When thinking about a set of questions relating to my professional practice I thought my first port of call should be to identify what my professional practice actually is. My ideal practice would be to get in to television presenting so while I am attempting to break in to a new and challenging industry, my current practice includes;
· Dance teaching (children)
· Fitness instructor (adults)
· Cheerleading
The topic which I am most interested in is health, nutrition and fitness in the dance world and how the demand of obtaining a perfect physique can affect us mentally and physically in childhood and through to adulthood. This seems to be an ever appearing theme which crops up in every element of my professional practice. It has been apparent to me ever since a young age and something I have always been aware of due to my involvement with dancing. While at college this problem became a reality for me so it is something I feel strongly about. It affected my performance and well being and influenced the rest of my life. Now I would like to work towards one day being able to help people with eating disorders and nutrition problems. Therefore, I have decided this would be an appropriate topic for me to inquire about.
When teaching children I notice they are conscious of their appearance when they look in the mirror even from as young as the age of 6 or 7. At dance auditions appearance and physique seems to be what you are judged on over your talent as a dancer. This can affect dancers mentally and physically, hence the reason that many dancers suffer as a result of this pressure. When I am cheerleading it is more apparent than ever as our uniform suggests that physique is the most important factor. Ironically, the industry that I notice the pressure least in is the fitness industry. This is an interesting factor which I will be researching more in to.
The questions I have come up with to further investigate this topic are:
· In the majority of dance auditions why is it that physique often overrides talent? Is this always the case? Is this fair on talented hardworking dancers who don’t have the right physique or is it just something we have to accept as it will always be the case?
· How does our health and nutrition affect our everyday lives as well as our professional practice?
· At what point does a healthy awareness of nutrition become an obsession with food and image?
· Is this unbalanced perspective caused from being in an enclosed environment such as a dance college? How do we gain a healthier perspective? To what extent does a closed environment amplify certain problems and change your priorities?
· How important is our health and nutrition to our career?
· Is it worth lacking nutrition at the expense of making you miserable or even ill?
· To what extent is the media responsible for our attitude towards what looks healthy and what doesn’t?
· How does health and nutrition affect injury in dancers? Is it worth risking injury and illness?
· How does your health and nutrition affect your employability? Positively or negatively? Is a lack of nutrition a barrier to finding employment or does it create a physique which is now employable and desirable?
· Are all dancers’ priorities the same or is it an old fashioned stereotype?
· What are the differences between a controlled environment (e.g. a college) and a free environment (e.g. the real world). How does being in these different environments affect your priorities, attitude and perspective?
· Does a controlled environment make you institutionalised and cloned?
· How many other industries is appearance of the upmost importance?
· Is the talent of a dancer affected by their weight or are the two factors mutually exclusive?
· Does the dance industry attract a certain type of person or does it make you in to that person?
· The fitness industry promotes a much healthier view and image of what it is to be talented and healthy. Is it possible to transfer this in to the dance world and If so how would you go about doing this?
· How beneficial is training in an institution with so much pressure? Why do some people thrive on pressure and others crumble under it?
Hi Natalie, nice to meet you. Firstly thankyou so much for all this info, I unfortunately could not make the campuss session so the notes you have managed to write are fantastic. You raise some interesting points. I myself am also particularly interested in the idea of promoting good health and well being in Dance. This obviously covers a mindfield of sub topics but it seems we are both interested in the same sorts, nutrition, health, perhaps importance and pressure of appearance and self image in our professional studies. Seems you have streched into how this may affect future work and therefore how to go about breaking into a new subject of industry. I think I will concentrate more so on promoting the importance of good health, perhaps how Dance as an profession or simply as a hobby can do this is so many ways. By promoting good health nutritionally but also by the benefits of socialising, creating a safe environment for people to be able to freely express themselves, ultimatly having fun coupled with being young fit and of complete sound health.
ReplyDeleteMany Thanks, my creative juices are flowing!