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Introduction

Casey Perry English 112 H Jason Nelson 2/11/02 Dance serves as a means of entertainment for many people interested in the arts, but the majority of the audience is unaware of the nutritional sacrifices the performing dancers take. Ballet dancers specifically are required to have a slim figure in order to succeed in the competitive field of performance. Jane M. Bonbright, the author of "The Nutritional Status of Female Ballet Dancers 15-18 Years of Age", has studied many dancers and recorded their food intake over an extended period of time. I think this article was not intended for a general audience but rather an audience with a background in physiology or food and nutrition. This article was appropriate for that audience and should be published. It was written in a very organized fashion with titles for each paragraph with new subject matter, a number of tables and charts to present the results in a visual manner. Many works were cited to back up the research in this piece of writing and Bonbright is a credible source for writing about this topic, which makes this a strong article. ...read more.

Middle

Bonbright uses her expertise in nutrition to investigate the dietary practices of the selected ballet dancers that were studied. She monitored the selected group of dancers diet for one week, and with the help of a computer analysis program she coded their nutritional intake. Not only does Bonbright use her expertise to backup her reasoning in this article, but also she uses a number of references throughout. She mentions references such as Dolgener, Calabrese, Micheli, Cohen and Braisted who all have done related research on this topic and contributed their findings to help support the authors point. Bonbright supports her arguments with solid evidence and research. Much of her evidence can not be argued because it is solid numerical values that have been calculated and tested a number of times, rather than observation and conclusion where there is room for bias and contradiction. After Bonbright monitored the group of dancers for one week she came to many conclusions about their eating habits. Her results were percentages of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA). She found that only seven out of the thirty-two dancers met or exceeded the RDA for calories. ...read more.

Conclusion

Although this was a very well written article it also has its flaws. If anyone other than the intended audience, a dancer, choreographer or nutritionist, read this piece they would be disinterested in it. They may find the subject matter intriguing, but the dance terminology, scientific and nutritional specific language may be found confusing to the general audience. Dance terminology such as allegro and barre may be unfamiliar to some just as the chemical formulas and percentages of body fat or calories seem like a jumble of meaningless numbers and letters. If this article were written in more general terms, without the technical language, a larger audience could appreciate it. As an article published for the Dance Research Journal it has fulfilled the task of being an informative piece of word. The author's credentials were significant to the topic of this article and provided her with qualifications so that the audience would find this material significant. The presentation of the well-researched material was done sequentially. The visual display of Bonbright's findings was also a positive addition in the organization of the article. As a dancer myself I found this to make some interesting conclusions and helpful recommendations for healthier living. ...read more.

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