By Julia Bluhm

The perfect ballet dancer has to have a thin body, long legs, and a long neck and no chest. They have to be tall enough that their lines look long, but not so tall that they’re taller than their partner on pointe. They can’t be curvy, but they can’t be so bony that they look unhealthy, according to Pointe Magazine.

How many people do you know with a perfect body like that? Not many. Even in the ballet world there aren’t tons of people that fit all the criteria. If you do, you’re lucky. But what about everyone else?

The population of dancers who aren’t 100% perfect is large. But if they’re fit enough and talented enough (which is also hard to be), there’s probably a company out there who will hire them. Yet, different ballet companies and different directors have different tastes. Alonzo King of LINES likes tall, long ballet dancers. The School Of American Ballet has a taste limited to very long-legged, very thin dancers. At the same time, there are many contemporary ballet companies that love muscular, healthy looking bodies.

A few generations ago, dancers who are 5’11”, or 5’10” would probably be too tall. Today, it’s a growing trend. Look at Uylana Lopatkina, for example. Her technique was so pin-point and she was such a great dancer, that people looked past the fact that she was 5’10” and wears a size 10.5 shoe.  She’s been with the Kirov ballet for over a decade, despite the fact that there aren’t many male dancers tall enough to partner her (keep in mind that pointe shoes probably add like 4 inches to your height).  But then again, Lopatkina is one of the most talented ballet dancers worldwide.

Drew Jacoby, is another more real-life example. She’s 5’11”. She didn’t make it into every company she tried out for, thanks to her height. But she was offered a job with Alonzo King of LINES, who loved her long body. Drew Jacoby states that at LINES “there was no issue with my height- it was a good thing.”

So we’ve covered “too tall”, what about “too short?” Take a look at Maria Kotchetkova, a principle at San Fransico Ballet. She was always told she was too short at auditions, but she didn’t let that stop her. She gave off a good impression, and in the end her talent overpowered her height and she was given offers anyways.

If you watched “So You Think You Can Dance,” you might remember Mellissa Sandvig. She’s a trained ballerina. She got a job at Milwaukee Ballet, with an artistic director who loved her muscular build. When a new artistic director came in, she was put on weight probation. She says that not fitting in with the ballet world made her confidence drop, so she took a break from ballet and tried out for “So You Think You Can Dance.” She says that “being on “So You Think You Can Dance” felt like a sweet victory when they called me “The Ballerina.””

So what about me? I’m a ballet dancer — and a really serious one. But I don’t have the perfect ballet body. My legs aren’t necessarily long “enough” and my feet aren’t bendy “enough.” I also know that I don’t have good turnout (a term referring to a ballet dancer’s hip rotation), and I’m reminded of that every day in class from my teacher. That’s something I can work at and improve on, but it never will be perfect.

I’m also not super skinny, but I have a slim, muscular body. I’m proud of it, though. I don’t think I need to be unhealthily skinny looking. The ballet world will continue to drift to different tastes and there are many companies today that like the look of thin, but muscular dancers. I know the ballet world is a hard world to get by in. Some dancers are born with everything… and others have to work hard to find a place where they fit in. But the ballet world is always changing, too. One aspiring dancer could be the first step towards changing it.