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 B alance contains interviews and accounts of dancers' experience, and was use d as the primary data source. Established methods of grounded theory were u sed to develop a theoretical account based on Gordon's text. We gleaned 167 meaning units from the text, and through categorization of these meaning u nits identified thematic components of dancers' experience as: (a) Fantasy Creatures; (b) Machines; (c) Slaves; (d) Children; and (e) Artists, each fe eding our core construct of dancers as "A Breed Apart". Based on these cate gories we suggest some possible dynamics from which these experiences deriv e; we also discuss the study's limitations and implications for future rese arch.