Most people could not make it to the end of this video.
And to be honest, Josephine couldn't either.
We're ballet lovers here. We love the art, the discipline, the struggle, the beauty, and even the sacrifice.
But with all relationships, where are the boundaries? Are there limits to what we should do to achieve this thing we love?
Our bodies are finite. They are all different, and while flexible to a certain extend, also brittle.
This video features forced stretching that is part of training regiment.
Hyper mobility is prized for aesthetics in ballet, but it comes at a cost - even for those born naturally with it.
There is too much research, too much science, for young bodies to be pushed like this.
So please, take this as a warning, and if you want to achieve something in ballet, know you have options other than pure suffering.
We love ballet, but we're not willing to break for it.
The only thing that may break are your pointe shoes of course!
Thank you for exposing this horrible practice. It’s so disturbing to watch, especially because it’s being forced on young children who have no understanding or consent for it’s use. It’s really a form of child abuse, and no rationale for creating perfect turn-out excuses it. The vast majority of dancers have worked on their flexibility in a safer, self-directed, consensual way in later ages. Freakish hyper-extension isn’t the goal and pinnacle of ballet aesthetic achievement, just as I feel that quadruple jumps in figure skating have overshadowed grace, style, and heartfelt beauty. Nothing is as important as the health and happiness of a person, especially one as helpless and young as the one depicted.