Fetishisation

 I've kind of talked about  this before from a personal perspective in Soft Blocks and Soft Blocks, and even to a degree in Would they be interested...  and from the way in which some people  decided to view 'Girl'. 

Equally because of 'rule 34'  there's lots of smut with ballet themes (and often dreadful pointe shoes- imagine even smuttier version of 'Models doing Ballet'). 

However, there is another aspect to the fetishisation of dancers and that is fetishisation within the  dance community.  I'm a lucky person in that in my ballet journey so far, I've met some  fabulous professionals who are really  interested in being inclusive of  recreational dancers regardless of how long  we have been taking class...  but this isn't about them either...

There are handful of my ballet buddies who for want a better term I'll call 'vocational school survivors' and some of them did go on to dance with decent companies for a relatively brief period, however the  realities of  the abusive  norms of  20 or more  years ago  caught up with them and  they got out  with their sanity and  just about their health...  

So where is the fetishisation? 

So what happens when they want, a few years later, to take  class ,especially if they are  now outside of London , which pre -Covid had a panopoly of Open classes at  all levels?  

Here in lays the issue... and 'that question' rears it's ugly head... 

Normally, for a recreational dancer, a teacher who you've not take class with  before might ask "where do you usually take class?" or "how long have you been dancing?", however for someone who appears to be  vocationally / professionally  trained , the question is  subtly  different  but  instantly says ' you've been rumbled'  - " so, where DID you train? "