“Shut up and dance!” » Young ballerinas learn early on that to achieve excellence, they must suffer in silence. As a model student, Francesca Masutti kept silent for fourteen years. But, at the end of January, an Instagram post published by the artist collective La Crécelle had the effect of a “electroshock” : “Around ten anonymous dancers testified to the educational violence they had experienced during their training years and I recognized myself in each of their stories,” says the 27-year-old former ballerina, who now aims to become a yoga teacher. “At that moment, I understood that there was a fundamental problem and that, to resolve it, we had to talk. »
A month later, Francesca Masutti published her own story on social networks. She lists the insults and humiliating comments of which she was the victim during her training at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse (CNSMD) in Paris, from 2011 to 2016, then at the Opéra national du Rhin (ONR), between 2017. and 2019: “You suck”, “You’re just shit”, “You have nothing to do there”…
The Turinese, who left her family and Italy at 13 to realize her childhood dream, was “broken” by these repeated verbal abuses. After she stopped dancing, she suffered severe depression. Five years later, the pain has given way to anger: “It is urgent to put an end to bad teachers, who confuse discipline and despotism. Talent cannot be born in a climate of conflict and fear. »
“There were tears every day”
In the cozy world of classical dance, his testimony caused a stir: it was shared by more than one hundred and fifty dancers and former professional dancers who multiplied messages of support. “It is high time for impunity to end”, “Thank you for your courage, it makes you want to speak”. Several of them even decided to denounce the violence suffered during their years on stage.
Siloé Vanuxem, 25, now a psychology student, is one of them. During her studies at the CNSMD in Paris, from 2011 to 2014, the young woman confirms having witnessed recurring scenes of humiliation: “There were tears every day. It was part of our daily life, like blisters on our feet. » She found these behaviors behind the scenes at the University of Music and Arts in Munich, which she joined in 2014. “In 2016, one of my teachers spent her classes calling me “fat”, “down syndrome”… One day, she even threw a chair in my face because I took the wrong steps . It was torture. » Burnout, then depression, ended her dancing career in 2017. “Today, imagining entering a studio makes me nauseous. »
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