Body Size and Inclusivity in Dance
How does Health At Every Size(R) and body weight/size inclusivity fit into the Dance industry?
This is a post I've been meaning to write for many years, yet stopped each time before pressing 'publish' because I felt it was incomplete.
The weeks and months with COVID-19 and BlackLivesMatter movement have definitely impacted me and led me to think further into privilege, opportunities and discrimination.
I realised that if I wait until my post is 'complete' then that'll take forever (thank you Perfectionism) and end up being a book. So here is a very short summary of facts and thoughts.
Recently I've received a question on Instagram, which sparked me to write this article.
"If a dacer is a bit "over" ideal Ballet weight, what do you suggest, if not loosing weight? What if it's a fantastic and strong dancer, but can't get a job in a company because of those few extra pounds? I saw that you stand for HAES - how does that apply in the Ballet world where you don't get a job otherwise?"
I received this question from a dance teacher. And I believe there are many teachers, choregraphers, directors, dancers, parents and health professionals, who resonate with this exact question.
I believe this person genuinely wants to know how to work better with dancers in a variety of body sizes, and they're feeling confused how to go about with it.
Here is the truth.
It’s never OK to discriminate a dancer based on their weight or size.
If this is a "fantastic" and "strong" dancer, and what's stopping them is the weight, then that is weight discrimination.
Let me say that again.
It's weight discrimination.
We've seen it happen with so many other things.
Remember when Misty Copeland became the first African American female principal dancer with ABT in 2015?
It was sensational because she was the first female African American dancer to be promoted to principal dancer at the ABT.
We’re talking about the 21st Century. Until 2015, one of the biggest ballet companies didn’t have a Black female principal dancer.
Why?
Because Ballet, which originated in the 17th Century in France as an elite court dance, is very strict on 'keeping the tradition'.
It's kept its dancers' skin colour white for so many centuries.
It's kept its 'ideal dancer body' based on white, thin, tall (but “not too tall”) bodies with long limbs, high arches, long neck and a small head.
Anyone who's been in ballet as a child would have the memory of being told not to tan their skin over the summer holiday because "dancers need to have pale, white skin", and not eat too much because "you have to keep your shape".
Today, ballet is much more popularised to the general audiences compared to its earlier days. Yet, there are still big socioeconomic, cultural, racial and sexual inequalities. Add weight and size to that mix too.
Ballet is art. It's also an extremely physically demanding, heavily aesthetic, dance genre.
Demanding dancers to attain a certain weight will only cause harm. So much harm that it will shorten the career for many dancers, if not take it away all together, due to the physical and psychological damage - some of these can become irreversible if no help is provided.
Let's be honest.
I have never encountered a dance teacher, choreographer or a company director, that told dancers to be at a weight that they're comfortable in.
It has always been "lose X kg" or "you need to lose a few more until you reach X kg".
It has always been about reducing their body size. Never increasing it.
We know that dancers are at higher risk of developing eating disorders and disorder eating practices, which have long-term (potentially life-long) consequences to the individual's physical, psychological and social health.
Dieting does not CAUSE eating disorders, however, it's one of the biggest TRIGGERS.
Will you hop on a plane from Sydney to New York that only carries 1/3 of the fuel it needs?
Why not?
Because you know it won't make it.
Dancers, too, will not make it if they're not fuelled adequately.
Majority of dancers are underfulled, leading them to suffer otherwise-preventable injuries such as stress fractures.
Unfortunately the underfuelling won't stop unless teachers, choreographers, schools, companies and the dance industry as a whole, shift to acknowledge and respect body diversity.
The idea of an "Ideal Ballet Body" became popularised with George Balanchine, who preferred his female dancers to be very lean and tall. This was also a time where ballet became more exposed to the general population, leading audiences to believe that ballet dancers are thin.
(To listen to the full story of this, I have spoken about this in a podcast here).
When the truth is,
DANCERS COME IN ALL BODY SIZES AND SHAPES
Not just lean and tall.
'Art' is not a free pass to suppress a dancer’s weight - it's not a free pass to say "you have to lose weight so it's more artistically pleasing".
I've heard many 'excuses', such as:
"Losing weight will be better for your joints" => No, not really. Read here.
"It'll be easier to go en pointe if you're lighter" => There is no evidence to date that supports this. If this was true, adult dancers would be struggling compared to children who are smaller than them. And we know that's not the case. Read IADMS' "When can I start pointe work" criteria.
"I just want the dancers to be healthy, that's all" => Advising weight loss for health creates more harm than good: you can read more about it here by Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor.
"I think leaner dancers look better" => You do NOT have the right to put a dancer's, or any human being's, health and life at risk for the sake of pleasing your biased beauty standards.
We, especially teachers, educators, choreographers and parents, have to know the risks and dangers attached promoting weight loss; glorifying thinness; and shaming fat or fatness.
We need to cultivate body respect among dancers, parents, teachers, choregraphers, directors, and health professionals who work in the dance industry.
Let's move forward to cherish body diveristy, instead of shaming it.
Fumi x
If you are new to Health at Every Size (R) and/or body diversity and inclusivity, here are my suggestions to start off further learning:
Poodle Science (Youtube video by ASDAH)
Health At Every Size (book by Linda Bacon)
Colleen Werner on instagram
Reference
Arcelus J, Witcomb GL, Mitchell A. Prevalence of eating disorders amongst dancers: a systemic review and meta-analysis. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2014;22(2):92‐101. doi:10.1002/erv.2271
Bacon L, Aphramor L. Weight science: evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift [published correction appears in Nutr J. 2011;10:69]. Nutr J. 2011;10:9. Published 2011 Jan 24. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-10-9
Bowerman EA, Whatman C, Harris N, Bradshaw E. A review of the risk factors for lower extremity overuse injuries in young elite female ballet dancers. J Dance Med Sci. 2015;19(2):51‐56. doi:10.12678/1089-313X.19.2.51
Brown MA, Howatson G, Quin E, Redding E, Stevenson EJ (2017) Energy intake and energy expenditure of pre-professional female contemporary dancers. PLOS ONE 12(2): e0171998. doi:10.1371/0171998
Russell JA. Preventing dance injuries: current perspectives. Open Access J Sports Med. 2013;4:199‐210. Published 2013 Sep 30. doi:10.2147/OAJSM.S36529
Thomas JJ, Keel PK, Heatherton TF. Disordered eating and injuries among adolescent ballet dancers. Eat Weight Disord. 2011;16(3):e216‐e222. doi:10.1007/BF03325136
