The former dancer settles with the Royal Ballet School on “Body Shame”

The Royal Ballet School (RBS) has reached a financial settlement with a former student, who said that the shame of the body she had suffered while in the elite establishment had left her psychological damage to life.

Ellen Elphick, 31, said that the school based in London had violated her obligation of diligence when she attended between 2009 and 2012.

The school said that it did not accept any responsibility for the former dancer and had not apologized.

“We are happy that the two parties have been able to achieve a mutually acceptable agreement in this way and we wish her family and her family for the future,” said a spokesperson for the RBS-adding that the school “continues to take the well-being of its students very seriously”.

Last year, when Ellen spoke to the BBC She described how, like a 16 -year -old, just two weeks before her training, a teacher publicly humiliated her by tracing a line around her body in front of a mirror.

“If I had a knife, that's what I would cut,” said the professor.

The comment plunged in the shame, she said, and exacerbated her difficulties with food disorders. She then received a diagnosis of atypical anorexia and body dysmorphia

She said that there was a model of similar comments from several school teachers, who were still confident and intensified her food disorder.

“These regulations highlight the abuses that the dancers have suffered and the need for change,” said Dino Nocivelli of Leigh Day Solicitors – who represents Ellen.

“We continue to demand a government investigation into body shame in the ballet.”

Ellen was part of more than 50 ex-dancers who told the BBC that there was a “toxic” culture of body shame and long-standing intimidation in some of the main ballet schools in the United Kingdom.

She said that she had pursued legal action to draw attention to the damage caused by bodily shame in the ballet. The financial terms of its regulations were not publicly disclosed.

“It was not money,” she said.

“It was a question of being aware of the people what really looks like being a ballerina and showing that what happened to me was unacceptable.”

Although she says that she feels a certain validation of the colony, Ellen expressed her disappointment in the face of the absence of RBS excuses. “That they couldn't even say that” sorry “shows that there is so much more to do,” she said.

Now a mother, she said that she wanted to protect her daughter from the ballet world and send her “never” to ballet lessons.

However, she hopes that her case could lead to a significant reform and that ballet schools prioritize the mental health of the students and will train teachers to understand the impact of their words.

“RBS must open the way and show that health and well-being count more than dance,” she said.

“Children should be able to enter the dance and not let it damage.”

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