Photos of ballerinas' feet. Ballerina foot
Ballerinas always attract the admiring glances of the audience, giving a feeling of incredible grace, lightness and beauty. But seeing a ballerina’s legs without pointe shoes, you can understand how difficult and traumatic this art form is.
Occupational injuries
Visible lightness is the result of a long hard work. Day after day, overcoming pain, dancers learn to support their body weight on the tiny area of the tips of their pointe shoes. That’s why a ballerina’s legs are the most vulnerable place. Despite their strength, endurance and flexibility, leg injuries are common among ballerinas. Occupational injuries include: dislocations, sprains, and broken leg bones.
Each ballerina's foot is subjected to tests that are not always directly related to performances and training. The “ballet” shape of the leg is formed by forced sprains of the ligaments. The average person's foot does not have such excessive bending, so for professional ballerinas, breaking the instep of the top of the foot is a necessary condition for work.
Forced stretching of ligaments is not limited to the capabilities of your own body. To give the desired shape to the leg, a variety of available means are used. For example, some dancers place objects under their fingers to enhance the stretch. This process subsequently leads to the fact that the ligaments of the feet stretch and become very weak. The ligamentous apparatus simply becomes loose, which subsequently leads to frequent dislocations even when walking. Over the years, the condition of ballerinas' legs deteriorates significantly, which provokes the development of arthritis, arthrosis and thrombophlebitis.
In order for the toes in pointe shoes to stand tightly and rest, their size is selected in such a way that it becomes 2 sizes smaller than the actual one. When wearing such shoes for a long time, blood circulation deteriorates significantly, which becomes the root cause of the development of various diseases legs First of all, this is reflected in the condition of the toenails: they change their color and thickness, becoming thinner or thicker. In addition, after performances, dancers begin to notice that the veins in their legs are becoming more visible. This problem cannot be attributed simply to a cosmetic defect - this is a clear signal to visit a doctor. If left untreated, after some time the veins become tortuous and thicken to the point that they can be easily felt with your fingers. In the future, even after minor physical exertion, a feeling of heaviness and fatigue in the legs occurs. All these symptoms develop due to oxygen starvation of the muscles due to tight pointe shoes and extreme stress on the legs.
The work of a ballerina is dangerous because the veins in the legs do not receive required quantity oxygen, and the blood in them begins to stagnate. This is fraught with seizures calf muscles and various skin rashes accompanied by itching - dermatitis. At the final stage of the disease, without any treatment, ugly ulcers may appear on the legs, and blood vessels may become clogged, provoking the onset of thrombophlebitis, varicose veins and ruptured veins with further bleeding.
How do the shape and structure of the feet of professional ballerinas change?
A ballerina's foot changes seriously during her career, and not in the best way. Professional ballet is characterized by one more phenomenon - hallux valgus with the formation of cones on the toes. During long workouts and performances, a significant load is placed on the dancer’s legs, which leaves its noticeable aesthetic defects.
Hallux valgus is the process of bone formation in response to injury. This modification affects mainly the thumb. The culprit is narrow shoes that squeeze the big toe area, not leaving enough space for the foot. Given the nature of wearing pointe shoes, such deformation cannot be avoided in a ballet environment.
In progress hallux valgus deformity the big toe deviates to the side relative to the midline of the body, and the deviation occurs beyond the foot itself. As part of this process, other fingers may also be affected. A deformed leg looks unsightly, as the toes are noticeably curved inward of the foot. Due to constant tension and friction against pointe shoes, bone growths appear on the fingers, which look like lumps. These growths not only make it difficult to wear even normal shoes, but can also quickly become inflamed and bleed at the slightest friction.
In addition, the forefoot takes on a flat appearance. This is due to the fact that during training and performances, ballerinas perform various rotations on the tips of their pointe shoes, first in one direction, then in the other. Rotations have a negative impact on the condition of the foot, as it moves relative to the back and front sections. In this case, transverse flat feet develop on the fingers. Thus, visually the foot looks spread out.
The beauty of classical ballet
How we envy the flying gait and proud posture of ballerinas in childhood! Almost every girl wants to become a ballerina and spin around the stage. And only adult actresses know what a ballerina’s legs look like without pointe shoes...
Recent research by scientists has simply shocked society. Of course, we knew before that the work of ballerinas is very hard. And all the lightness and beauty that they demonstrate on stage is the fruit of hard physical labor.
But this...
It turned out that all troubles begin from insufficient nutrition of young girls. The average ballerina weighs about 51 kg. Yes, it’s beautiful, yes, it’s easier for partners to lift light girls in their arms.
But they pay for it with a constant feeling of hunger, and if it all ended there...
Lack of calcium in the diet and heavy physical activity lead to early osteoporosis. But this is a disease of older people! Ballerinas break their arms and legs much more often than their peers.
And not only because they engage in traumatic “sport”. Namely due to thinning of bone tissue - osteoporosis.
Menstrual irregularities
Scientists found that 31% of ballerinas stopped menstruating. This means that their ability to conceive and bear a healthy child is approaching zero...
It is Mother Nature who takes care of a woman when she is poorly nourished and very tired. Menstruation stops so that pregnancy does not take away the last strength from the body. By the way, almost all women in fascist concentration camps stopped menstruating.
The good news is that with normalization of lifestyle and nutrition, the female cycle is most often restored.
But we cannot say the same about the blood vessels of girls.
Atherosclerosis
And again, unpleasant numbers - 64% of ballerinas have vascular disorders, which leads directly to atherosclerosis. Again, an old age disease that affects young creatures!
We must remember that atherosclerosis is irreversible, so if you have chosen the profession of a ballerina, carefully monitor your diet.
