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Foreword - In the young world of British ballet Celia Sparger is a special kind of pioneer. The unmapped territory of her exploration lies between the strictly medical study of physique and the purely artistic judgment of a ballet dancer's quality. It is, of course, a territory where many of the people who are concerned with ballet stray more or less haphazardly. Teachers, obviously, are interested both in their pupils' physical capabilities and in the artistic instru­ment which they hope these pupils will become.

Introduction - It has been the lot of the author during the past ten years to examine some hundreds of children, all hoping to be the future ballerina of her (or her parents’) dreams, children who have passed their dancing auditions and medical examination, but for whom a final verdict as to suitability from the point of review of physique and structure has been required; and also for many years previously, to have treated the mishaps and injuries which are inevitable in the arduous profession of the ballet dancer.

1. The Body - It is well recognized that a ballet dancer must possess a physique that can be trained to the finest degree of coordination, combined with complete flexibility, endurance, and great strength from head to toes. In spite of this all important fact, and perhaps unfortunately, a student may train till well on into her teens before being defeated by some physical characteristic which undoubtedly existed at ten years old but overlooked or ignored at that time.

2. Proportions - There can be little question that the purely classical dancer has the gift of a beautifully proportioned body. Apart from her technique and artistry, it is that which gives such aesthetic pleasure to the audience.  Fortunately there are other roles in the field of character and demi-caratere dancing where those who are not so perfectly endowed can shine with equal brilliance. We will now consider the pros and cons of the two types most usually seen which cannot be considered as perfect from the classical point of view, but yet can be accepted for training. These fall roughly into two categories,

3. Limbs - In our ideal candidate, the measurement from hip to knew was approximately the same as from knee to the ground. When the thigh is short from hip to knee it is most often combined with the long back and the disadvantageous therefore are concerned with those referred to in that connection. Moreover, the chances are that being short, growth will take place in girth as well as length, resulting in heavy bulky thighs and correspondingly big hips. It becomes an aesthetic rather than anatomical question and as has already been mentioned, occurs more often in boys than girls.

4. Knock-Knees - From this brief resume it will be clear that the shape of the pelvis and position of the thigh is an important factor in determining the straightness of the legs as a whole. If the slope inwards is exagger­ated, either because of the width of the pelvis, or as sometimes happens, an unusually small angle at the upper end of the femur, there will result the condition we recognise as knock-knees.

5. Bow-Legs - There are two main types of bow legs. One is that in which the femur is normal but the tibia curves outward. An occasional boy may come up for audition with this formation but one does not find it amongst girls. Probably they have already been discouraged from learning ballet by a discriminating parent or teacher. The second type is met with in both sexes, though the degree is more marked in boys. In this the bowing includes the thighs so that when the feet are touching there is a space between the knees. This is not strictly a bowing of the legs.

6. Knees - The last variation we are considering is the over-extended or "sway-back" knee. This may be a remnant of infantile bow-legs, with which it is often accompanied, in which the knees are pressed backward too far, leaving the ligaments at the back permanently stretched and the front of the knee too flat or almost hollow with a bulgeabove, (figure 13.) One sees this more often than formerly, which gives rise to the conjecture as to whether there may not also be a further cause, namely that the child with slight bow legs, or even without, has begun ballet too early, has been told to "pull up the thighs", and has responded by pressing back the knees, resulting in this sway-back position.

7. Feet - Passing now to feet, we come to the most difficult of all decisions. Feet vary as much as the hand and are of as many shapes, and it would be a prophet indeed who could declare with certainty what will be the result of the next years of training on any, however perfect, at ten years old. Height and weight are undoubtedly factors, as is also the good alignment of the legs.

8. Feet #2 - The illustrations which follow show the feet of six student dancers, between 17-19 years of age, none of whom have had any foot trouble during their training, averaging 9 years, with the exception of E, who for a short time was off work with pain around the ankle joint. This was probably due to the inherent tightness of the joint and the effort to loosen it as pointe work increased.

9. Posture - There is still a last question, the posture of the child. Ideally there should be perfect symmetry of both sides of the body and a good upright stance. Main children, however, have some small degree of asymmetry of the body and would not satisfy this test. One shoulder will appear a little higher than the other, the line of the torso to the waist will not be the same on the one side as the other and the points of the ears and shoulder blades are not level, (figure 21.)

10. Flexibility - Presumably the dancing audition has satisfied the examiner that the candidate is potentially sufficiently flexible throughout for her age. Apparent stiffness may be Due to tension or wrong effort—this is often noticeable in bane exercises where the child is contracting the back muscles instead of lengthening them and so appears stiff in the hip and lower back.

11. Questions - 1. Are the proportions of the body, general build and flexibility satisfactory ?

2.   Has there been any previous illness affecting the general health ?

3. Is there any residual trouble in any joint, especially the knee due to former illness or injury?

12. Physique - The following photographs have been chosen as all corresponding to the criteria already submitted, and yet as illustrating both similarity and diversity in physique. It is the diversity rather than the similarity that gives each dancer her distinctive appeal. Note for example the warm emotional quality of Baronova as opposed to the athletic strength of Maria Tallchief; Mary Ellen Moylan, petite and elegant; the sharply defined steel-like lines of Melissa Hayden; tall statuesque Beriosova, and Moira Shearer, lithe and gay; Markova, whose ethereal quality derives from her lightly built body and above all Mai got Fonteyn (frontispiece) giving in La Peri, the effect of an oriental vase, beautifully, delicately balanced, the artistic perfection of technique and physique.

1. Comments - When we consider what is demanded of the framework of the body from the time of the first lesson at the barre to the appearance of the dancer on the stage, it is not surprising that from time to time there should be mishaps, and that protesting muscles, joints and ligaments should occasionally give trouble. Yet on the whole there is remarkably little that goes wrong, provided that the pupil has no structural defects, speaking from the point of view of ballet training.

2. Feet - As might be expected feet figure more largely amongst complaints in the ballet class than anything else, knees running a close second. Amongst the younger children it is as well to make sure that the ache or pain is the result of exercise in the class-room. The author remem­bers a small boy who came to her complaining of pain over his instep up the front of the leg, and on top of his knee, who remembered on being questioned that he had gone for a walk on Sunday, climbed a tree and fallen in the descent! The un-typical position of the site of the pain would arouse the suspicion of anyone familiar with the pattern of ballet strains.

3. Knees - As has been said earlier, knees are second only to feet as a source of trouble. They have a tremendous amount of hard work from the very beginning. They are vulnerable and unforgiving joints. An ankle will recover from quite severe injury with no after-effects but the knee has a long memory and any real damage to it can be a major calamity.

4. Thigh - The next area of trouble is not in a joint but in the muscles on the inner side of the thigh (figure 28), caused by the stretch that is required of them in all movements à la seconde. There is a corre­sponding pain recognised as "rider's strain" due to a similar pull. In dancers it may become very persistent and is found in quite young pupils as well as in the seasoned.

5. Hip & Back - The hip joint as such is peculiarly free from trouble in spite of the abnormal work that falls upon it in ballet, but the lower back may have its quota. One does not meet complaints of pain in this region until well on in the teens, providing the structure of the body is nor­mal and well proportioned. Those most prone to aches or pains are those with long backs and the tight hips which often go with them, as was pointed out in the previous chapter.

THE END