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Dancing bodies, decaying bodies

The interpretation of anorexia among Israeli dancers

Liora Gvion, PhD, is a qualitative sociologist. She studied at SUNY Stony Brook, USA, and is currently a senior lecturer at the Kibbutzim College of Education in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Additionally, she teaches at the Department of Clinical Nutrition at the Hebrew University. Her major interests are the sociology of food and the body, second generation immigrants, eating disorders and the relationship between culinary practices and ethnic identities. Her book on the social and political aspects of Palestinian food in Israel came out in July 2006. Address: The Kibbutzim College of Education, 149 Namir Road, Tel-Aviv, Israel. [email:gvion{at}macam.ac.il]

This article examines the meaning Israeli female dancers assign to extra-thin bodies. It claims that dancers interpret extra-thinness as an essential tool for the making of an ideal body-machine which allows entrance to a professional world of dancers. Working in a demanding professional world, anorexic bodies are seen by dancers as indicators of success and commitment. It is a means to win recognition from significant others and make the most out of a short-term and risk-embedded career. An haute-ecole of dance was chosen as a location for this study because it is a social setting that sets its own rules of transforming the body into an instrument of training. This study allows us to understand why certain professional and age groups tend to develop anorexia and helps understanding how anorexia, once embedded in a professional ideology, is hard to overcome.

Key Words: anorexia • ballet • body • choreography • dancers • gender • thin bodies • young women

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