Why are ballet dancers short?

Question

I know not all of them are but most. Is it mainly because of pointe or what?

Answer 1

The stage is only a certain size, right? On that stage, a short dancer can fit more steps than a tall dancer could, if they take as long of a leaps as they can. Tall dancer would have to shorten his/her steps, to dance the same choreography but that doesn't look as impressive, that would look like they are not dancing to their full strength. It is not pleasant to dance on a stage that feels too small. The stage would always feel too small for taller dancers.

Answer 2

Ballet dancers can be any height, but there are several reasons why you mainly see short ones performing.

One is, as you say, pointe. In every style of partner dancing, choreographers choose two people who look good together. It's very unusual to pair a tall woman with a short man. Ballerinas have to get up on pointe, and so that extra height has to be taken into account in matching the man and woman. It would look awful if the ballerina towered over her hero every time she got up on her toes, woudn't it?

Another reason is that tall people are heavier. Do you notice that ice dancing (where lifts are restricted) tends to have a man and a woman who are roughly equal in height, whereas pair skating (where they do big acrobatic lifts like ballet) generally has a tall man and a tiny, lightweight woman? So if the choreographer is planning lifts (which these days, they usually do), then he/she will look for a woman that his male lead can lift.

For both those reasons, since it's unusual to see male dancers built like basketballers, taller women tend to miss out in the selection process.

There are some companies that simply have a prejudice towards shorter dancers. The Royal Ballet is a good example. Whereas Festival Ballet always recruited tall girls, because Alicia Markova (who ran the company) was tall herself and had been the subject of prejudice herself!

Answer 3

1. To appear small and petite on stage.
2. To be light enough for lifts and jumps
3. To no be taller then the men
4. To avoid 'accidents' when doing paired pirouettes


I recently attended a ballet in Paris and the lead dancer for the final piece was taller than everyone else. She was still very thin with incredibly long legs and arms, but en pointe, she was taller than the men. It was fabulous to see. She blew the smaller dancers away.

Answer 4

This is not true. The height range for ballet dancers is quite average, going from short up to tall dancers, with most of them in the middle.

Answer 5

If you're short you look better than a tall dancer when you perform. You look cuter. ;-) And you perform the steps quicker and it just looks more beautiful.
I am a ballerina and i've been dancing for 12 years ballet. So every famous ballerina that i've met have been short or normal. Like me I'm 5''2'

Answer 6

It is beneficial to be a small, light female dancer so the male dancers are able to pick you up. The proportions of the dancers are very important, especially in relation to one another
(i.e woman smaller than man)

Answer 7

George Balanchine set a lot of the standards for the accepted morphology of modern ballet dancers.

Answer 8

I never noticed that. I have always lovvvved ballet dancers. Nothing more beautiful than a girl in white tights and a tutu. Sigh. :)

Answer 9

It is so they can fit many movements in such a short space. I'm 5'2 and that is rather short and I have danced en pointe for 11 years.

Answer 10

I'm a ballet dancer and it's no typical reason its just the way they are born I think. You should look it up 2 make sure.