by Lucy Vurusic Riner
As a high school dance educator you can’t really avoid the issue of body image in your dance class. There are ways to skirt around the issue, maybe even make light of it at times when things are tense, and there is always the batch of us that quite honestly, make it worse.
So I’m suggesting we face it head on. Some thoughts on how we as dance educators can start turning this horrible phenomenon around:
1. This point is number one for a reason. Dance Educators need to check their own personal opinions of body image at the door.
We all, at some point in our careers, have bought into the stereotype of what the dancer body looks like no matter how hard we try not to. Our own images of our bodies may have even prevented some of us from following a dream we had in dance because we assumed our bodies needed to look a certain way. We also all know a teacher that said something mean or inappropriate to us (and we remember it don’t we?); those teachers that said it in our best interest right?
Being a woman in this world is hard enough; being a dancer can add a whole other layer to our insecurities if we aren’t taught in an environment that is safe and nurturing. How do we address body image in our classes to let young girls, especially many at the middle and high school level that are experiencing puberty, know that they have to love and respect the bodies they are in? How do we talk to our students about being healthy without looking like we are passing judgment in one way or another?
I try to emphasize that we have different bodies and that they benefit us all in different ways. I want my students to focus on their strengths. That doesn’t mean that I don’t want them to work on the things that are challenging for them but I want them to be able to look at their bodies and point out the things that they love about them.
I do an ice breaker exercise early in the year where everyone has to share one thing about themselves as a dancer that they love. You would have thought I asked them to help raise the debt ceiling. Blank stares. But if I asked the opposite question, “If you could fix one thing about yourself as a dancer…” we could spend an entire semester in group therapy. I actually think some of the girls in my classes do like themselves more than they let on–they just think it’s taboo to let anyone know they like themselves…..Geesh.
I always try to point out the benefits of how each of my dancers is built and how that is special to who they are as movers. That doesn’t mean I don’t give corrections or feedback, it just means that talking about their physical bodies is irrelevant. Sadly, there are plenty of places in our society that try to keep us down as women by focusing solely on our bodies and how they SHOULD look. My job is to continue building my students up regardless of that.
2. Use your body as a way to show young girls how to appreciate who THEY are. [Read more…]