Can dancing ballet cause eating disorders?

Eating disorders: I have never heard of ballet dancing causing eating disorders. That being said, I most certainly have heard of ballet dancers going to great lengths of self-starvation to get as thin as they think they need to be to perform their incredibly exhausting art at the level they would desire.

Association vs Cause: We know that there is a strong association with anorexia and certain sports, ballet is the most notable one. George Balanchine liked his ballerinas to be very thin. But association is different than cause. It's important for ballet dancers to be aware of the risks of anorexia, in particular the one in five mortality ( death) of the disease.