An insufficient amount of calories, of course, does not compensate for any vitamin intake. But you still need to take care of your health, eat only high-quality foods, take the necessary dietary supplements, especially those containing calcium.
Cardiovascular diseases
Atherosclerosis eventually leads to the development of cardiovascular diseases. Is this why our beautiful ballerinas retire at 38? Before the soldiers...
And they are left with worn-out blood vessels, endless healed injuries and deformed feet. These consequences will haunt them all their lives; this is the price to pay for several years of triumph on stage.
Ballerina legs without pointe shoesBy the age of 38, ballet dancers' feet become quite deformed, and intervertebral discs wear out due to constant overload.
Therefore, one of the professional diseases of ballerinas is intervertebral hernia. At the same time, the back hurts unbearably... Unfortunately, at a young age, girls do not think about the consequences of selfless training, and understanding comes later, with age.
Let's focus on the positive
We have looked at the darkest and most painful side of the ballerina profession, but there is also a sparkling, beautiful reality that they give us from the stage.
In addition, many ballerinas after retirement begin new life, filled with other colors that they did not even suspect - they arrange a personal life, give birth to children.
And discipline and the ability to keep themselves in shape are instilled in them throughout their lives.
Watch a video about the everyday life of ballerinas:
In my first year at the institute, I became friends with a girl with the charming name Saule. She told about herself that until the 8th grade she studied at a choreographic school in the “classics” and could become professional ballerina. She could, but she didn't want to. When we heard this, we didn’t believe it: to voluntarily quit studying in such an institution - thousands of girls dream about this, standing on tiptoe in front of the mirror, and then suddenly! - and quit?.. Something is wrong here... And Saule explained her decision very simply: she could not stand those insane physical exertions and on August 31, just before the Day of Knowledge, she hid under the table and, sobbing, in hysterics, begged her parents to translate her to a normal school. Persuasion and persuasion did not help; on September 1, Saule entered the 9th grade of a regular high school...
And indeed, looking from the darkness of the auditorium at the stage where fragile, air girls create the magic of ballet, we forget at what price this lightness and grace is given to them, which they so generously bestow on us.
I went online to see if ballerinas write about how they achieve this perfection and how they pay for it. I’ll say right away that I found little. Among ballerinas, it is probably not customary to tell the whole truth about their art. This is understandable: for them ballet is not just a profession, it is much more than just the meaning of life.
Girls are brought to ballet very early. Many people start training as early as kindergarten. Classes are usually quite tough, it’s not customary to bother with all sorts of subtleties like the delicate psyche of a child - you need a result.
If the teacher is not satisfied with the result, he will not find out what is going on with the child, he will say directly and harshly... We can’t talk about any absences from classes either, a valid reason can only be a temperature of under 40, options “mother “I couldn’t bring my child,” they don’t pass... If you can’t drive regularly, leave, no one is interested in your difficulties, we have a waiting list for your place. The main motto is: when you come to the gym, work! Feel sorry for yourself - go home, the doors are open, no one is being kept.
Stretching... Without stretching, NOTHING will work out, and stretching is PAIN. There is such a thing" muscle memory"If the knee is bent, they slap it lightly, and so on 100 times, which sometimes leaves bruises, the same goes for the rest of the body. Everyone there cries, no one even reacts to tears. When a lot of bruises accumulate, moms and dads feel sorry for their children and they don't come anymore.
The mother of one little ballerina writes on the forum: “My daughter has been studying since she was 5 years old. We are considering entering the XU in two years, so at home we study every other day for one and a half to two hours. Otherwise, even if we have good data, there will be a rollback. Ideal natural The data is from the realm of fantasy, there is a gap somewhere. But what will happen in two years - God knows, maybe all our studies will go down the drain, then it will be very disappointing."
And this is true, for a girl, when she is only 6-10 years old, it is difficult to say what she will be like at 14-15.
From the memoirs of ballerina Evgenia Petrova: "Problem excess weight in ballet it is associated with adolescence, when the body is formed, and primarily concerns girls. Girls in ballet are selected specifically; they usually develop physically later than their peers. If someone is “lucky” to acquire breasts and round hips by the age of 13-14, suffering and the most barbaric diets begin. The fact is that it is precisely at this age that girls enter the 5th grade of ballet, after which, according to tradition, a great purge takes place in choreographic schools: everyone is expelled - both those who are clearly incapable and simply girls who have matured too early. Teachers will not wait for them to lose weight naturally by age 20. By this milestone, almost everyone loses weight.
Everyone is trying their best. The most cruel diets using medications are kept in deep secret. Girls who quickly and radically lose weight usually lie that they were on fruit and mineral water. In the 1970s, the weight of high school girls should not exceed 50 kg, regardless of height. After the milestone 5th grade, the program included a duet dance, and it was believed that it was harmful for boys to lift more than half a centner. Every week we had a control weigh-in. The day before, we ate a lot of furosemide, a strong diuretic, and tried to drink less.
Another milestone is final exams. We took the “classics” in short pink tunics, all our bodies were striking, we ourselves were disgusted. One of the girls, who still had to go to the Musical Comedy Theater in Saransk, so there was no need to worry about her form, out of pure perfectionism, sat down on hard cheese and dry wine for two weeks. From such a diet she was constantly slightly tipsy and immediately after the exam she fainted. Some, not so risky, ate unleavened buckwheat porridge: two spoons three times a day, snacking on dried fruits. The most vulnerable, oddly enough, were children from wealthy families: they were always experimenting with unknown medicines.
Tragic stories happened. The daughter of a famous TV announcer was graduating from college. Before graduation, she lost a lot of weight, and, apparently, her body’s metabolism was disrupted; something happened to her psyche. After any accidental apple, she ran to the toilet to induce vomiting, and then to the mirror to see if she had added too much. When she became completely weak, she was admitted to the hospital, fed artificially, intravenously - she tore out the tubes. It all ended horribly, she died. They say that in recent days this tall girl weighed 38 kilograms and had the stomach of a three-year-old child.
