Episode 2

Synopsis

Former prima ballerina Deborah Bull investigates elite child performers in sport and performing the arts.

Deborah investigates the advantages and the pitfalls of being an elite performer in the arts and sport and what young people need to succeed as well as the psychological advantages and problems of attaining perfection.

To achieve the levels of excellence necessary to compete in the global job market, a performer needs to start young, taking advantage of the brain's early plasticity and the increased potential for muscle flexibility in pre-adolescents. But in some cases, the cost can be the stable emotional development of the child.

In certain countries of Eastern Europe and Asia, children in disciplines such as gymnastics and ballet can enter full time training as young as three, and undergo challenging physical and mental regimes. As the child develops into adolescence, interaction with a parent is vital to its emotional development. Yet the intense training regime required to push gifted children to the highest levels of performance frequently involves taking the child away from their parents for hours at a time.

Deborah travels to Kiev to visit the National Ballet School, the elite football training centre at Dynamo Kiev and the National Gymnastics Centre, where she discovers why elite athletes are achieving such high levels of performance in Eastern Europe. Back in the UK, she visits the Chelsea FC Academy, the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Central School of Ballet to find out if the less intense British approach will work in such a competitive market.

Broadcast

1. Mon 19 Jan 2009
   11:00
   BBC Radio 4