Solving the Myth about Dancers’ Mental Health
What you see on the on the outside during a performance is not always how they feel on the inside.
When one hears the phrase “mental illness” it is often associated with unpredictability, violence, laziness, or threat. In truth, however, it is the negative stigma around mental health that has led people to believe that those who identify with an illness should be treated negatively. Stigma can be defined as “when someone views you in a negative way because [one] ha[s] a distinguishing characteristic or personal trait that is thought to be, or actually is, a disadvantage.” Dancers often experience this stigma through a lack of acknowledgement and support due to the myth that they are not affected by it.
“Most bystanders assume all dancers are prim, proper, and feeling content when they do not see the blood, sweat, and tears that are sacrificed in the dance profession.”
While it is true that, like athletes, dancers are particularly vulnerable to stress and pressure which can be a factor in mental illnesses, it is not only the dance industry that pushes this stigma upon dancers. Most bystanders assume all dancers are prim, proper, and feeling content when they do not see the blood sweat and tears that are sacrificed in the dance profession. It is this mindset that restrains this negative sigma from being diffused and grows more toxic with the older generation.
Dancers are highly discouraged from showing any signs of vulnerability in their work as artistic directors and choreographers claim it comes across as lethargic. The quote “leave it at the door” often comes into play within the dance industry being that dancers are expected to put on a mask of fortitude to shield any emotion beyond what they have been instructed to express when dancing. As a result, dancers are left to cope with the symptoms of their mental illness by themselves. Seeing as dancers have been trained to suppress their emotions in order to present strength and elegance, those with an untrained eye believe dancers open about their mental illness are lazy or weak. In reality, the stigma behind mental health in dancers has lead to the dangerous epidemic of perfectionism as well as psychological inflexibility.
The negative stigma and myth that dancers do not experience mental illness feeds the growth of the epidemic of perfectionism within the dance industry.
Perfectionism in and of itself is “the setting of excessively high standards of performance in conjunction with a tendency to make overly critical self-evaluations.” This can be defined as an epidemic because according to a study done by Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill comparing perfectionism across generations, there has been an evident proliferation among recent undergraduates around the UK, US, and Canada.
It is common for dancers to feel the need for perfectionism due to the competitive and strict environment of dance; however, it is the stigma preventing dancers from speaking out about how perfectionism affects their mental health that is feeding the development of that illness. In Dance Magazine’s 2019 article entitled “What the dance world *still* gets wrong about mental illness,” author Lauren Wingenroth analyzes dancer Sydney Magruder Washington’s journey with depression and anxiety and how she opens up about it on social media. In multiple posts on social media platform, Instagram, Washington exposes the stigma spread by spectators around mental illnesses in dancers. She shares her story rather than pretending it does not exist just to create a better perception of life as a dancer.
To add to Washington’s point, Dr. Brian Goonan, psychologist for the dancers at Houston Ballet Academy, believes that the strive for perfection and drive to succeed in dancers is a factor in predisposing them to mental illnesses.
“the basic need for survival overpowers the love for art”
Not only do Washington’s posts shed light on how mental health stigmas affect dancers, but a 2018 article by Crystal Nicholls entitled “How perfectionism in dance is becoming a mental health crisis” published in Medium evaluates how there is an unhealthy link between dance and perfectionism. Nicholls states that dance is a relentless art and because dancers are trained to see their flaws first, “the basic need for survival overpowers the love for art.”
Dancers are encouraged to continue working through injuries and “suck it up” or they will fall behind in their training. This mentality, however, merely discourages dancers from speaking up when they are suffering or else risk being seen as weak or lose their dream role. This example implies that the need for perfection is a significant factor for mental illnesses in dancers such as depression, anxiety, bulimia, and anorexia. This is also significant because it highlights the idea that the reason perfectionism can be considered an epidemic is because no steps are being taken to provide an outlet for dancers to speak about their mental health; therefore, the issue merely accumulates. In the end, the stigma surrounding dance and mental health should be diffused as it feeds the growth of the epidemic of perfectionism.
The stigma behind mental illness in dancers leads to psychological inflexibility.
This can be defined as an “excessive involvement with the content of internal events such as emotions, thoughts, and memories that can bias the way the present moment is experienced.” A 2017 study done by Telmo Serrano and Helena Amaral Esparto Santo, published in the Psychology of Music, concludes that, like sports, discipline, physical and emotional demands of dance leads students to cut themselves off from current negative emotions, which then builds up to become serious. What this study really means by this is that because dancers are not able to express their own emotions in an environment that is supposed to make them feel expressively free, it ultimately affects the genuineness of the present moment.
The dancers are so focused on internalizing their feelings to put on a mask of strength rather than understanding how those emotions can be used to enhance the choreography they are meant to be presenting. While it is true that these elements of dance take a toll on a dancers’ mental health as well, it is how the negative stigma that causes people to fail to acknowledge and seek support in the presence of mental illness in dancers that cause them to continue to accumulate.
Another related example of psychological inflexibility is with eighteen-year-old dancer, Luna Montana, who suffers from body dysmorphia and extreme anxiety. Montana also works to break the barriers of dancers speaking out about mental health in another social media platform, YouTube. In a personal 2018 video entitled “I hate my body,” Montana films herself in sobs as she explains how the act of watching herself dance and comparing herself to other dancers was enough to make her “hate literally everything about [her]self.”
This shows how the stigma that puts immense amounts of pressure on dancers to be elegant and perfect also causes them to develop fixations of themselves or of their emotions. In turn, dancers cannot embody the full expression of the movement, completely removing all meaning behind dance which is meant to be a form of non verbal communication. Furthermore, the lack of support provided to dancers with mental illnesses remains a downfall in the dance industry.
In a 2017 interview from Dance Magazine entitled “Why are we so bad at addressing dancer’s mental health” author Jim Lafferty questions previous dancer Kathleen McGuire as she explains how untreated depression led her to quit dancing despite the fact that it was the “love of [her] life.” For McGuire, without support or proper education of how to deal with her illness from instructors or other professionals, the thing that otherwise made her feel whole, broke her just enough that she believed she would be better of not dancing at all.
As a result, McGuire showed signs of psychological inflexibility because she was so fixated on being something other than herself and all of her micro failures, she was incapable of being fully engaged in the present and see that she truly was a great dancer. In conclusion, stigma shaming dancers from being open about their mental illness leads to psychological inflexibility that constricts dancers from being fully expressive in the present moment.
Dancers have been trained to suppress their emotions in order to present strength and elegance; therefore, those with an untrained eye believe dancers open about their mental illness are lazy or weak. In reality, the stigma behind mental health in dancers has lead to the dangerous epidemic of perfectionism as well as psychological inflexibility.
The epidemic of perfectionism in the dance is extremely toxic for dancers to be predisposed to mental illness or continue to accumulate them. Additionally, at this time, there is not enough aid or support in the dance industry for those already struggling with a mental illness causing dancers to develop psychological inflexibility and the inability to live in the present moment. It is highly necessary that, in dance schools and companies, mental health support such as a staff psychologist or mental health units on site are initiated. Instead of putting the burden on dancers to reach out for help, the dance industry needs to recognize that help needs to be available in a space that they feel comfortable with and have easy access too so dancers feel encouraged to reach out for support.
If this stigma cannot be diffused, the issue of mental health in dancers will continue to build up until all true meaning behind the purpose of expressive movements will be lost. This means that performances will lose value because dancers are unable to embody the character as they are stuck in their own internal emotions. Further, dance will no longer be able to act as a means for activism because the audience will be disengaged from performances and unaware of the message behind the movement.