There are happy people who can eat whatever they want and as much as they want, without any consequences for their figure. Ballerina Alla Mikhalchenko had excellent proportions: long legs, small head, graceful neck. She had a narrow bone, which is also important for ballet - the silhouette is thin and graphic. She had no problems with weight. Not suffering from lack of appetite, she always ate a full lunch, bought a cake or five sweets from the buffet and immediately went to the rehearsal. We all sighed heavily and enviously."
At the choreographic school there are quite strict limits regarding weight: younger ones - height minus 115, older ones - height minus 120, although each teacher has his own criteria. In a private conversation with parents, they all understand “yes, calcium, yes, vitamins, yes, good nutrition,” but meanwhile they lower their grades and expel them. THIS IS A CHOREOGRAPHIC SCHOOL!
Diet of ballerinas
First fasting day:
Breakfast - a glass of tomato juice
Lunch - 2 glasses of tomato juice and one piece of black bread
Dinner - a glass of tomato juice.
Second fasting day:
Breakfast - a glass of milk or kefir
Lunch - a glass of kefir and a piece of black bread
Dinner - a glass of milk or a glass of kefir.
Ballerina diet (another option)
Breakfast - 1/3 pack of low-fat 0% cottage cheese and a glass of warm milk 1%-3% or kefir.
2 breakfast - a cup of coffee, a piece of bread with butter, a teaspoon of honey
Lunch - eat a tablespoon of boiled rice. Then drink one cup of broth and eat a piece of meat, no more than 150 g.
Afternoon snack - orange or apple. If you're hungry, you can do both.
Dinner - two hours before bedtime, drink a glass of warm milk or kefir with one teaspoon of honey.
One can only wonder how, with such a menu, they are able to withstand such loads.
Professional ballerinas - like all young women who experience heavy physical activity - get sick four times more often than ordinary people. As a rule, ballerinas suffer from poor nutrition, menstrual irregularities, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases - this is the so-called. "tetrad".
Anna Hoch, an employee at the Medical College of Wisconsin (USA), found out what happens to ballerinas when the amount of energy that was expended during training is not replenished. As a result, the menstrual cycle is disrupted, and the girl experiences the same problems that older women face during the postmenopausal period of their lives.
Anna Hoch surveyed 22 professional ballerinas working for the Milwaukee Ballet Company. Average age artists - 23 years old, body weight - 51 kg. 86% of ballerinas already have at least one “tetrad” component. 14% have all four.
The study showed that 36% of ballerinas do not eat properly, 77% have a calorie deficiency, 59% have a calcium deficiency, 45% have an iron deficiency, and 23% have a bone mineral deficiency (early stage of osteoporosis). 27% stopped having periods.
The most terrible conclusion was that 64% of ballerinas developed dysfunction of blood vessels - a direct path to atherosclerosis.
The most painful topic in the backstage life of ballet is the feet of ballerinas. The fact is that until the 18th century, both men and women danced in ballet in ordinary shoes with heels. With the advent of pointe shoes, ballet became an exclusively female phenomenon.
Below is an x-ray of a ballerina's leg standing on pointe shoes. This stance is fraught with many injuries. There is even a separate specialization in medicine that deals exclusively with injuries to dancers. The size of a ballet shoe is much smaller than the usual shoe size (almost 2 times), this allows you to rest on your toes, while the foot is deformed.
Ballet shoes are usually made of pink satin and pink ribbons are sewn to them, but this is only external tenderness, under which a hard frame is hidden. The toe of ballet pointe shoes is glued with hardened glue and lined with cardboard, forming a protective hard box for the toes, and the sole is lined with a thick cardboard insole and lined with thin leather.
A ballerina will never put on new pointe shoes right away; they need to be properly prepared. At first glance, they are treated cruelly: first, they break a hard sock with a hammer until it becomes soft, then they take on the insole. Sometimes it is completely torn out. Then the sole is rubbed on the most ordinary household grater.
And at the end, they file down the very tip of the shoe with a blade, and stitch the resulting hole with thick threads. All this is done to ensure that the pointe shoes do not slip on the floor. To make them fit better on your leg, you can slightly wet them.
Many ballerinas are very sensitive to the choice of pointe shoes, because, in essence, it is the health and longevity of their feet.
Ballerinas are like air fairies, on whom gravity does not seem to affect. We only see how they rarely touch the stage with their feet, and spend the rest of the time flying.
Ordinary people have soft feet, but a ballerina’s feet are no softer than a chair leg in terms of hardness. A ballerina's muscles are strong, resilient and strong as iron. After all, in otherwise, they would not be able to support their body weight on a pointe shoe area no larger than 2 square centimeters.
Most often, professional injuries in ballet are associated with fractures, dislocations and sprains, as well as injuries to the ligamentous apparatus of the joints. A significant part of ballet trauma is also trauma hip joint, which entails a whole range of problems involving the pelvic organs in inflammatory processes.
Ballerinas have a concept called “breaking the instep,” which involves forcibly stretching the ligaments of the upper part of the foot. Many people put their fingers under something and thus pull out the instep. As with any unnatural bending, this is what happens: those ligaments that work in tension are stretched and often partially torn, causing the ligamentous apparatus of the foot to weaken and become loose.
With age, this process brings certain inconveniences, that is, the leg easily twists, especially when running and jumping. Thrombophlebitis and arthritis-arthrosis are also common occupational diseases of ballet. You have to pay for beauty this way.
From the memoirs of ballerina Evgenia Petrova: " The burning question for the audience is: is it easy to lift ballerinas? It’s not easy, of course, but it doesn’t depend on weight.
