Ballet dancers may get pensions at 40 to reflect ‘burdensome’ job

The Polish parliament will vote on a reform allowing ballet dancers to claim the state pension from the age of 40, two decades younger than the retirement age for most workers.

The proposal, which would effectively restore a communist-era provision, is intended to reflect the extreme physical toll that the profession takes on dancers.

Ballet dancers usually have to retire by their early forties and then retrain in other occupations, and some ballet companies use 40 as a cut-off age.

One study of retired dancers in the UK found that 36 per cent had suffered career-ending musculoskeletal injuries, leaving the stage at an average age of 29, and 91 per cent had experienced bone or joint pain.

In Poland, ballet dancers fall at present into