The experience of female ballet dancers: a grounded theory

We examined the experience of female ballet dancers and developed a theory about the origin and effects of this experience. Gordon's (1983) book Off Balance contains interviews and accounts of dancers' experience, and was used as the primary data source. Established methods of grounded theory were used to develop a theoretical account based on Gordon's text. We gleaned 167 meaning units from the text, and through categorization of these meaning units identified thematic components of dancers' experience as: (a) Fantasy Creatures; (b) Machines; (c) Slaves; (d) Children; and (e) Artists, each feeding our core construct of dancers as "A Breed Apart". Based on these categories we suggest some possible dynamics from which these experiences derive; we also discuss the study's limitations and implications for future research.