?Don't think dear' said Balanchine. ?Just do.' For centuries being a ballerina has been
synonymous with being beautiful thin obedient and feminine. It is the crucible of womanhood
together with the harassment physical abuse and eating disorders endemic at top schools. Can
we abide this in a post #MeToo world? Weaving together her own time at America's most elite
ballet school with the lives of renowned ballerinas throughout history Alice Robb interrogates
what it means to perform ballet today. She confronts the all-consuming nature of the form: the
obsessive and dangerous practices to perfect the body the embrace of submission and the
idealisation of suffering. Yet ballet also gifts its dancers ?brains in their toes' a way to
fully inhabit their bodies and a sanctuary of control away from the pressures of the outside
world. Perhaps it is time to reimagine its liberating potential.
