The journey of a prima ballerina is not the most relaxing. A discipline of demand and effort, dance is a difficult training. Dorothée Gilbert, principal dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet, spoke at length to Thibaut Gauthier in "Le Figaro la nuit", Le Figaro's itinerant programme.
Is classical dance training an ordeal? Are apprentice dancers mistreated? "It's not abuse as we understand it. However, we mistreat our bodies. Classical dance is unnatural. To get to the physical canons of ballet dancers, you have to force it. You have to hurt yourself a little bit. It's not sadomasochism," she says.
Demand
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Dance teachers aren't the same as they used to be, says Gilbert. In my day, there were teachers who threw stools in the classroom, who took pins to prick the buttocks when we had our buttocks out. (...) The way we teach has changed. Harassment didn't exist at the time.
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You can be demanding by being a teacher and achieve your goals without being tyrannical, she concludes. It's not enough to shout at it to get the kids going."