Balletcore

Balletcore is a fashion aesthetic that draws inspiration from various elements of ballet, including clothing, hairstyles, and accessories. This popular aesthetic has been incorporated into everyday styles and even runway fashion and has been adopted by many influencers, models, and celebrities. The aesthetic includes “soft pastels, soft and airy materials, and simple, feminine silhouettes,”[1] bringing “a softness” into everyday wardrobes.[2] To embody balletcore, one typically wears pink tights, bodysuits, leg warmers, ballet flats, and related garments (see Figure 1). The aesthetic also includes clean hair buns and ribbons or bows that resemble the decorated, sleek hair buns ballet dancers wear for their performances. Due to the evident incorporation of a soft, delicate, and feminine look, cuteness is embedded in the balletcore aesthetic. This fashion aesthetic became especially popular after it went viral on TikTok in 2022, where users would post videos of the style under the hashtag #balletcore. 

Despite the seemingly harmless rise of balletcore, the style has been extensively criticized by the professional ballet community for its inaccurate portrayals of the ballet dance field. Specifically, due to the aesthetic being tied to a cute image of ballet, this cuteness is said to undermine the seriousness of ballet as an art form. Firstly, the aesthetic incorporates “girly” looks, with the excessive integration of pink and soft materials, inaccurately portraying ballet as an exclusively “feminine” form of art. Notably, the cute fashion in balletcore fails to acknowledge the racism and other harms that have been prevalent in ballet, instead focusing on its cute, soft aesthetic qualities in a somewhat superficial manner. Lastly, balletcore undermines the intensity and difficulty of ballet, covering up the struggles that have been prevalent in the ballet community with a cute fantasy. Despite these valid critiques, balletcore continues to soar in popularity as an aesthetic that speaks directly to idealized notions of feminine elegance and beauty.

To elaborate on the criticisms against balletcore, many people believe that this aesthetic romanticizes ballet in a nonrepresentative way, resulting in misleading perceptions of ballet. The implications from this style have “promot[ed] the notion that ballet is a feminine art form” because of its strong association with “girl[iness],” resulting in “a cultural perception that ballet is exclusionary and only available to those with feminine qualities.”[3] People may thus strongly associate ballet with being “girly,” “delicate,” or “cute” without much prior knowledge about the art form. This contrasts with more accurate depictions of ballet, which include descriptors like “graceful,” “technical,” or “challenging.” Through the cuteness of balletcore, ballet itself as a dance form may subsequently also be reduced to cuteness, which is disrespectful to the ballet community if being “cute” or “kawaii” can suggest being “weaker members of society.”[4] Such associations are harmful, as they not only inaccurately portray ballet as an exclusively feminine art form but also reduce dancers to mere “delicate and dainty” beings, undermining their “powerful[ness] and althetic[ism].”[5] This demonstrates the misleading public narrative that balletcore inflicts on ballet, which creates “harmful stereotypes” that limit the “understanding of the art form’s diversity and richness.” 

Surprisingly, many ballet dancers consider this fashion trend as not representative of what they wear in real life. Instead of the girly, dainty pink uniform that balletcore highlights, many adult dancers describe their style as involving “pants that resemble garbage bags, ratty, mismatched leg-warmers, and lots and lots of layers.”[6] Interestingly, balletcore actually resembles more of “the type of stuff little girls wear to ballet class,” suggesting the trend’s appeal to a youthful and endearing innocence (see Figure 2). Moreover, balletcore and ballet attire in general incorporate a significant amount of the color of pink: pink tights, pink skirts, pink bows, and more. With the abundance of pink items already instilled in girlhood, such as “pink toys” or “dress-up clothes for girls,” including “princess costumes,” the excessive incorporation of pink into balletcore may further explain the cuteness of the aesthetic through its childlike associations.[7] This connection to children’s fashion would explain how the “soft” clothing items prevalent in balletcore are, like the cute aesthetic itself, “deeply associated with the infantile and the feminine.”[8] Cuteness has long been tied to “young women and children,”[9] potentially providing context for the strong connection between balletcore and cuteness.

