Death Wish For a New Baby

Photo of the New York City Ballet dancer, Mary Helen Bowers, from her Instagram page

Tiberge, from Galliawatch, sent me some links about a pregnant ballerina. These two words, "pregnant" and "ballerina," wouldn't even be used together at one time. A pregnant ballerina would quietly leave her performing life, quietly have her baby, quietly rest, and possibly quietly never return as she raises her family.

Ballet dancing is a very athletic, and physically very demanding career. The dancer has to be in it 100%. (Including the males, by the way). Any vacillations, and she could (will) be replaced.

Imagine the ballerina's concentration being destracted by a growing stomach!

Here is what Tiberge emailed me:

Which is why I am sending you this item. I don't know how to regard women who do things like this. She is showing off God's gift, but in doing so she is sullying the gift. Or am I wrong? Am I too conventional?

...For me, it is unthinkable to continue to dance ballet while pregnant, but apparently today's girls think differently. Not only do they continue to work out, they feel they must display their belly as graphically as possible...

I was a little surprised to see this article linked at Le Salon Beige, uncritically. French Catholics are of course very much pro-life, pro-pregnancy, pro-family, etc… For some reason, however, contrary to my own point of view, they do not appear to be offended by this. They seem to see this more as an affirmation of "life" than as the ineffable arrogance of female exhibitionism, which is what I see...

Is there a Catholic point of view on this? From the aesthetic, religious, and moral viewpoints, what do Catholics think of girls who exhibit their pregnancy? Or is this a question of personal taste, with no connection to Church doctrine?

My opinion (subject to modification) is that the anti-family culture that is prevalent, and the female exhibitionist/porn culture that is equally prevalent, are one and the same. Together, they generated this type of behavior that passes for something elegant, natural and spiritual (and really cool), when in fact it is anti-family (since it stresses the ego satisfaction of the mother), unnatural (since she is obviously trying to prove a point that most women will never be able to prove even if they are in good health), and totally unspiritual (since the physical bulge is the focal point of her photo album).

- The main article with slide-show

- Enceinte de 9 mois, une danseuse étoile continue de danserLe Salon Beige (Nine-months pregnant, a ballerina continues to dance)

I reply:

This is an awful phenomenon of very pregnant girls endangering their unborn infants. Ballet is a very difficult and athletic dance. The dancer herself is in constant danger of spraining ankles, etc. She has to concentrate 100% on herself. With the added burden (weight and psychological) of another life INSIDE her (!), her concentration is deflected, and she is likely to be less secure and sure of her moves, and thus to fall or otherwise lose her balance.

It is terrible and irresponsible [to take photographs of herself in advanced pregnancy doing difficult ballet moves]. And it is the usual trend of women thinking they're superwomen, and that they can do whatever they want (e.g., having "careers" with infants and children at home). Also, it is a deep disrespect of their femininity, and femaleness. With these photographs, they're scorning the unborn child, their husbands (or the fathers), and society at large, and snubbing their noses at them. Just because a woman is pregnant doesn't make her a GOOD woman, or a GOOD mother. That honor comes with her character, her personality and so on.

The interesting thing is that these "superwomen" are actually totally dependent on society. If the father isn't in the picture, it will be some kind of state subsidized life that she will lead, which will feed and clothe her baby. The superwoman/mother image is mirage, and at worst a lie she's been fed by modern society...

This superwoman phenomenon is a very interesting, and is now quite common in all aspects of women's lives.

It doesn't look like Bowen went back to New York City Ballet after the birth of her child. Her Facebook page biography has this:

Professional ballerina, fitness guru & technology entreprenuer.
Ballet Beautiful founder Mary Helen Bowers is changing the way the world works out and connects online with Ballet Beautiful Live. Register today to take a class at www.balletbeautiful.com

And Ballet Beautiful is described as:

Ballet-inspired fitness for every woman...

