Lifting dancers has become a tall order, says Mariinsky boss
MALE ballet dancers must eat plenty to keep their energy up as ballerinas get taller and harder to lift, the director of one of the world’s leading ballet companies has suggested.
Valery Gergiev, director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, says male dancers need a hefty diet to ensure they can “lift girls all day”.
The Russian conductor said women in the industry have become longer, skinnier and with stronger backs, compared to the “small and round” appearance that defined the 19th century.
“You need loads of energy, lifting girls all day,” said the 64-year-old. “They’ve got taller, so the weight distribution is hard for the male dancer lifting them.” Noting a “clear change in physique”,
‘You need loads of energy, lifting girls all day. They’ve got taller, so the weight distribution is hard’
the multi-award winner said arms “used to be like wings in Swan Lake – now they move more fluidly”.
“The girls are longer, skinnier and they have very strong but extremely pliable backs,” he added.
Mr Gergiev conceded, in his interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, that small breasts are preferred because it is all about “perspective”.
The ideal figure of a ballerina has been the centre of impassioned debate for decades. Oxana Skorik, who joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 2007, was at the heart of a documentary the following year which detailed her anorexia and the cruelty she suffered in training.
Mr Gergiev, who is favoured by Vladimir Putin and supported him during his clashes with protest band Pussy Riot, also boasted of how his theatre does not “push emotion” and “scream” like its fierce rival the Bolshoi.
He also described finessing the talent of his dancer Xander Parish, who hails from Hull, and how he pushed him to jump higher “like Bambi” until he could “finally go up in the air”.