Don't expect many of you caught this on ch 4 late last night? Not something I would usually watch but it came on when I was trying to persuade myself to get up & get ready for bed.
Nine yr old girls being pushed in some cases to do 6hrs of dance training in a day to get ready for competitions which last just minutes. One little girl regularly complains of backache & has visits to Osteopath. Another regularly gets illnesses 2wks before competitions which her Doctor says is down to stress & in fact before the competition shown last night she was on antibiotics for kidney infection but her mum said "you dance with your feet, not your kidneys!"
The mothers were constantly telling them they weren't doing well enough. As for the extreme body positions they insisted on, such as standing on one leg while pointing the other to the ceiling, but it had to be touching the ear while executed & the mother made sure by pushing it!
Pushy mothers is an understatement! It seemed to be more the mothers that were caught up in it all rather than the girls. They start them at 3yrs old apparently.
In fact I thought it was coming close to child abuse or is that just me?
sticky labels on apples - remove before washing!