A therapeutic approach to perfectionism among ballet dancers: A case study

Sharp, Lucinda BSc, MPsych, The Australian Ballet School, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

As a classical art form, ballet values the notion of perfectionism in its practice. Many exponents take great pride in their perfectionistic tendencies and in aiming for perfection in performance. However, from a psychological perspective, perfectionism is often viewed as a debilitating personality trait that can cause talented individuals to limit their potential. Perfectionism has also been cited as a negative influence in depression, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and performance anxiety.  As Burns (1980) wrote, it can be a "script for self-defeat".  

Many successful people in the performing arts, sport, business and academia have strong perfectionistic tendencies ? a fact that has led some researchers to investigate the possibility that perfectionism is not merely a negative construct. There is now a large body of evidence to support the idea that there are two basic forms of perfectionism ? variously labelled as ?neurotic and normal? (Hamachek, 1978), ?satisfied and dissatisfied? (Slade & Dewey, 1986), ?positive strivings and maladaptive evaluation concerns? (Frost et al., 1993) and ?positive and negative? (Slade & Owens, 1998). 

Despite emerging evidence for two types of perfectionism, the research literature is confusing due to different theoretical biases, different measures and findings which suggest healthy perfectionism is associated with both negative and positive characteristics. Regardless of this ongoing debate in the research literature, psychologists who work with dancers must have ways of dealing with this very commonly found attribute. 

The author has found that, rather than trying to eliminate perfectionism or portray it as a negative, destructive phenomenon, it is more effective among ballet dancers to harness the positive aspects of perfectionism and for the perfectionistic dancer to modify self-talk (e.g., ?should? and ?must? statements) and maintain a process focus (as opposed to a focus on outcome). This presentation will utilise a case study of an elite level ballet student to illustrate a therapeutic approach based on Slade and Owens? (1998) dual process model of perfectionism.