Not Everything Was Beautiful at the Ballet

I read an article in the New York Times today about the retirement of the last New York City Ballet dancer to be trained by George Balanchine, and was reminded of something an old ballet dancer friend told me. She said that abortion was a commonplace in the upper-level ballet companies; the dancers didn't want to take the Pill for fear that it might make them put on weight. One can't be blamed, in light of this, for seeing ballet as profoundly anti-woman.