How much suffering professional illnesses bring to musicians, dancers, and artists! We want to dedicate our article to this topic. We’ll also tell you about natural preparations that can alleviate, if not the torments of creativity, then at least bodily torments.
The phrase that beauty will save the world, uttered by one of the heroes of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky, is well known to everyone. Maybe that’s why people have long sought to capture the “savior” and their attitude towards her in the most different ways: in music, dance, painting, sculpture, in a word - in works of art? The famous phrase has long been paraphrased: “Art will save the world.” Who among us has not admired the extraordinary lightness and grace of a ballerina, the virtuosity of a musician, or the richness of an artist’s palette? Art cleanses us, makes us stronger, awakens wonderful feelings and thoughts in our souls. We begin to appreciate true love, loyal friendship, compassion for our neighbors. Sometimes it seems that own life creative people are a complete fairy tale. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Behind the greatest works of art, which are worshiped by millions, there is often hidden the hardest daily work, many years of searching for “oneself,” and misunderstanding of contemporaries.
What are the dangers of holy love for music?
Famous sages argued that music was born simultaneously with the creation of the world. Ancient philosophers thought about the power of its influence on humans: Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle. Nowadays it has been proven that a person largely depends on emotions, and music rules over emotions. It transforms the soul, changes mood, calms during rest periods, helps with work, stimulates brain activity, and unites people. To achieve such an influence on a person, it is not enough to play the notes; one must master high performing technique. Musicians of all times and peoples have strived to achieve this goal. And they often paid with their health. "Sacred love for music" has its downside. According to statistics, occupational diseases of musicians are diagnosed in 90% of representatives of this profession worldwide. Moreover, in 72% of cases they are detected in people under 25 years of age.
R. Schumann, A. Scriabin, A. Toscanini, S. Rachmaninov, S. Taneyev, D. Shostakovich, G. Neuhaus, E. Ysaye, Ya Flier, M. Yudin suffered from similar diseases. This list can be continued endlessly. This problem remains relevant today.
Rehearsals and performances
Long-term playing of musical instruments during long hours of rehearsals and performances, performing countless monotonous movements, constant attempts to combine speed and high coordination are accompanied by the strongest physically overexertion of the arms . To some extent, this is reminiscent of an athlete’s training, which causes severe fatigue. But allowing yourself complete rest and skipping rehearsals is unacceptable: this will immediately affect the speed (virtuosity) of your fingers.
Let us add that many musicians spend most of their time in a sitting or standing position(depending on the instrument). This sadly affects the spine and blood vessels. The result is pain in the neck, lower back, elbow, fingers, limited opportunities to do what you love and complete abandonment of it, which for a creative person is akin to disaster, loss of the meaning of life.
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, passionately seeking to ensure that “music comes from the depths of the present and is not only pleasant fun and beautiful in sound, but also strives for something else,” practiced with the tenacity of a fanatic and even used special exercises, reinforced by a mechanical device. The results of the “training” were not long in coming: she was injured right hand, the middle finger has lost its functionality forever. The treatment did not produce any results. I had to forget about virtuoso playing...
Occupational diseases of musicians
Occupational diseases of musicians usually associated with imbalance of the motor system: weak muscles and ligaments are forced to do the hardest work, while large muscles“stand idle”, become sluggish, amorphous. Posture is disturbed, vertebrae move closer together or are displaced, ligaments, periarticular tissues, tendons, bursae of joints, the muscles themselves become inflamed, sprains and injuries occur, muscle hypertonicity, as well as neuralgia and pinched nerves, neuroses develop.
Perhaps one of the most common are And finger joints and brushes. Constant tension in these parts of the body provokes the development of inflammatory diseases of the articular or periarticular tissue. The fingers turn red, begin to go numb, bend poorly, and swell. The severe aching pain does not go away even at night. Inflammation gradually destroys cartilage tissue. This is how a dangerous disease begins. . Now the pain bothers a person only when moving, and at rest it subsides, redness and swelling also disappear. However, the mobility of the joints and the bones they connect deteriorates, the joints increase in size, a characteristic crunch appears when performing any actions with the hands, the fine motor skills fingers. In advanced cases it could end in disability and the inability to continue a musical career. The practice of treating arthritis and arthrosis with steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, which is widespread today in the world, is aimed only at eliminating the symptoms of diseases, but, unfortunately, does not affect their very cause - destruction of cartilage tissue.
Studying occupational diseases of musicians , their treatment and prevention are engaged Kurt Singer Institute for Music Physiology and Musicians’ Health and the Peter Ostwald Research Institute at the Cologne Conservatory ( Hochschule für Musik Köln).
Many older musicians are concerned about such a disease as. At the same time, their hands and fingers are especially often affected. This issue was studied in detail by scientists: Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Candidate of Medical Sciences, Associate Professor V.S. Zhivotoschuk. We bring to your attention their scientific work
Towards excellence through pain and backbreaking work
Ballet for the average person is an extraordinary, magical, enchanting act. And its artists are real fairy fairies and elves. They are able to fly high like butterflies, soar over the stage, and spin quickly and easily. All this is so implausible and incomprehensible that it seems like something supernatural, beyond human capabilities. How do they do this? What is a holiday for us, for ballet dancers is daily grueling, but much loved work. Years of hard work, often accompanied by pain from dislocations and sprains, allow you to achieve ease and grace of movement. By the way, ballet is perhaps the most traumatic activity. Only athletes—alpine skiers or football players—have more injuries. Occupational diseases ballerinas- this is, first of all, diseases of bones and joints, as well as the ligamentous apparatus.
