bruh it puts me at bmi 14...less than the 1st percentile for my age and height 😭

 

ikkk that’s why i think it’s old and for the new students (like 10 y/o) and it’s still terrible to hold kids to these standards but i feel like anyone who isn’t prepubescent physically cannot maintain a weight low enough to fit the chart and also dance like ???

 

what a coincidence! I was just reading that chart yesterday. I am a ballerina too.


that puts me at a BMI of 14.3 for my height. Less than 1st percentile for 15 year olds. i don't even know if I ever had that BMI in childhood.

 

omg wait no way!! i remember you from the tell the person above what they should weigh thread!!! yeah no i don’t think it’s very achievable for people who train so much and it’s barely achievable for non-dancing anorexics so idk if it’s fake or what i really hope it is but idk :/ hope you’re doing well!

 

That chart would put me at 49.8, which is pretty much what I was a couple of weeks ago. I’m in my 30s and I do ballet. Once a week though. I don’t think I’d be able to do hours of classes each day at that weight. I mean like I’m doing fine physically but no way would I have the energy to do hours of ballet each day. Plus professional dancers have a lot of muscle, which I definitely am lacking. So I’d have to be a lot less than 49.8 without muscle to be 49.8 with professional dancer muscle mass. I’d say it’s doable but it probably is hell.

 

i know and i honestly don’t know if that’s even a thing ngl because they’re STUDENTS so also add puberty to the list of things that complicate it :/ idk i doubt it’s possible but also just how tf can it exist?? is it fake??

 

all i know is that all of the ballerinas i've ever known have been insanely muscular, and muscle weighs a lot. maintaining those kinds of BMIs would be impossible if they wanted to continue at a highly competitive level.

 

i know right??? like it has to be fake there’s no way

 

ok so i did some internet sleuthing and here’s what i found:

-apparently it’s from the bolshoi
-the first time it was mentioned was on a tumblr blog in 2014 and i am yet to find earlier records of it existing
-there seem to be doctored version of it where the numbers of gw’s look edited and don’t fit the font or photo quality (usually a higher resolution than the rest of the image)
-the chart has been translated into english before
-the only photos i can find are low res and blurry
-it’s been almost exclusively posted on tumblr posts with descriptions only explaining the chart and not giving any opinion or advice
-i have never seen anyone state their opinion or talk about the context and almost all of the post descriptions simply outline what the chart says
-it would be extremely difficult even for people with a very fast metabolism who have a tiny build and light bones to reach such a low weight and still deliver the same performance/quality as someone who is “healthier” (this term is debatable but i’ll say it for simplicity reasons; what i mean is someone at a higher weight who is not restricting and who is training the same amount on the same level)
-comparing the chart to the videos of students i can see online (e.g.: anastasia thompson), it is very unlikely that their weight is that low and while they are very thin if i had to guess their bmi’s i would say in the 17s (for students, the professional dancers seem to lean more 17-18) with a naturally slight build
-i am yet to see a former student or the official site comment on it or mention it
-someone mentioned that the chart is in a contract that dancers have to sign to join the academy but i am yet to see anyone who would be in the position to speak on these contracts comment
-there’s another chart for foreign students that is even more disordered: where the “normal” chart had a weight requirement of 107 lbs (rounded) the other chart required 103 lbs (rounded) to be at an “acceptable” weight
-the ballet world is moving away from the balanchinian ideal (bony, tall, emaciated, small head, etc. the long legs still persist but are less of a focal point compared to two decades ago)
-being that thin is simply not aesthetically appealing? especially in tight fitting ballet clothing where all bones poke through it looks more (pardon me for my language but this is what most all non-disordered people think and honestly what i think too) grotesquely unnatural and is the whole audience severely disordered to the point of someone with a bmi of 14 (i know that it’s a flawed metric but let’s face it: one cannot be at bmi 14 and look anything but emaciated and unhealthy) is seen as “beautiful” and “graceful” by them? i think not
-this chart has been attributed to vaganova, the bolshoi, the sab, the nyc ballet, the pob and other high ranking ballet schools and companies
-ballerinas at vaganova and other top (russian) ballet schools are rarely that disordered and usually just have a very slim build (there’s even a thread of a ballerina at vaganova on edsf here! she deleted her account but the thread is from 2014 which is around the time that this chart started popping up and she talks about how most everyone is just built like that)

so in my opinion there’s a lot of strong points speaking for the idea that it might be a doctored or edited document and while there is no doubt that the ballet world is extremely harsh on dancers and on bodies that don’t fit the “ideal” but there are more points (in my opinion) speaking against the chart being real or at least still commonly used
what do you think?

