"The abuse of minors you witness or experience": A qualitative study of former professional ballet school students' characterizations of maltreatment.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The number of recent media reports of child maltreatment (CM) at international professional ballet schools surpasses the few studies on CM in dance. In general, studies on dance largely focus on psychological maltreatment. There is also little research on student experiences across the entire professional ballet school context, which typically include dance, academic, social life, and healthcare experiences, and for some students, living in residence or a homestay from a young age. OBJECTIVE: To explore how former professional ballet school students characterize and make sense of experiences of CM across the entire school context in dance training, academics, social life, living (e.g., in residence, homestay), and healthcare. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were 15 former professional ballet school students (12 women, three men) aged 18-27 years old across six countries. METHODS: Data from online semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Experiences were interpreted in the wider context of participants' former ballet schools. Themes included 1) psychological maltreatment in and beyond the studio; 2) neglect and devaluation costs of over-prioritizing ballet; 3) physicalabuse outdated but still rationalized as instrumental; and 4) sexual abuse in blurred private and public spaces. CONCLUSIONS: Participants used CM vocabulary to describe their own and peers' experiences and emphasized that CM should not be normalized. Sense making about experiences suggested a need for more ballet school community awareness about the multiple potential forms of harm of CM, as well as more research, intervention, and advocacy about CM at ballet schools.