Outward strength, inner fragility: the secret stories of ballet in print

The world of dance can feel like an enigma. On one hand, it’s filled with romance and tales of dancers reaching the pinnacle of their art against the odds. On the other, there are stories of pure discipline – the relentless work to achieve a perfect illusion of effortlessness. It’s no wonder audiences are simultaneously fascinated and enchanted.

But no one really knows what it means to dance except dancers themselves. At the Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB), Dr Nick Allen has dedicated his career to their physiology and well-being and his current research project aims to help them both during their careers and long after they have retired. It explores the phenomenon of ‘Relative Energy Deficiency’ (RED) and will be presented at World EXPO in Osaka as part of a full-scale printed photographic exhibition entitled The Silence After Applause. It combines Dr Allen’s medical data with the personal stories of dancers and glimpses of usually unseen and raw emotional moments in their lives, through the lens of Canon Ambassador, Clive Booth.

Dancers’ schedules are more gruelling than many other sports, training and performing sometimes over 30 hours a week. So, to say that the ideal nutritional balance for a dancer is complicated would be a massive understatement. They must be strong and indefatigable, which takes a huge amount of energy, but unlike other endurance athletes they cannot carb-load and risk sluggishness or a lack of ‘lightness’ in their performances.

This delicate balance can have dangerous outcomes. Insufficient energy can have a negative impact on your bone health and could lead to osteoporosis later in life. “We sometimes call osteoporosis ‘the silent killer’ because about 20% of osteoporotic fractures are fatal,” explains Dr Allen. “Which means looking after the dancers’ health and well-being in the short term but also ensuring quality of life later.” Female dancers are more at risk from this, as hormonal changes seen during menopause play an important role in supporting bone density, However, anyone can be affected, the impact of relative energy deficiency extends beyond bone health and can affect many of our physiological systems as well as mental health

It is this element which focused the mind of Clive Booth, whose passion for print allowed him to easily visualise how this unseen world might be transformed into a physical experience. Having worked with the imagePROGRAF PRO Series large format printers for many years, he understood their ability to reflect the truth of the moment. Picking up details filled with emotional nuance is essential in a project of this complexity. “Print is one hundred percent the way to tell this story,” he says. “And I'm working with the very latest Canon technology, from capture to print, so the quality is incredible. There’s integrity, authenticity and power in these images and the prints, which are huge, almost feel three dimensional when you look at them.”

The purpose of these shoots was to marry Dr Allen’s research with the lived reality of a dancer’s life, explains Tom Rogers, former dancer and now Creative Content Producer. “Clearly, they've just come off stage. Veins are bursting, they're sweating and there's a lot of emotion. But there's another impact of that work over a long period of time. There’s an invisible strain.” The images were captured over months, taking in moments from across the company’s busy calendar – premieres, opening nights and gruelling four-week runs. Weaved into a narrative with Dr Allen’s view of the dancers’ physiological world, the images create a compelling and powerful story.

“The dancers undergo around 28 different blood tests, three times a year” explains Dr Allen. “At the beginning of the season, when they are arguably going to be metabolically healthiest, then another set after Nutcracker, probably one of our hardest periods from a workload perspective, and then another after a period of rehearsals. We're trying to establish the trends that may occur, almost using it like predictive medicine.” These blood tests are taken alongside other measurements, such as resting metabolic rate ratio testing and bone density scanning with full body composition. They build a clear picture for Dr Allen, who uses it to understand the nutritional needs of the dancers. “Outside of the glare of the audience, this is the reality of what happens afterwards. We need to see beneath the skin.”

This unique narrative journey of medical data, clinical research, testimonials from the dancers and Clive’s powerful images truly gets under ballet’s skin. As you take in the huge portraits, you immediately see how necessary it is to use print as the broadcast medium for this. It is imposing, but also thought provoking, curated to guide the audience in pursuit of answers – like any successful information campaign. It could have been entirely digital, but onscreen simply wouldn’t align with a body of work of such shape, form, colour and texture.

Mathew Faulkner, our EMEA Director, Marketing and Innovation in the Wide Format Printing Group, is well used to seeing print achieve remarkable things, but even he was taken aback by The Silence After Applause when viewing it for the first time. “This project is as good an example of the storytelling and emotive power of large format print as I've ever been involved in – and I've been in print for 30 years” he says. “The quality, richness and depth really do justice to the work, the impact it will have and the good that it will do into the future.”