 

Hey OP
As an adult heavy-boned hobby ballet dancer i've been really interested in this topic too! I have seen this table reposted by a student on ins - according to her this table has been published on the Vaganova website. She was talking about how she was heavy as a little kid (24kg) and instead of losing weight she maintained the weight until when she entered the academy at 10yo being 25kg (and i think somewhere around 135cm). She has videos online of her dancing at 8 and 9 years old and looked nowhere near fat, but among her first-year Vaganova peers she was looking pretty ''normal'' - thin but not even particularly bony or muscular. Most of those girls only grow to be muscular and skinny-looking from year 2-4.
I have a male friend who's over 180cm tall but only weighs somewhere near 65kg depending on food and amount of exercise. (There was a period of time when we'd often do sports together and he'd lose a few pounds every week and I none...sigh) His build is very slender and muscular and his weight easily drops to 60kg if he doesn't watch out, and he says that for a long time in his teenage days he only weighed 55kg which is even much lower than the Vaganova table requirements.
So i do think such people exist who weigh that little or are well able to weigh even less, and there may be people who even struggle to keep their weight up with such level of exercise in ballet. Although i am sure that many are constantly on restrictions and diets.
I agree with you that in the higher grades there is quite some variety in body shape. I have seen some students on ins comment that VBA doesn't particularly kick out students just based on weight numbers, but rather the full picture. However standing between all those thin girls, Russian teachers can spot a pound or two extra instantly. So in the end i think especially after puberty they are more lenient towards weight but they are probably not far off the weight chart. And I think the camera plays a role too since that usually adds 5 or 10 pounds to the picture.

In the end you should go for a weight that fits you and any ED is not about how much you weigh but the controlling mind behind it. Being healthy and strong and being able to dance for as long as possible is more important than just going to Vaganova

 

Hey OP
As an adult heavy-boned hobby ballet dancer i've been really interested in this topic too! I have seen this table reposted by a student on ins - according to her this table has been published on the Vaganova website. She was talking about how she was heavy as a little kid (24kg) and instead of losing weight she maintained the weight until when she entered the academy at 10yo being 25kg (and i think somewhere around 135cm). She has videos online of her dancing at 8 and 9 years old and looked nowhere near fat, but among her first-year Vaganova peers she was looking pretty ''normal'' - thin but not even particularly bony or muscular. Most of those girls only grow to be muscular and skinny-looking from year 2-4.
I have a male friend who's over 180cm tall but only weighs somewhere near 65kg depending on food and amount of exercise. (There was a period of time when we'd often do sports together and he'd lose a few pounds every week and I none...sigh) His build is very slender and muscular and his weight easily drops to 60kg if he doesn't watch out, and he says that for a long time in his teenage days he only weighed 55kg which is even much lower than the Vaganova table requirements.
So i do think such people exist who weigh that little or are well able to weigh even less, and there may be people who even struggle to keep their weight up with such level of exercise in ballet. Although i am sure that many are constantly on restrictions and diets.
I agree with you that in the higher grades there is quite some variety in body shape. I have seen some students on ins comment that VBA doesn't particularly kick out students just based on weight numbers, but rather the full picture. However standing between all those thin girls, Russian teachers can spot a pound or two extra instantly. So in the end i think especially after puberty they are more lenient towards weight but they are probably not far off the weight chart. And I think the camera plays a role too since that usually adds 5 or 10 pounds to the picture.

In the end you should go for a weight that fits you and any ED is not about how much you weigh but the controlling mind behind it. Being healthy and strong and being able to dance for as long as possible is more important than just going to Vaganova

wow thank you for such a long and thoughtful response!! it’s really wack how different human bodies are!! for instance i myself am 170 and somewhere in the low 50s/high 40s (guesstimattion from my friend as i so not weigh myself anymore) and i rarely hear that i look uw whereas my sister is 175(ish) and has the same frame as i do but everyone says she looks sickly (no worries she just loses weight when she’s stressed she’s actually helping me with my recovery) even though we look really similar but my bones stick out a bit more than hers 😭 so does the weight chart only apply for younger students? because like i said almost any 18-20 year old is going to struggle with being below 50 kg at 174 🥲 good for your friend though!! i lose fat tissue quite easily as well but not as easily as you described him to do 🫠 male metabolisms are INSANE though like i know a guy who eats 4-5k a day and is just??? fine??? he’s over 180 and quite muscular but FIVE THOUSAND????

yeah ig also when you’ve been training for so long your body sort of stays that shape it’s insane what human bodies are capable of!! i just read about how starvation can cause up to three next generations of people to be more prone to obesity due to the RNA changing and evolving to cling onto the fat!!

thank you <333 i’m in a better place now than i was when i started this thread and my recovery is going quite well actually!! two of my teachers said it’s not too late for me to become a professional and my self image had improved as well!! as a matter of fact i just finished my summer intensive on friday! i now know that it’s not about the body shape being a requirement to dance but dancing to be a requirement for the body shape and that i can’t achieve their bone structure although it’s still hard to come to terms with sometimes. thank you for replying in such a kind and thoughtful manner <333

 

not me dragging this thread back from the afterlife 😭 but basically i asked ballet with isabella, who is vaganova trained, and she said that there were weight ideals set (for her, 176 cm, it was 50 kg, thus a bmi of 16,46), but those were rarely regarded. she said that once she was one kg away from the “ideal” weight, they told her she looked anorexic, and that the general aesthetic mattered more than the weight. so a conclusive answer, i would say!!

 

omg yes it's BACK, i discovered this chart years ago and i always use this to set my gw and trigger the shmuck out of myself