Are plus-size ballerinas the future?

Iain Mackay, a former ballet dancer who is now artistic director of the Royal Ballet School, told the Times in a recent interview that ‘bigger ballerinas… are the future of the art form,’ and that ballet ‘has moved away from the “slim” female fixture.’

It’s essential that we move away from ballet students being body shamed by their teachers, as illustrated by the 2023 Panorama investigation, The Dark Side of Ballet Schools. A similar scandal emerged when it was alleged that children at Vienna State Opera’s ballet academy were told to smoke to suppress their appetite. It’s not just size that destroys the dreams of many aspiring ballet dancers. Any number of body shape, musculoskeletal or flexibility issues can end a career before it has even begun.

Mackay’s attitude is laudable, but you won’t find a dancer on the roster of any UK ballet company that could be regarded as plus size. Compare ballet dancers to their everyday contemporaries on the street and they are mostly on the minus size, although it is certainly true today that ballet body fascism is far less severe in the West than it is in Eastern Europe.