“You Cannot Walk, but You Must Dance”: Injury in the Narratives of Ballet Dancers

Abstract

The article analyzes narratives about injury and their role in the construction and maintenance of ballet dancers’ professional identity. The material for this study consisted of eight semistructured interviews with ballet dancers (among whom were both current dancers and those who had ended their careers due to injuries), case study, and autoethnography. The research begins with the clarification of the category of injury: This word is not used by ballet dancers to refer to any bodily injuries. What is trauma and what is not the dancers determine by how and where the injury occurred, as well as by the degree and “type” of pain. The main focus of the work is on how, in the narrative of physical injury, ballet dancers construct and maintain a professional identity by representing the injury as more than just a threat to their performance. In injury narratives, dancers often talk about attitudes toward pain and the profession, the role of social relationships in shaping these attitudes, and the influence of pedagogue on the choice of treatment strategies. Talking about injury and its treatment forces the dancer to answer questions about what it is like to be a ballet dancer and what kind of ballet dancer to be: Pain, trauma, and their treatment can be presented in narratives as markers of experience, “awareness,” and professionalism. Biomedical discourse, which can potentially define the physical and health requirements of artists, is intertwined with the canons of classical dance and the norms of this professional community.

Article in Russian