Italian ballerina sacked in anorexia row

Mariafrancesca Garritano shot at La Scala in Milan after winning dancers students were under pressure to lose weight

A principal dancer at La Scala in Milan, who criticized what he described as a plague of anorexia among dancers was summarily rejected by the company as it launches its 2012 season.

Mariafrancesca Garritano, 33, was dismissed for "damage the image" of La Scala after winning one in five suffered from anorexia dancers.

In an interview with the Observer

last December, lifted the lid on the regime Garritano dance school of La Scala, where he said that was driven into the weight loss after being accepted into the 16. She says she still suffers from stomach pain and frequent bone fractures, thought to be related to diet, and colleagues said that since she joined the ballet company of La Scala -. They could not have children

"I talk with people coming through the system and it seems that nothing has changed," he said last year.

Carlo Maria Cella

, a spokesman for La Scala, appeared to accept that students were subjected to high pressures in the past, but denied the allegation that the academy is becoming anorexic dancers Garritano.

"To say that La Scala is similar to that Garritano said she saw 15 years ago is not true," he said. "The teaching methods and are not used today and the school now has a nutrition course. As for not having children, nine of Garritano dance partners get pregnant within one year and a half. "

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But one former colleague said Garritano

Observer

that all was well with the dancers of today. "One in five of the dancers of this generation of this school had eating disorders, and continues to have serious consequences," said Michele Villanova, 47, principal dancer at La Scala between 1986 and 2010. "I saw him in the mood changes when people are in a deep depression after gaining weight. It is absurd to La Scala shot him before a full investigation."

• anorexia and bulimia were recently featured in the Oscar-winning
• Black Swan
• , in which Natalie Portman throw their strength to maintain their low weight.

Garritano said he knew he might lose his job over his revelations. Villanova said: "The dancers are afraid to speak, and what happened to Garritano shows why."

Recalling its way through the academy in 1980, Villanova said. "There was an atmosphere that tends to make students give priority to their physical form, just as their bodies were changing can not be obsessed with weight loss when they are 14."

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