‘A ticket to a very different show’: Poetic Ethnodrama Through the Eyes of Young Elite Gymnasts

Dear reader, if you are reading this, it means you have received my invitation for tonight’s poetic ethnodrama performed in the theater of your mind. But before we start the play, I want you to reflect on what comes to mind when you think about ‘Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.’ Please keep these thoughts in mind as you experience tonight’s performance, which will start in 10 minutes. This play, which stems from longitudinal ethnographic research, is intended to take you, the Reader, into a youth elite gymnastics club, where you will be situated alongside the cast and exposed to a poetic representation of psychological maltreatment. In this environment, the cast and I [the Primary Researcher], while wearing (happy) theatrical masks, will perform poetry to you in the form of a prologue, eight acts, one interlude, and an epilogue. The prologue provides contextual framing for the poetry acts to follow. During the interlude, the cast speaks to the audience without their theatrical masks. The epilogue includes the behind-the-scenes of psychological maltreatment, the backstage work put into this playscript, and a monologue of a gymnast asking, “What are you going to do about it?” I want to encourage you to construct your own understanding of this ethnodrama and really try to feel what the cast is going through, as if you were one of them. In this art-based work, I will share information with you in a way that combines descriptions, interpretations, and methods, like pieces of a mosaic, giving you a complete picture over the time of the play. Through this play, I hope to create an atmosphere that touches your senses and emotions, prompt dialogue, and advance the current discourse on maltreatment in youth elite sports. Now, please, come in and meet the co-authors, they will help you find your seat.