The Power Behind the Perfect Body

There isn’t a single person in the dance community that sees their body without a flaw since they are constantly being pushed to fit the mold of perfection. Every dancer has to look a certain way or else no one will take them seriously. No one wants to be the overweight dancer that doesn’t go anywhere, so the majority of dancers change themselves to fit that mold. But who has the power to influence dancers in such a drastic way? Dancers are influenced to have a certain body type by their instructors, the clothing brands they wear, and the performances they see.

Dancers main source of influence comes from their instructors. Dancers value their instructors opinions greatly since they get direct feed back right away. This isn’t taken into account when a dancer is training while they’re young, but when they start going through puberty the idea of perfection becomes real. Dancers are compared to one another daily, so it is normal for them to want to be like each other and compete to be the best. Some will do anything to look like their peers which can lead them down a dangerous path, but for most they keep their own imperfections to themselves. This doesn’t mean they are affected in different ways though. With their instructors constantly telling them to get a slim stomach, strong arms, and thin legs they gain a lower self-esteem and sometimes even depression from it. Each dancer has the potential to do any task they are given, some just need more personal attention since they weren’t given they “perfect body”. If instructors could focus more on dancers as individuals instead of them has a whole those feelings would be eliminated completely.

Dancers are also influenced by the clothing brands they were to class and rehearsals. Most athletic wear companies create clothing that only fits a small portion of people — those people being “fit” people. That is also common is dance wear companies but the clothing is made even smaller. For example, in a Huffington Post article called Lululemon Admits Plus-Size Clothing Is Not Part Of Its ‘Formula’, Lululemon, which is one of the most popular athletic wear brands in the United States, stated that they will not cater their clothing to anyone above a size twelve since those aren’t the people they want in their store. This brand is vert common among the dance community since they have a section just for dancers, but that only puts more pressure on the dancers to fit the mold of the clothing. The worst part is that even if they fit into the clothing, they still feel insecure about themselves because the clothing looks different on their body compared to their peers. They used the excuse that in order for their products to be perfect they can’t focus on all body types, but that isn’t the case. A company can make clothes for all people and still have a sustainable product. If athletic and dance wear companies didn’t secluded the people who didn’t have the perfect body, dancers would view their bodies in a more positive way.

Dancers can be influenced by the performances they go and see as well. For example, in the ELLE.com article called Pressures on Pointe: Confessions of an Elite Ballerina, former principle dancer for the New York City Ballet Jenifer Ringer speaks on her experience with being criticized on her body. The article referenced a New York Times review that was published in 2010, where the critic, Alastair Macaulay, commented on her weight saying “Ringer…looked as if she’d eaten one sugarplum too many” after her performance as the Sugarplum Fairy in the Nutcracker. She states later on in the article that now that she’s retired, she doesn’t see her body type represented on the stage like how it used to be. She feels like only one type of dancer is represented on the stage, when everyone should be represented since no one looks the same. Dancers can be easily influenced by the people they watch because they can view them as role models and try to do everything to be just like them. This could, again, lead to drastic measures. If companies could incorporate more diversity in the body types among their company members, more dancers would feel represented and less like an outcast.

Overall, dancers are influenced by the littlest things, but sometimes those things can change their entire perspective. If everyone involved in the dance community could take into consideration how their future actions could affect the dancers they support, we could see a huge change in the body image crisis we have today.