Imagem corporal de estudantes de balé clássico: um estudo qualitativo

Abstract

Classical ballet is an art that has the body as object, which influences the imposition of a pre-established pattern for the ballet student’s biotype. The ballet dancer's biotype is characterized by a thin, longilineous and disciplined body, so that ballet dancers, in addition to working on the technique of ballet, need to be cautious with body weight in order to keep the biotype called suitable for practice. Such caution influences the self-perception of the body image of the dancers. This research aimed to investigate the perceptions of body image of classical ballet students. The research has a qualitative character and the method used to perform the data collection was the semi-structured interview. The study sample consisted of eight ballet dancers in a ballet studio, located in Fortaleza-CE. Data analysis was performed using the Minayo content analysis technique. The discussion was grouped into two themes: Pressure to shape the body and psychophysiological diseases. All interviewees reported that imposition on body maintenance can damage the enjoyment of classical ballet practice. The interviews also show that ballet students, in many situations, are subjected to extrinsic pressures by their respective teachers, causing an intrinsic pressure, which results in a distortion of body image. This image distortion makes the dancers feel uncomfortable with their own body, generating food restriction, large volumes of physical exercises and harmful thoughts that, when aggravated, unfold in psychophysiological diseases like eating disorders. Therefore, classical ballet lessons may contain the factors that link body image distortions in ballet students.