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The Royal Ballet school has reached a financial settlement with a former student who said the body shaming she experienced during her time there left her with lifelong psychological damage.
Ellen Elphick, 31, had accused the elite institution in Covent Garden in London of a breach of its duty of care.
She said while she was a student at the school, from 2009 to 2012, she developed an eating disorder resulting in anorexia due to body shaming by numerous teachers.
The RBS said it accepted no liability for the former dancer’s case and has not issued an apology. The settlement is believed to be the first of its kind for alleged body shaming in ballet.
A spokesperson for the RBS said: “We are pleased that both parties were able to reach a mutually acceptable agreement in this way and we wish Ellen and her family well for the future.” They added that the school “continues to take the welfare of its students very seriously”.
Elphick alleged that in her first year at the school she was made to stand in front of a mirror while a teacher pointed out areas on her buttocks and legs that she would cut off if she had a knife, stating that she was disgusted with these parts.
She also said she was poked in her buttocks and thighs without permission while holding a pose, and had her head forcibly twisted by a male teacher when facing the wrong way in a pose.
Elphick alleged that in her second year she began drinking coffee and making herself sick on a frequent basis, as well as smoking cigarettes in an effort to suppress her appetite. She said the act was endorsed by a teacher who she alleged allowed her and her classmates to smoke when on a tour to the US.
During her third year at the school, Elphick alleged she had photographs taken of her to send to ballet companies for potential employment. When reviewing one photograph, she said a senior teacher circled her buttocks and stated that this was her “issue”.
She was diagnosed with atypical anorexia and body dysmorphia, which she continues to experience. She said the abuse meant she was unable to pursue a career in the world of dance.
“As I reflected on the training I had experienced at the Royal Ballet school, and the eating disorder I developed, I felt there could have been different approaches in teaching in the years I was there,” Elphick said.
“I have had children coming to me with issues they had had, and I started to realise there is a huge issue for people in my year who had had similar treatment to me.
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“I decided to bring a legal claim, which I am making public because I want to bring awareness so that children can go into dance and not leave it damaged as I am.”
Elphick was was among more than 50 ex-dancers who told the BBC there was a long-running “toxic” culture of body shaming and bullying within some of the UK’s leading ballet schools.
On Thursday, her lawyer, Dino Nocivelli from Leigh Day, said the settlement was “an important step in finally highlighting not only the body shaming and abuse that so many ballerinas have had to suffer but also the significant impact on them”.
He added: “We continue the demand we made in 2023 that the government conducts an inquiry into body shaming and abuse in ballet. We cannot stand by while another generation of ballet dancers suffers.”