Besides putting forth an inaccurate public representation of ballet, balletcore fails to acknowledge the racism prevalent in the history of the dance form. Famous Black ballerina Misty Copeland, the first African American woman to become a Principal Dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, has spoken on the lack of diversity in the professional ballet field (see Figure 3). For instance, Copeland has stated that Black or Brown ballet dancers would be asked to “put on the same color powder, white,” as everyone else.[10] Additionally, the dominance of pink in ballet clothing, such as the standard pink shoes and pink tights, can represent a source of discrimination for Black dancers. The African American ballet company Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) was founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, who focused on normalizing “dying tights and pointe shoes brown to match the varying shade of African American peoples’ skin tones” to validate “the presence of African American ballet dancers within this Eurocentric art form” (see Figure 4).[11] Created in the 1820s, pointe shoes have long been pale and pink, intended to match the skin color of white dancers to seamlessly blend their feet with their legs. However, it was only in 2017 that ballet clothing brands began incorporating wider selections of pointe shoe colors for dancers with darker skin.[12]

As such, the pink tights and pink ballet shoes popularly found in balletcore emphasize racial discrimination within the field, and balletcore has been criticized for its failure to acknowledge the complicated and racialized history of ballet. The long-standing association of pink with ballet fashion works to illustrate the historical exclusion of Black dancers. Without proper representation and inclusion, this can discourage Black dancers from participating in ballet. However, balletcore also serves as a way for Black women to reclaim ballet. One TikTok influencer who goes by the handle @prosharenaehall has gained a following for her “modern princess” style. In a video, she states that she adopts this “Black Ballerina aesthetic” because “when [she] was younger, [she] was a ballerina… [but] never got to pointe,” and now “love[s] adoring the fashion style… [as it is] the closest [thing] to reliving the sport right now.” Therefore, although balletcore may be criticized for its inability to acknowledge the history of racism in ballet, it can serve as a unique opportunity for Black people to reclaim this art form.

Another important point to acknowledge is that many ballet institutions have been accused of “sexual, physical, and mental abuse of their dancers,” including body shaming, sexual harassment, and causing mental health problems for many dancers.[13] Dancers who are aware of or have experienced these issues themselves, then, are “pain[ed] to see aspects of ballet glamorized” through balletcore.[14] Additionally, the nature of the profession has been known to “perpetuate body dysmorphia and eating disorders.” Thus, as with racial considerations, many people criticize the balletcore style for celebrating the “stereotypical/inaccurate,” cute and dainty fashion of ballet while leaving out “the toxicity of the art.” With the strong association of cuteness with innocence, the cuteness of balletcore may romanticize ballet in an inaccurate way, failing to recognize the various hardships ballet dancers have faced and continue to face.

Overall, opinions towards balletcore generally fall into two different categories: one side may consider balletcore “a bastardization of what dancers work their entire lives to achieve,” undermining the intricacies of the art form.[15] Ballet dancers may “[roll their] eyes at the idea of something [they’ve] quite literally put blood, sweat, and tears into becoming a ‘trend’ for people who don’t understand how hard it is.” The other side views balletcore as a “harmless way to get people involved in the [ballet] artform.” As support for the latter point of view, balletcore’s innocent aesthetic draws inspiration from familiar fairytales and childhood fantasies. For example, Mattel has created many Barbie movies that incorporate ballet into their stories, including Barbie in the Pink Shoes, Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses, and Barbie in the Nutcracker (see Figure 5). With the strong prevalence of ballet fashion in such childhood fantasies, balletcore may serve as a way for adults (who still have attachments to these fantasies) to reclaim innocence and softness through this familiar style. Moreover, balletcore has been successful in helping gain recognition for the ballet world itself. On TikTok, many people have commented on how this fashion trend has inspired them to attend a beginner ballet class or encouraged them to attend a ballet show, demonstrating the trend’s ability to inspire appreciation for the art form. Those unfamiliar with ballet may find it harder to immediately immerse themselves in the intricacies of the profession, so balletcore may be a good starting point. 