Ballet classes involve heavy physical activity comparable to that of athletes. There is one difference: dancers work for endurance, not for records. It is estimated that male ballet dancers carry about 2 tons of “load” during one performance. They lift the ballerinas up countless times, spin them around, and stand them up again. And in addition to performances, there are also trainings: 10-12 hours a day, 6 days a week! They also need to lift “weights”. But physical activity in ballet is experienced not only by representatives of the stronger half of humanity. Average weight ballerinas – 50 kg. And such a mass is regularly taken on by the toes and the front part of the female foot (metatarsal bones), because most movements need to be performed on the toes (due to this, in fact, a feeling of extraordinary lightness is created). The load is increased many times over by jumping. This is not provided for by nature, it is unnatural for the body. In an ordinary person, the forefoot bears no axial load at all.
Occupational diseases of ballerinas
By the age of 38, ballerinas have very strong feet are deformed and fingers, crooked thumb provokes displacement of all other toes and the upper arch of the foot, the outer metatarsal bones diverge to the sides, develops static flat feet associated with weakening muscles and sprained ligaments. The situation is aggravated by wearing uncomfortable, tight shoes - pointe shoes. Over the years, the feet of artists become covered with calluses and bruises, thumbs bumps appear, joints become inflamed and painful.
But these are still “flowers”. From constant overloads intervertebral discs wear out, hip joints are affected by arthrosis, arthritis, characteristic skeletal changes are formed, instability of the lumbar vertebrae(they become overly mobile and lose the ability to hold the body in a physiological position when moving and at rest), internal organs descend(due to constant jumping) and begin to put pressure on the bladder. Moreover, young people develop a disease that is characteristic mainly of older people - osteoporosis or decreased bone density, because of which they break their arms and legs much more often than “mere mortals.”
Why is this happening?
It is known that loads on the bone apparatus stimulate renewal bone cells, increase its density. It has been noticed, for example, that among astronauts a long stay in a state of weightlessness, when there is no load on the bones and muscles, causes significant . Ballet dancers, on the contrary, have an excess physical activity. It turns out that the whole point is that bone cell renewal occurs during rest. If intense training is not alternated with proper rest, the balance of the processes of formation of new bone cells is disturbed, and an imbalance develops between the resorption of old bone tissue (a natural process) and the creation of new one. As a result, the bones become thinner and therefore weaker. Doctors call this phenomenon " tired bones».
Another reason occupational diseases of ballerinas American scientists led by Professor Anna Hoch from the Wisconsin Medical College found out. They conducted a study of 22 young female professional dancers with the Milwaukee Ballet Company. The average age of the participants was 23 years, weight – 51 kg. It was possible to establish that the source of health problems for all “fairy fairies” is the same – incorrect exercise, which is not able to fully replenish the energy spent during training. Among other things (indigestion, impaired blood flow and lymphatic drainage, varicose veins leg veins, thrombophlebitis, heart disease, cessation of menstruation, inflammatory processes of the pelvic organs, infertility, etc.) 59% of ballerinas had a deficiency, 23% had a bone deficiency, in other words, the initial phase of osteoporosis. So the girls faced women's problems postmenopausal period.
Dozens of people suffer in training!
In order for the body to adapt to an increase in the level of physical activity, it is necessary to spend enough time warming up and warming up the joints. Often this time is simply not enough. Result - damage to the ligamentous apparatus of the joints when performing complex elements: injury to the anterior ligament of the spine, hip joint, weakening and loosening of the ligaments of the foot, rupture of foot ligaments and ankle joint and etc.
There is even a separate specialization in medicine that deals exclusively with injuries to dancers. And in the traumatology and orthopedic hospital of Omsk, a special department has been created for ballet dancers and athletes. That’s what it’s called – the sports and ballet trauma department. Every week it receives dozens of people injured during training. The doctors’ task is not just to restore motor activity to the dancer, but also the ability to dance.
Gave up walking in favor of painting
Striving for beauty - distinguishing feature person. Even the caves of primitive people were decorated with rock paintings and figurines of people and animals, carved from scrap materials. Ancient sculptors tried to capture events that were important to them and the beauty of the surrounding nature. What can we say about modern man? Many people cannot imagine the interior of their apartment without paintings on the walls and figurines. But for some this is daily, painstaking and very hard work. “All great artists are great invalids,” said the German writer Thomas Mann. And there is a considerable amount of truth in this. Diseases of artists and sculptors are determined by the peculiarities of their creative activity.
Occupational diseases of artists and sculptors
Prolonged standing or sitting position, constant tension in the hand, wrist and fingers, rare breaks in work or their absence, and undivided devotion to art, have a detrimental effect on the condition of the musculoskeletal system. Painters and sculptors especially suffer from the spine and joints. Classic examples are Auguste Renoir and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
Auguste Renoir
Renoir's bright and light paintings depicting flowers, children and women give a feeling of quiet happiness and beckon with simple joys. Looking at them, it’s hard to believe that the artist suffered the most severe joint disease - rheumatoid arthritis. With this disease, the body's immune system begins to attack synovium of joints(soft pad around them), mistaking it for a foreign body. Fluid accumulates around small joints and they become deformed. The result is pain, stiffness, and inflammation throughout the entire body. It all started at the age of 54 with a slight swelling of the metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints of the hands.
Every movement caused the artist incredible suffering, and the disease progressed year by year. It stiffened my joints for several hours, preventing me from working normally. To get to his workshop (which is several hundred meters), the patient was forced to lean on two sticks. The doctors, examining him, only shook their heads sadly and said that medicine knows nothing about such an illness. The artist tried all the methods of treatment known at that time: he drank antipyrine (a synthetic painkiller), did exercises with a towel, which cost him incredible effort, and took healing baths in the French resort of Bourbon-les-Bains. But everything turned out to be in vain. Renoir returns from the resort no longer with sticks, but on crutches, which is not surprising: resort treatment for active form of rheumatoid arthritis contraindicated, because it provokes a deterioration of the condition.
