Why do Dancers Wear Fake Smiles?

It’s fiction, right?

Picture the 100m dash in the Olympic Games — is anyone smiling during the event?

What about the Pole Vault?

How about Ice Hockey finals — is everyone skating around with vapid grins on their faces (underneath the head gear…)?

So why is it that dancers are forced to discipline themselves to wear fake smiles as they attempt to reach the pinnacle of their sport?

Firstly — everyone knows they are fake. It’s not as if anyone thinks that their grins are real (except for after they’re finished their routine!)

Second — it’s teaching people to put a mask on. This is hardly the kind of genuine life we want to teach people to lead, is it?

Third — it’s a bit insulting. If runners, jumpers, throwers and puckers are perfectly fine to wear grimaces on their faces rather than grins — why not dancers?

For the record — I don’t dance. I am far too extended in the “limb” department. If I was dancing, the chances I would be smiling other than by laughing at myself are fairly slim.

But my girls do.

And it’s a shame that over time they will be forced to put a face on, covered in glitter and glitz, because of an industry that thinks being fake is the way it should be, rather than being honoured for the accomplishments they will achieve in that area.

What say you?

Originally published at Chris Hargreaves.