The Dance Industry Is Expanding Their Mind
If the dance industry kept its doors open to only selected individuals that match their aesthetic, how interesting or exciting would that be to see?
The dance world is very crazy, competitive, and inspiring to say the least. But what goes on behind the scenes of what viewers and non-dancers see is shocking. Over decades dancers have always been looked upon a certain way based on their talent but most importantly judged on their physical appearance. Dancers train years to have flawless extensions, technique and skills to hopefully one day become a professional. However, one common thing almost all dancers struggle with is body image and feeling like their body does not look like a “dancer’s body”.
Looking in the mirrors for hours and hours while training, of course, that will happen. Every dancer knows what is expected in the dance industry when it comes to body standards and size. The ideal dancer's body decided by society is slim, slender, and delicate looking. Some dancers ignore this standard completely, but others obsess over it. It has been a topic of discussion for so many years with some positive actions finally happening. The dance industry should have more inclusivity with various body sizes and grow the diversity of race and gender which will increase the different types of dancers in the professional world.
Impacting Mental Health & Confidence
The minimal support of size diversity for dancers and the pressure of needing to have the “perfect dancer body” has caused dancers to develop eating disorders. For years, the dance industry has always held certain body types, sizes, and standards. Specifically, in ballet, there is a standard that ballerinas need to be slim and delicate-looking to create perfect, beautiful lines. It has caused dancers to continually feel like their body is not good enough. Being a dancer is challenging enough because of receiving criticism on your technical dancing. When body image is looked upon as much as the actual talent, it can have a negative impact on mental health and low confidence.
Breaking Eating Disorders
In her text, “What Is A Ballet Body?” Gia Kourlas (2021) explains how many ballet dancers go through struggle and trauma to maintain their figure in unhealthy ways such as resorting to eating disorders. These stereotypes and body size expectation ideals have created unhealthy relationships between dancers and food, and their own self-love. The director of the English National Ballet explained how she was determined to instill healthy body image to root out disordered eating. After a negative comment posted on Facebook targeting students to lose weight after returning from the holidays, it had many dancers outraged. The co-director of the school, Delia Barker, removed the post immediately and claimed that their intention was not for dancers to be concerned about their weight after the holidays. She additionally added that the school is committed to its student’s health and wellbeing.
Expanding in Size Diversity & Disabilities
The dance industry is finally becoming more inclusive for dancers of all sizes. In fact, current dancers, artistic directors, and choreographers have become more open to the idea of expanding the so-called perfect dancer body ideals. There is a change in priority that physical talent should be praised over body shape and size. I agree that dancing itself is beautiful to watch on any body type because it is about movement, expression and strength. There is so much more behind dancing that is pushed aside because of this societal priority of the physical appearances of the dancer. Due to the desire for specific body sizes of dancers, it limits the opportunity for many who want to go professional. The industry is continuing to change by including bodies with different abilities in the professional world of dance including Candoco Dance Company and DanceAbility International.
“Bridging the mainstream and the experimental, our bold approach and powerful collaborations create distinctive performances and far-reaching learning experiences.” -Candoco Dance Company
Candoco Dance Company was developed out of inclusive workshops at London’s Aspire Centre for Spinal Injury. As a world-leading professional dance company, they want to continue expanding perceptions of what dance can be by celebrating different ways of seeing, of making art, and putting us at the forefront of the conversation around dance and disability. I believe this dance company is a great example and role model for other companies internationally as it displays the true meaning and reason behind the art of dancing and that size or disability is not a weighted down factor.
Positive Change On Social Media
Social media has also helped change the beauty standards of dancers who are outside of those expectations. Dancer, Erik Cavanaugh, uses Instagram and TikTok platforms to help promote change to what a dancer’s body can look like. In fact, Erik has been hired for multiple dance jobs because of it which shows how the industry is taking action towards more inclusivity of body types.
Ballet is a dance style that has a typical and harsh body size standard and yet to change to be more inclusive in the professional world. Almost every other style apart from ballet is very body positive and inclusive with dance body types. The dance industry including top dance brand companies such as Gaynor Minden and Discount Dance has very slowly started to add more types of bodies they display. Society and the dance industry are making their way to more inclusivity of many different body sizes.
Taking Limits off of Race & Gender
The dance industry can be known for mostly its negative image on social media in regards to diversity with race and gender. In the professional side of dance, there have always been stereotypes of what race is more suitable or best looking for dance as well as barriers on genders. For instance, only the female dancers danced en pointe, in heels, tutus, etc. In more recent years, however, there has been a positive change with society and the industry itself with more inclusivity with various genders and races. In the ballet world, ballet dancers would typically be white because of the stereotype that black dancers are too bulky or muscular. Now, you will see many ballet dancers of colour dancing professionally on stage.
There has been a breakthrough with the gender barrier in ballet as well. For instance, male ballet dancers dancing en pointe was strictly unheard of.
However, Brian Syms, a company dancer with the New England Ballet Theatre of Connecticut, started dancing en pointe just over a year ago. As a dance community, there is more awareness and walls being broken down with these changes that would have never been heard of years ago. Now, there is less strictness on who can and cannot do certain dance moves or styles based on their gender. The industry is becoming more accepting and open with these new gender norms, as well as a change in same-sex partnering.
In many dance styles such as ballet, ballroom, and salsa, it would always be heteronormative cisgender partners. Very recently there was history made on Dancing With The Stars for having their first-ever same-sex partnering duo.
Finally, after thirty seasons of the show, they had a same-sex duo, JoJo Siwa and Jenna Johnson dancing on their stage and being broadcasted on national live television. This had a huge impact on social media with lots of positivity and many people responding that this should have happened seasons ago. I agree that the dance industry should have made this happen years ago, but at least it has happened and will now continue to because of it.
Ballet companies typically follow the storylines of traditional male and female relationships. Recently, there has been some change in this and is now evolving with same-sex partnering.
Brain Syms started a virtual ballet company called Black Sheep Ballet which was created to focus on changing the stereotype of ballet dancers. The company has become revolutionary and industry-changing by allowing dancers who identified as a gender that may not be represented in the classical world of ballet and with different skin colours to feel welcome and safe. Diversity in gender and race has dramatically changed over the years and continues to do so.
Ultimately, the dance industry should be inclusive of all body types and sizes, and continue to grow in diversity with race and gender as it will increase the physical types of dancers in the professional world. If the dance industry kept its doors open to only selected individuals that match their aesthetic, how interesting or exciting would that be to see? I can tell you that it would be boring. Dance is an art form of expression and I personally think that it is much more beautiful with all types of human beings.