There are many ways for balletcore to expand and be incorporated into daily life. In the past, ballet uniforms and fashion were “not considered respectable” because of their incorporating “tightly fitted or revealing costumes and training clothes.”[16] If a certain fashion style is not considered appropriate, such as in a professional setting, people must rely on other means of expressing themselves, such as merely “carry[ing] happy things in [their] purse,” rather than freely expressing their fashion choices through clothing.[17] However, with the rise of balletcore’s popularity, these clothing styles have been brought beyond the stage and studio, and through their public presentation, can now be a source of creative freedom for diverse groups of people, including those once shut out from the ballet world.[18] Given its popularity, balletcore gives many people the opportunity for self-expression. Making one’s own fashion choices “makes [one] happy,” and balletcore is one way to allow people to incorporate cute and happy things into their daily lives.[19] At the same time, it is important to fully acknowledge and appreciate the complex culture of ballet to avoid perpetuating shallow or even offensive interpretations of this professional art form. Thus, while the balletcore aesthetic is “cute,” it is important not to reduce the art form to mere cuteness.

Published: 8/4/2025

Notes

[1] Sonja Henrikssen, “The Ultimate Guide To Balletcore 2024,” Lulus, December 28, 2023, https://www.lulus.com/blog/fashion/balletcore-fashion/.

[2] Leilani McQuay, “As a Tomboy, Balletcore Has Finally Won Me Over,” Glamour, February 14, 2023, https://www.glamour.com/story/ballet-core-trend.

[3] Naomi Giavanna Cohen, “Is Dance Disrespected in Media Portrayals?” Dance Major Journal 11, no. 1 (2023): 2.

[4] Hiroshi Nittono, “The Two-Layer Model of ‘Kawaii’: A Behavioural Science Framework for Understanding Kawaii and Cuteness,” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 2, no. 1 (April 2016): 81.

[5] Cohen, “Is Dance Disrespected?” 2.

[6] Hannah Jackson, “Ballerinas Share What They Really Think of Balletcore,” Vogue, December 6, 2023, https://www.vogue.com/article/ballerinas-on-balletcore.

[7] “Pink: The History of a Punk, Pretty, Powerful Color,” The Museum at FIT, accessed April 19, 2024, https://www.fitnyc.edu/museum/exhibitions/pink.php.

[8] Sianne Ngai, “The Cuteness of the Avant‐Garde,” Critical Inquiry 31, no. 4 (Summer 2005): 814.

[9] Nittono, “The Two-Layer Model,” 81.

[10] BBC News, “Misty Copeland on Ballet, Racism, and Her Historic Career,” January 5, 2024, 22:48, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJjPIS7Ko-U.

[11] Nyama McCarthy-Brown, “Dancing in the Margins: Experiences of African American Ballerinas,” Journal of African American Studies 15, no. 3 (September 2012): 385–408.

[12] Sekani L. Robinson, “Black Swans: Black Female Ballet Dancers and the Management of Emotional and Aesthetic Labor” (master’s thesis, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2018), https://www.proquest.com/docview/2190225418/abstract/2741508CBA4B4FA6PQ/1.

[13] Michelle Schachtler Dwarika and Heidi Marian Haraldsen, “Mental Health in Dance: A Scoping Review,” Frontiers in Psychology 14 (February 2023): 2.

[14] Sophia Sandoval, “My Problem with the ‘Balletcore’ Aesthetic,” Her Campus, December 12, 2022, https://www.hercampus.com/school/texas/my-problem-with-the-balletcore-aesthetic/.

[15] Jackson, “Ballerinas Share.”

[16] Mel Gibson, “‘… Sure to Delight Every Ballet Fan’: Consuming Ballet Culture Through Girls’ Periodical Girl, 1952–60,” Film, Fashion & Consumption 12, no. 1 (April 2023): 12.

[17] Jane Mai, An Nguyen, and Novala Takemoto, So Pretty / Very Rotten: Comics and Essays on Lolita Fashion and Cute Culture (Ontario: Koyama Press, 2017).

[18] Gibson, “‘… Sure to Delight Every Ballet Fan.’”

[19] Mai, Nguyen, and Takemoto, So Pretty / Very Rotten.