Mind and Body.

The pain that Whittet encounters throughout her training as a young dancer is a harbinger of injuries to come, but it feels necessary in order to become a dancer, to perform to her fullest potential. Robb not only excavates her relationship with the art form but also grapples with the moral ambiguities surrounding ballet icons and the hidden ways that ballet training carries over into one's life beyond the studio. But I understand as well why Whittet and Robb both stopped - not for a lack of strength or ambition, but because they were no longer willing to accept the excessive demands that ballet placed on their body and mind. Dancers are taught to constantly check their bodies, to "self-correct", as Robb recalls of her years in ballet class; they are taught to "look in the mirror and scan for flaws", and through their own surveillance and self-scrutiny conform with the expectations and wishes of others. [Extracted from the article]