Ballet Boot Camp

Riddarfjärdens Royal Ballet School is the toughest dance school in Scandinavia. Students have personal mentors that push them to the limit, both physically and mentally. Even warm-ups can be brutal. Half the students drop out after the first year because they can’t take the pressure. Class is in session from 8 AM to 5 PM, six days a week. Those who get through the three years are almost guaranteed a place at the best of the best of companies in the world.

I just graduated from a school nearby and I used to sell hash to the dance kids at parties. I met up with ballet girl Nor, fresh out of the school, and I asked her to tell me some stories about what was going on there…

“The teachers are hard on us. Some are worse than others. A while ago there was this one teacher who held a lighter under a kid’s leg to make her stretch her leg up further than she could. That teacher got sued though.

“They don’t want us drinking and stuff, so they send these warning letters to parents, trying to prevent us from doing anything bad. We can’t eat crisps or candy either. And smoking is sooo not allowed. It’s funny, because the guys always drink and smoke in their locker room. I mean, not even normal kids do that.

“The guys all have to wear thongs because it shows their butt muscles and figure better – body figure and muscles play a big part in ballet, they show grace. I have never seen anyone getting a boner in class, not even during romantic dances. This one English-speaking teacher told the guys when they had just started school that “you have to shake it off before class”.

“The first year was a lot like what I imagine boot camp to be like. They really try to break you down – like doing the same arm movement more than 250 times to make sure everyone gets it just right. They set everyone on the same level and make sure that preppy dancers don’t think they are special just because they have taken really expensive lessons before.

“I took modern dance, but the people who do classic dance are really stiff, and most of them are anorexic. One girl got kicked out because she got to skinny.”

SNACK ATTACK