lost 20 pounds for the role.
“As far as the actresses losing weight for the parts, we see actors do what is required for their roles all the time, they get paid very well for their efforts and then go back to their normal weight when they are done. But, the real ballerina is usually stuck with a life sentence of that weight,” said Helland.
Kunis was quoted saying she weighed approximately 95 pounds during the time of production.
“They are providing awareness, awareness of this culture. What’s difficult with awareness though, is that this sometimes put ideas in people’s heads. This is what’s the most upsetting. But, people need to be aware that that’s the culture of ballerinas,” said Dunham.
Aside from societal factors, disorders in ballerinas continue to cultivate due to the environment in which dancers surround themselves. In an atmosphere where such stress is placed upon weight and perfectionism, a struggling dancer’s recovery time can become compromised.
“If they’re continuing to be in an environment that’s encouraging and nurturing of the disordered eating behavior, it will absolutely become difficult to recover,” said Dunham. “It takes seven years to recover from anorexia on average. Recovery is very relative to the person. Early intervention and treatment can result in less recovery time. There is always a percentage of people who don’t recover and battle their whole lives,” said Dunham.
The psychological effects of eating disorders tend to affect dancers early on in their careers, as ballerinas who wish to excel within a company must begin training vigorously at a young age. This often leads to the development of a distorted view of the body during adolescence.
“The career is number one. All value is placed on appearance and low body weight at a young age,” said Dunham.
Eating disorders in themselves are multi-faceted and, according to Dunham, has the highest rate for fatalities out of all the psychological diseases. What may begin as a ballerina attempting to lose a few pounds, can quite simply transform into an eating disorder.
“When looking for a company, it is so important for dancers to always be an advocate for oneself. Ballet could really be quite a beautiful profession, but, unfortunately, it has taken a wrong turn,” said Dunham.