To at least partially restore joint mobility, the painter decides on a last resort: performing several small surgical operations. He writes to his friend about the results: “ In truth, there is not the slightest improvement, and I am only becoming more and more crippled.” Renoir no longer gets up from his chair. Naughty fingers do not want to hold the brush, the master ties it to his hand and continues to create. Wanting to help their talented comrade, friends invite him to one of the best doctors of the time, Henri Gautier.Therapeutic and special regime, prescribed by the “luminary of science”, perform miracles: the artist gets up from his chair and even takes a few steps on his own, but... voluntarily abandons all this. “Thank you, doctor. You are a luminary! But I refuse to walk. She takes away all my will, leaving nothing for painting.If I have to choose between walking and painting, I choose painting", he says. Auguste Renoir will never get up from his chair again.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
In 2016, the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine published sensational research results in the article “Osteoarthritis in the hands of Michelangelo Buonarroti.” Its lead author, specialist in reconstructive and aesthetic surgery David Lazzeri from the Rome clinic Villa Salaria, said: “From the literature it is known that Michelangelo suffered from joint disease. Previously it was thought that it was gout, but our analysis refutes this version.”
Scientists analyzed three portraits of different artists who captured great Italian painter, sculptor and architect at the age of 60-65 years (it was during this period, while working on the Florentine Pieta, that the disease first made itself felt), and came to the conclusion: Michelangelo was the culprit of innumerable troubles - degenerative joint disease related to destruction of articular cartilage. With it, worn-out cartilage loses its ability to protect bones from friction. This causes pain and stiffness of movement.
For the last 15 years of his life, the famous Renaissance master created world masterpieces, overcoming terrible pain. However, he not only lived to a respectable age (he died 3 weeks before his 88th birthday - at that time this was considered longevity), but also did not stop carving, working with a brush and drawing all this time, although due to pain he could not answer questions. letters. This was done under the dictation of Michelangelo by his friends, and the great genius only put his signature. Experts say that it is insatiable desire to work to the detriment of one’s own health and became cause of the disease. But it also gave him the strength to fight her for many years and emerge victorious.
Art will save the world, but what will save the people of art? Remedy for occupational diseases of bones and joints
It is absolutely obvious: people who, through their work, give us joy, happiness, and heal, should not suffer. They just need to always stay in good physical fitness. But how can ballet dancers, musicians, artists, sculptors and other artists be freed from occupational diseases of bones and joints? On help creative people Russian scientists came from Penza Institute for Advanced Medical Studies under the guidance of Professor of Medicine, Doctor of Medical Sciences. Villory Ivanovich Strukov. They have made a real breakthrough in the field of prevention and treatment of bone and joint diseases.
A decrease in testosterone levels in old age is associated with decline in reproductive function. Why does it decrease among young people? Turns out, long intensive work without sleep or rest(and this is exactly how most artists live) causes a significant decrease in testosterone. This was proven back in 1995 by Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation Roshen Jafarovich Seifulla with a group of like-minded people.
Replenishment of testosterone deficiency synthetic hormones fraught numerous: increased risk of hair growth disorders, development of inflammatory diseases of the skin and hair follicles, atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, invasive breast cancer, etc.
Natural natural substance!
Penza scientists proposed using not synthetic hormones, but a natural substance, on the basis of which the body itself would produce the missing testosterone. It's about about beekeeping product - , capable of exerting a stimulating effect on the central mechanisms regulating the intensity of androgen formation and at the same time not being a hormone substitute.
Having enhanced its effect with vitamin D, Professor Strukov and his team created a group unique highly effective drugs for prevention, and even. This should include: "Osteomed", "Osteomed Forte" and.
In 2009, studies were conducted at the Osteoporosis Center of the Penza Institute for Advanced Medical Studies (you can read more about them in the journal “Policlinic” No. 1 for 2013) that confirmed the effectiveness of these drugs. It was found that in 50% of cases the size of bone cavities (a kind of “hollows” that form in the bones during osteoporosis) decreases, in 25% they close completely. The practice of using the dietary supplement "Osteomed" in a dosage of 2 tablets 3 times a day daily in more than a thousand patients with arthrosis and arthritis has shown that:
— the processes of development of arthrosis and arthritis are stopped and reversed, positive dynamics of the main clinical, instrumental and biochemical indicators are noted;
— within 1-3 months from the start of taking the drug, the frequency of pain and its severity are reduced by 3 times, joint mobility improves, which makes it possible to abandon the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs;
— after 6-9 months of treatment, patients who could not move due to severe pain begin to move and care for themselves;
— with long-term use (more than 9 months), significant results are achieved in 100% of patients.
Research
A separate study was conducted on the effect of taking the drug "Osteomed". It was found that the drug allows bones to grow together much faster.
Let us add that recently research by a group of Swedish scientists led by Myrta Pikver from Skein Hospital at Lund University found that is of great importance for joints testosterone . Observations of 33,000 people over 50 years led to a sensational discovery: a lack of this hormone at a young age significantly increases the risk of developing joint diseases in the future. The fact is that testosterone affects the amount of synovial fluid (joint lubrication), regulates the work chondrogenic cells cartilage tissue, which under its influence “acquire specialization”, become chondroblasts– young cells producing collagen, elastin, intercellular substance. The latter, in turn, turn into chondrocytes - mature cells of cartilage tissue that support metabolic processes in it at a certain level. Androgen also stimulates biosynthetic processes in cartilage, affecting the restoration of their tissue.
