Why are height and weight information collected from some dancers?

Height and weight information is not collected as a criterion for judging a dancer’s artistic or technical performance.

This information is collected in connection with dancers who are being considered for scholarship opportunities and placement at professional ballet schools.

YAGP works with leading ballet schools and professional training institutions around the world. These institutions may have their own requirements and considerations when evaluating a dancer for admission to a professional training program. Such requirements can reflect the specific physical demands, training environment and partnering practices of professional ballet education.

In this context, YAGP may be asked to provide basic physical-development information to the schools concerned.

This is fundamentally different from using height or weight to determine a dancer’s competition score.

A dancer’s height or weight is not a measure of artistic talent, technical achievement or competitive worth.

At the same time, because these are young dancers, YAGP recognizes that physical-development information is sensitive and must be handled responsibly. Such information should never be interpreted as establishing an “ideal” body weight for ballet or as a recommendation that a young dancer should lose weight.

Our goal is to ensure that the transition from competition to professional training is handled with the same principle that guides our work with young dancers generally:

health, appropriate development and long-term wellbeing must come before performance.

Last updated September 22, 2026