Ballet Body : Techniques, Power and Practice

Abstract

This essay forms part of the thesis “Ballet Technique: The Process of Embodying the Nature of a Balletic Body.” It synthesizes and compares key theoretical perspectives to explain the “ballet body”, a systematic dance that has technical standards and aesthetic ideals, as a social construct shaped by technique, power, and systematic practice. The study draws on three frameworks: Susan Leigh Foster’s concept of techniques of the body, Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower, and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Together, they clarify how the ballet body is shaped, regulated, and valued within ballet’s technical standards and aesthetic ideals.

The findings indicate that, for Foster, the ballet body is a “body of ideas", formed through codified procedures and aesthetic conventions. From Foucault’s perspective, it is produced within systems of discipline, surveillance, and normalization, becoming a “docile body". Bourdieu explains that sustained training within the ballet field fosters the internalization of technique and aesthetics as “habitus”, or “second nature”, transforming embodied skills into “cultural capital” in a competitive professional sphere.

Integrating these frameworks reveals the ballet body as a three-layered structure: 1) an aesthetic process that produces ideals of beauty; 2) a disciplinary mechanism that regulates bodily conduct; and 3) a system of capital accumulation that assigns value to embodied skills. The study proposes a shift in ballet pedagogy from a controlling discipline to a care-centred approach, with awareness of its social and ethical dimensions. This study aims to cultivate dancers who combine technical precision with critical awareness of the structures shaping their bodies.