4 April 2013, 10:15Anastasia Volochkova: In the dressing room they threatened me with a knife!
The ballerina's partners were severely beaten so that they would not appear on the same stage with her.
One day, two fans came to my dressing room - huge men with a basket of flowers,” Nastya recalls the events of that evening. - Well, I think, as usual, they want to ask for an autograph. And they... pulled out a knife and said: “Anastasia, on behalf of the director of the Bolshoi Theater, we demand that the trial be stopped and the documents taken away.”
The director of the Bolshoi Theater, Anatoly Iksanov, tried to deprive me of my partners. The dancers who continued to participate in my performances were beaten! Zhenya Ivanchenko suffered the most. On the eve of the opening of the season at the Bolshoi Theater in 2003, where we were supposed to dance Swan Lake with him, he suddenly disappeared. It turned out that he was beaten in the entrance of the house, with a warning that if he appeared on the threshold of the Bolshoi Theater or next to Volochkova again, it would be even worse.
To suppress hunger, ballerinas drink shampoo!
For many, ballet dancers mean lush tutus, graceful pointe shoes and incessant applause. Only the initiated know what is hidden behind this gloss: those who managed to pass the strict selection committee and many years of daily training in the hall of mirrors. These people devote all their time and health to ballet. Simply because they cannot do otherwise.
Asya Vasilyeva
In the ninth grade, a new girl came to our school - slender, elongated as a string, but at the same time graceful as a cat, Mashenka. Previously, she studied at a choreographic school in the “classics” and could become a professional ballerina. She could, but she didn't want to. I just couldn’t stand the crazy physical exertion.
Natural selection
Those who still decide to connect their lives with ballet will have to pass the entrance exam to the choreographic school. The strongest schools in Russia are in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Vladivostok and Novosibirsk. Those admitted live in dormitories. The classes are tough - no baby talk.
“Almost all teachers are strict and callous people,” recalls my classmate Maria Yakubovskaya. - The choreographer was screaming all the time! When she noticed the relaxed buttocks of the ballerinas, she grabbed a fly swatter and spanked the girls, shouting “pick up your buttocks.” To help us stretch our legs better, a huge ruler was used: with its blows, the teacher showed which muscle needed to be tensed. I was covered in bruises.
Missing classes is out of the question! - user Swan advises mothers on a special forum. - My daughter once had a bad cold and was lying in bed with a high fever. The teacher called and said in a steely voice: “He can’t train, let him go!” There are a lot of people willing to take your place. I feel sorry for the child - take him home! Only death can be a valid reason for skipping!” Be prepared that your child will have to study from morning until late evening. My daughter also stretched at night.
No matter how talented and diligent a girl is, if she was born with the wrong physical characteristics, the road to classical ballet is closed to her, explains Yakubovskaya. - The examiners at the school look at you like a dog at a show: if the joints are not mobile enough or there are problems with stretching, the length of the legs is inappropriate or the size of the head is disappointing, they are instantly rejected.
The first thing the selection committee pays attention to is turnout (the ability of the legs to turn outward). In addition, girls must be very flexible: easily lift their legs 180 degrees, gracefully bend their backs, literally folding in half. Another important quality is high rise. Many people, in order to achieve the desired result, “break it” - this is the name for forced stretching of the ligaments of the upper part of the foot.
The easiest way is to slip your toes under a radiator or cabinet, advises BalletRose on the forum. - The main thing is that the gap between the floor and the object is as small as possible. The essence of the “torture” is to keep the legs under the radiator in the sixth position (exactly), while the knees should remain straight and the toes should be directed towards the floor. It hurts, but you have to endure it!
The future ballerina must have long limbs. Ballet dancers even have a special “long-legged” index, which is calculated upon admission to the school.
Each child is measured twice - in full height and from the top of the head to the buttocks,” explains Yakubovskaya. - Then the height in a sitting position is divided by the height in a standing position and multiplied by one hundred. The ballet norm is 49 - 52 percent. Actually, this index can be assessed with the naked eye: the legs of ballerinas should be much longer than the body.
Victims of art
The competition in ballet is simply monstrous: out of 500 who come to the audition, only 30 will be accepted, only half of them will finish their studies at the school, and only one will dance the leading roles.
The most difficult tests for young ballerinas come during school days.
We get up at seven in the morning, before classes we need to wash the floors and make the bed, have time to collect our hair into a “bump,” said 13-year-old Nadezhda Vysotskaya, a student at the Perm Choreographic School. - Many girls bite and scratch teachers during stretching - such unbearable pain. I remember writing letters to my mother begging her to take me home, but a new day would come and I would go back to class.
For the servants of Terpsichore ideal figure- skeleton. Each calorie in food is counted by the school's in-house nutritionist. The required weight is again calculated using the formula: height minus 122. Anyone who goes beyond these limits is excluded.
In the evening you want to eat especially badly,” Nadezhda continues. - To cope with this, I chew gum. I heard that someone was drinking shampoo.
Before the control weigh-in, the students begin to lose weight with all their might. It is especially tough in the fifth grade, after which a great purge occurs in choreographic schools: duet dance is introduced into the program, and it is believed that it is harmful for boys to lift more than 50 kilograms.
The day before the weigh-in, we ate a lot of furosemide, a strong diuretic,” ballerina Evgenia Petrova shares her experience. - One of the girls sat on cheese and dry wine for two weeks. From such a diet she was constantly slightly tipsy and immediately after the exam she fainted. The most vulnerable were children from wealthy families: they were always experimenting with unknown medicines. There were also tragic stories. The daughter of a famous TV announcer was graduating from college. Before the exam, she lost a lot of weight, and, apparently, because of this, something happened to her psyche. After eating an apple, she ran to the toilet to induce vomiting, and then to the mirror to see if she had gained weight. When she became completely weak, she was admitted to the hospital, fed intravenously, but she was tearing out the tubes. It all ended horribly: she died weighing 38 kilograms!