Ballet Beautiful provides techniques to build and maintain the beauty, strength and grace of a ballerina.

Ballet Beautiful benefits include:
- Sleek ‘ballet’ muscles
- Beautiful posture
- Strong, lean center
- Increased flexibility

allet Beautiful's aim is to "look" like a ballerina, not to "be" a ballerina.

So, as I wrote above, Bowen did not go back to the grueling world of a ballerina after she gave birth, she instead started an organization which gets people to "look" like ballerina's, including herself.

Still, the question remains: "How much time is she spending away from the family, and new baby, with this 'new career'?"

Below is The News Republic article in French:

Il est parfois difficile pour une future maman d'arriver à conjuguer grossesse et carrière une fois arrivée à quelques semaines du terme. La fatigue, l'effort physique sont souvent des freins bien naturels à son activité professionnelle, quelle qu'elle soit mais d'autant plus lorsque celle-ci requiert une impeccable condition physique.
Arrivée à 9 mois de grossesse, la ballerine Mary Helen Bowers continue quant à elle pas chassés, pointes et entrechats comme si de rien n'était et s'immortalise ainsi dans une jolie et gracieuse série de photos publiée sur son Instagram. Après avoir dansé pendant 10 ans au New York City Ballet et été l'entraîneuse de Natalie Portman pour son rôle dans Black Swan, le petit rat s'apprête à donner naissance à une petite souris qui sans aucun doute aura, dès ses premiers instants, la danse dans la peau !
Retrouvez toutes les photos de Mary Helen sur son Instagram balletbeautiful.

My translation:

It is sometimes difficult for a future mother to combine pregnancy and career when she's a few weeks away from giving birth. Fatigue, physical demands, are often the natural breaks to her professional activities, whatever it may be, but even more when it requires a perfect physical shape.

For Mary Helen Bowers, at nine months into her pregnancy, continues with pas chasses, points and entrechats as though nothing had happened, and imortalises herself in a pretty and graceful series of photos published on her Instagram. After having danced for ten years at the New York City Ballet, and having been Natalie Portman's trainer for her role in the Black Swan, the little rat prepares to give birth to a little mouse, which without doubt will have, from the first moments, ballet under her skin!
Find all the photos of Mary Helen on Instagram balletbeautiful.

In her most recent post, Tiberge writes about the ballerina Noëlla Pontois, whose doctor felt that the frail Noëlla might benefit from the strict exercise of ballet dancing to build up her physique. And it seems that her "concentration, a strong will, discipline and assiduousness" showed her strong character, which helped her through this difficult discipline. No photos of her with a protruding belly.

Tiberge posts a photo of a ballet dancer, Piernina Legnani, who is considerably stocky compared to contemporary ballet dancers. Tiberge writes:

The ideal of the swan-like ethereal creature we associate with ballerinas came later. Before, female dancers were a bit heavier, though I'm sure it did not affect their dancing. The change came with the indisputably great Russian choreographer George Balanchine who wanted his dancers to really look like swans. So strict dieting became the norm. How it affected the health of the women I cannot say, but it's a grueling life for them.

The strict dieting and very thin bodies expected of ballet dancers does affect their health. As do the grueling dances they have to perform on points. Ballet dancers are athletes, and perform like athletes.

But no choreographer wants his dancers to deteriorate, or to be harmed. Dancers begin their training as very young children, and spend hours preparing their bodies for the dances they later perform on stages as though they were floating on air. Their trainers and choreographers also know how to build their bodies, and how to use them for their difficult manouvers.

This is why a ballet dancer cannot have anything to detract her attention away from her moves, as I wrote to Tiberge, and especially a living being in their belly, where she has to doubly worry about losing her fragile balance, and harm or kill the fetus (and possibly herself).

The "pregnant-but-dancing" theme is just another "superwoman-with-career-and-kids" theme of contemporary women, who fail at every instance they take on this role.


Noëlla Pontois
Photo by Jacques Loyau
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------