Task 2d...inquiry into how our health and nutrition affects our career and what problems can arise from this in dancers and other professions.

I find that I am really enthusiastic about nutrition and health especially in relation to dance. I find it fascinating how most aspects of our lives can be affected by what we put in to our bodies and how a lack of food or over consumption of food can have such dramatic effects on our minds as well as our bodies, both in the short term and in the long term. While I was at college I had a few difficulties of my own. This used to make me angry and sad but now I have finished college I am able to view everything from a completely different perspective. I want to work towards one day being able to help people with food or health problems.

I am currently completing my exercise to music qualification which will enable me to teach dance and aerobics in gyms. This involves an anatomy unit which I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. This has made me even more enthusiastic to further develop my knowledge of nutrition and the body and I have enjoyed this unit much more than I was expecting. While completing this qualification I am able to continue with my life as normal. I love what I am doing and I feel I am extremely lucky to have such a varied lifestyle as I hardly ever do the same thing for two days running. As well as doing this course and my exercise to music qualification I am also teaching in a gym fairly regularly as cover and for experience, cheerleading for Harlequin rugby team and working on a show reel to get in to television presenting with recent interest from a television agent. I love that everything seems to be so exciting at the moment and I look forward to each of these aspects of my life. I am so lucky in that there is nothing in my life that I dread and no part of my week that I hate or wish to be over.

Cheerleading for Harlequins further fuels my enthusiasm for health and nutrition. Our uniform doesn’t leave much to the imagination but it is a very professional situation and I have no problem with it. It does however make me consider what the most important criteria for the job are? Are they more concerned if you have a flat stomach or if you can dance? Or are they both as important as each other? Does our physical appearance in the uniform make spectators at the matches think we can dance because we look as if we should be able to due to our physiques? Unfortunately this is sometimes the case. The rugby fans on the whole don’t seem to have an extensive knowledge of dancing and seem to think we are ‘amazing’ in their words but would they notice if our legs were not stretched and our feet not pointed? By looking at us on pitch from so far away I think it would be impossible for them to watch our technique! Therefore they are only judging us on our physical appearance and not our talent.

This led me on to think about whether talent and weight were connected or if they are mutually exclusive. Surely if a talented person gains weight they will still dance in the same way but this could lead to them losing confidence which could lead to them dancing differently, perhaps not as freely or expressively due to being self conscious. I personally would never assume that someone was not a talented dancer if they were not stick thin but is this opinion the same with the general public? Even though people may say that the ‘dancers body’ is now less stereotypical I think some people may make assumptions about a dancer’s talent based on weight without even realising they are doing it.

While I was doing research for my anatomy module I came across a nutritionist called Debra Wein who was the nutritionist for the Boston ballet company, has worked with many different clients and has now set up her own company to help and advise people on health and nutrition and make individual plans for clients to help them maintain their health. http://www.sensiblenutrition.com/Our_Founder.html

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that I admire her but I have found it very interesting to research her work. She obviously understands a lot that I do not yet know about health and nutrition and her articles have been informative and insightful and have once again encouraged me to keep learning and researching this subject. There are many other people who I admire but unfortunately they are not famous. My family and close friends are the people I admire as they are the ones who help and encourage me the most. I also love Pilates and am looking to do my Pilates teacher training in the future. I really admire my Pilates teacher due to her strength, power, physique and attitude as well as her talent.

I did a one day intensive television presenting course a couple of weeks ago which prompted me to think about image in that industry as well and how many of the same principles are carried over. A presenter is constantly being judged by the audience on their appearance as well as their presenting skills. Everyone always has an opinion on whether the presenter looks good or not that day so surely presenters must feel the same pressure as dancers even though they are not looking at themselves in a leotard and tights every day. A large amount of a presenters popularity seems to be based on how they look which in turn affects how they come across and whether people like them. When I was watching back my tapes, the first thing I was looking at was my appearance. Therefore, health and nutrition would seem to be just as important in this industry. If I am going to try and pursue a career as a presenter I need to make sure I am able to take criticism on a physical level.

This led me to consider how many other professions there are where image is of upmost importance? I would like to explore how many areas are directly or indirectly affected by health and nutrition? How can our health and nutrition affect our professional success? If an individual had a different attitude towards food would they be more or less successful? How many of our achievements are linked to how healthy we are and could we go about our everyday lives in the same way if we were not that healthy? Therefore I would like my line of inquiry to be; how our health and nutrition affects our career and what problems can arise from this in dancers and other professions. I would also like to consider the pressure and importance of maintaining fitness in dancers and to what extent we are judged by image and the possible repercussions of this.