But there are also happy people in ballet who can eat whatever they want without any consequences for their figure. Alla Mikhalchenko always ate a full lunch, bought a cake or five sweets from the buffet and immediately went to the rehearsal.
Bloody pointe shoes
Professional ballerinas get sick four times more often than ordinary people. As a rule, they suffer from digestive disorders, menstrual irregularities, arthritis, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. Cases of infertility among dancers are not uncommon.
By graduation, half of our girls’ periods had stopped,” Lana says on the forum. - But the most painful topic is the legs. Pointe shoes are almost half the size of regular shoes. This allows you to rest on your toes, but greatly deforms your foot. You can recognize our feet from thousands: all covered in bumps, calluses, and bruises. Everyone who has “broken” their lift sooner or later has loose and even torn ligaments. Because of this, the legs are easily tucked in when jumping. I’m not even talking about fractures!
That is why, before putting on new pointe shoes, the ballerina carefully prepares them: she breaks the sock with a hammer, making it softer, rips out the insole, rubs the sole with a kitchen grater, and cuts the very tip of the shoe, sewing up the resulting hole with thick threads.
After graduating from college, the ballerina begins to struggle for the stage.
There are no girlfriends in ballet: at any moment they can stick a knife in your back,” one of the Bolshoi Theater artists under the nickname Tata confesses on the forum.
“They once rubbed some kind of ointment on the inside of my suit,” Ivan says on the forum. - During the dance, the body warmed up - the skin became sensitive, and this ointment caused unbearable pain. They also somehow cut the elastic bands on the ballet shoes that hold them on the leg. During the dance, the shoes came off.
Despite her extensive connections, the daughter of the famous comedian Vladimir Vinokur remained just a good ballerina.
My things were thrown out of the dressing rooms into the corridor, making it clear who was boss in the house,” says Anastasia. - It’s also true about broken glass in pointe shoes!
Not everyone can cope with incredible physical and psychological stress. Most ballet dancers, in order to dance while overcoming pain, swallow handfuls of painkillers, and some become addicted to strong tranquilizers and alcohol.
Ballet dancers also cannot boast of huge earnings - their income depends on the number of performances and roles: in large theaters, ordinary ballerinas receive 15 - 20 thousand rubles, in the provinces - 6 - 9 thousand. They are saved, of course, by tours, for which they pay travel allowances , and the opportunity to work part-time in other productions. Prim and leading artists have a better situation - they bring home from 50 to 80 thousand.
Ballet dancers' vacation usually lasts a month. Creative retirement comes after 20 years of service - as a rule, at 35 - 37 years. This does not mean at all that upon reaching this age, ballerinas are thrown out of the theater: Ekaterina Maksimova, for example, performed until she was 55, Galina Ulanova - until 50, Maya Plisetskaya - until 65. But today's dance youth prefer to play it safe by mastering more "earthly" professions.
Fouette on the table
Many ballerinas have powerful patrons. Even famous by Alexander Pushkin, the dancer Avdotya Istomina could not choose which of her fans to prefer - the cavalry guard Vasily Sheremetev or Count Alexander Zavadovsky. As a result, the rivals staged a duel. Sheremetev died.
Nicholas II was a fan of one of the brightest ballet stars of the last century, Matilda Kshesinskaya. This was the norm of that time - men from the royal family always gravitated towards the actresses of the Imperial Theater. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Sr. was fond of the ballerina Ekaterina Chislova, as a result of which the dancer had two sons and two daughters. And Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich admired the art of the ballerina Kuznetsova so much that in this endless delight he built her a two-story house and stayed in it for weeks.
Kshesinskaya's romance with the Tsarevich ended after his marriage to Princess Alice of Hesse. Afterwards, the ballerina passed from hand to hand to Nicholas’s cousin, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich. He even invited his girlfriend to marry, but she chose the young Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich.
The Bolsheviks, having come to power, also did not disdain the “lordly” hobby. Joseph Stalin himself loved to admire how Olga Lepeshinskaya danced at the Bolshoi Theater, and always gave her a lift home after the performance. Sometimes the leader left the ballerina in the early morning.
One of the most famous admirers of ballet fairies was the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin. For this, Stalin nicknamed him “the all-Union lustful goat.” They say that Kalinin invited girls to his office and forced them to twirl the fouetté in what their mother gave birth to right on his desk. According to rumors, Bella Uvarova, one of the ballerinas whom Mikhail Ivanovich had his eye on, refused to participate in this disgrace, and after some time her body was found not far from Moscow. After this incident, Kalinin was urgently sent on an unplanned vacation.
It’s impossible to count how many ballerinas were in Lavrentiy Beria’s bed. From time to time he stopped by the Bolshoi Theater to watch the ballerinas warm up and choose a girl according to his mood.
The famous dancer Maris Liepa was Galina Brezhneva's lover, although he was married at that time. Their romance lasted five years, the secretary general’s daughter helped him in his career all this time.
Highly spiritual striptease
Ballet has always been associated with homosexuality. Therefore, every dancer must have a wife, who becomes a protection against suspicion. Only having a life partner has the prospect of becoming a traveler. But there were brave souls who were not afraid of their orientation. For example, Vakhtang Chabukiani. This legendary dancer had a courageous appearance, a bright temperament and... an endless love for boys.
Rudolf Nureyev in a narrow circle of Leningrad gays acquired a reputation as a hot Tatar guy. In his own version of “Sleeping Beauty,” he turned his back to the audience and slowly took off his long cloak until, finally, the dancer’s luxurious buttocks were revealed to the viewer. By the way, he died from the disease of gays and drug addicts - AIDS.
