Numerous allegations of abuse at dance schools and stages make ballet as an art form difficult to explain. It is high time that its structures and training methods arrived in the 21st century.
Classical ballet requires perfect body control: Scene from a Zurich performance of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake”, 2005.
In March 2021, something outrageous happened in the dance world: the dancers of the Mecklenburg State Theater announced in an open letter that they had lost their jobs. The designated ballet director had given notice to almost the entire ensemble. Tabula rasa in the event of a change in management is possible under labor law in German theatres, albeit controversial. In Switzerland, inhibition thresholds are built into the collective labor agreement through deadlines. It has happened in the past for a new director to change an entire ensemble, but it is difficult to imagine today, says Salva Leutenegger from the Swiss scene professional association. Nevertheless, the sword of Damocles of the so-called non-extension is constantly hanging over the performing artists on local stages.
The Schwerin company’s open letter caught the eye of the cyclone that has gripped the ballet world for some time. Where artists, citing artistic freedom, have to be prepared year after year that their contract will not be renewed, dependencies increase. Where dancers seem to be interchangeable at will, they are better off keeping quiet. It’s the breeding ground for abuse of all kinds. But it’s also the world that aspiring dancers are still growing into. Against this background, the abuses that have recently been uncovered at several Swiss institutions, including the ballet in Bern and the dance schools in Zurich and Basel, must be seen.
Authoritarian patterns repeated
In Bern, after allegations of harassment, a rehearsal leader who had already been warned parted ways; at the Tanz-Akademie Zürich, deficiencies in the training methods and in the sports medical care of the students came to light; Similar harsh allegations have recently been made at the Basel Theater Ballet School. The personal transgressions are the subject of internal investigations in all three cities. But the fundamental error lies deep in the system.
A codified technique is learned in ballet schools, very often according to a syllabus developed in the early 20th century by Agrippina J. Vaganova (1879–1951) in St. Petersburg. It has proven itself for shaping and strengthening classic body dancers. The method builds on a strong teacher role. But that is part of the problem, especially since ballet teachers today have very different pedagogical training – if at all. But where there are gaps in teacher training, as we know from elementary school, teachers fall back on their own learning biographies. And they run the risk of repeating the authoritarian patterns they once experienced.
One who has fond memories of her education is Cathy Sharp. The ballet teacher, choreographer and former company manager has experienced what has become the central principle of her teaching: nurturing young people’s passion for dance. She is convinced that modern ballet training is possible without pressure and fear. «We have learning goals that the young people have to achieve in a short time. But the students bring different bodies and different ways of learning. It’s clearer now, and I don’t think you can put everyone in one box and have them do the same thing at the same time.”
The teacher, who taught classical dance at the BA Contemporary Dance of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) until her retirement in 2021, is not alone in this attitude. Well-known dance educators such as Canadian Jason Beechey, rector of the Palucca University of Dance Dresden, or Switzerland’s Samuel Wuersten, artistic director of the contemporary dance courses at the ZHdK, have been committed to the further development of the training for years. Both are now part of the interim management team of the Tanz-Akademie Zürich, which has fallen into disrepute.
Today, individualized instruction is a matter of course for the training of elementary school teachers – in ballet, on the other hand, this kind of thing is revolutionary. As a system, ballet and ballet training are a stronghold of authoritarian action. A possible explanation: The social upheavals of 1968 literally bypassed the structures. In the 1960s and 1970s, while the academic canon was up for debate, the rebellion took place elsewhere. Some dancers turned away from classical ballet, researched new forms of movement, founded their own companies, their own schools and looked for alternative performance venues. The ballet system, however, remained undisturbed for decades.
take care of the body
After all, new narrative attitudes were also sought on the ballet stage. The great choreographers of the second half of the 20th century retold the old stories, incorporating other dance and theater forms. It took a mind like William Forsythe to break apart and reassemble the classic vocabulary. His ballets, created in Frankfurt during the 1980s and 1990s, still represent the state of the art in classical dance today. But even they cannot be danced without profound training.
The more weightless, the more beautiful – and the heavier: Scene from William Forsythe’s choreography “The Second Detail” in the London Coliseum.
Ballet is an elitist profession – and will remain so. Just as not everyone who likes to play on the soccer field becomes a professional player. However, when a group of experts has recognized the talent and suitability of a young person to become a ballet dancer, Cathy Sharp says, it is “the academy’s task to accompany them on this path”.
This includes support through puberty, and last but not least, a good deal of knowledge about anatomy and nutrition is part of the course. “As the students train their bodies every day, they have to learn to take care of them. It’s your tool.” If you train properly and eat healthily, you shouldn’t get into eating disorders, says Sharp, emphasizing: “The body must not be elevated to a cult.”
Sharp has worked within the institution, as a dancer in Heinz Spoerli’s Basler Ballett, and outside, as director of an independent company, the Cathy Sharp Dance Ensemble. She is a border crosser between two worlds that have long wanted nothing to do with each other. For decades, classical and contemporary dance developed side by side – ballet in the institutions, contemporary dance in the independent scene. That has now changed radically: the ensembles at the city theaters all work with contemporary choreographers. Ballet dancers are trained in classical and contemporary dance, contemporary dancers usually also train classically.
The art form is well received. Today we have extremely experienced, athletic dancers. The demands have increased, including those on the teachers. Cathy Sharp believes that not only the art of dance benefits from know-how from contemporary dance, but ultimately also ballet training. It is time.