6c Literature Review 1:

 Anorexia and Bulimia in Ballet World

While looking out for some piece of literature that could relate to my inquiry I hadn't really taken on board one thing: I was concentrating on finding something that would follow my thinking process and my ideological line of inquiry. I realized I was wrong, or at least in part I was.

I hadn't considered fully what Rosemary and Paula had told us during the last campus session when covered "The tools for inquiry", the evidence of work done by others could be going totally in the opposite direction of what we think at this early stage.

It was only when I fully understood this, that I came across a piece of Literature that could cover my interest. It's an article written by Tom Kington I found today while reading The Observer, and talks about ballerina's eating disorders, in this article in particular, focusing on Milan's La Scala Theatre. Of course I couldn't hide my interest being a news about Italian dance culture.

What I was focusing my inquiry on is what, as a performer, I need to do in order to succeed and survive within this business; but what I wasn't concentrating on is on what I shouldn't be following as example in order to achieve that.

I thought this was a great example of unhealthy behavior and life style that unfortunately exists in the performing art business and it's definitely something we have to acknowledge and despise.

The key point of this piece of literature that the journalist wanted to deliver, was to let Mariafrancesca Garitano's point of view (former ballerina at La Scala) come out to make the public fully aware of this serious problem, and also to promote the book she wrote about anorexia and bulimia deseases among young ballerina's that today is still a big problem for the world famous discipline.

Reference:

·         Kington, T., 2011, One in five ballerinas at La Scala is anorexic, leading dancer claims, The Observer [online]. Available at: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/04/ballerinas-la-scala-anorexic-claim> [accessed 20 Dec 2011].