Introduction: young dancers are at a higher risk of developing body image distortion.
Objective: to analyze body image perception and distortion in dancer students based on academic year and age.
Methods: two hundred and ninety-eight women dancers between 11 and 24 years, who were studying between the 1st and 6th year of Professional Program, were evaluated. Dancers completed the "silhouette scale for adolescents" in order to determine their perception of the female and male figures, their perceived and ideal images, and the distortion, dissatisfaction and real-ideal indexes.
Results: participants were more severe with male figures than with female ones. Dancers of the lower courses, especially from the 1st year, and youngest showed the highest values in distortion and real-ideal indexes. They thought that they look like thicker than they are, but their ideal figure was thicker than they really were (p < 0.001). In relation to the dissatisfaction index, all dancers desired to be thinner, without differences based on academic year or age (p > 0.05). Ten dancers showed a high risk to develop an eating disorder.
Conclusions: dancers of the initial courses and youngest have a tendency to see themselves fatter than they are. They want to look thinner, but they are thinner than they would like to be. This could act as a trigger for developing body dissatisfaction.