Tag: eating disorders

How to Model a Supportive Body Image for Your Dancers

Confidence is an important part of a dancer’s success. But for many dancers, industry pressures and body ideals often cultivate a narrative that is overwhelmed with self-judgment, ridicule and dissatisfaction. In fact, body weight surveillance has a detrimental impact on a dancer’s health. A 2018 study suggests that in addition to mirror usage and dancewear […]

Should I Allow Students With Eating Disorders to Continue Taking Dance Classes?

An unfortunate reality of teaching dance is that you will likely face signs of disordered eating or eating disorders among students. Research has shown that dancers are at least three times more likely to suffer from an eating disorder than the general population. Once you have observed signs of an eating disorder in a student […]

Are Dancers at Greater Risk of Disordered Eating During the Shutdown?

As we spend more time at home and less in the studio, many aspects of our routine simply aren’t up to us. In the midst of COVID-19–related shutdowns, some dancers may be struggling with their relationship to food, whether they’re feeling guilty about stress eating or are developing dangerous disordered eating behaviors, such as restricting […]

New Video Calls on Dancers (and Everyone Else) to Love Their Bodies

For students and performers of all ages, body image and eating disorders can be serious issues. The dance company MusEffect confronts these topics in a new video. In “Look At Me—Celebrating the Authentic You,” dancers (including familiar face Mollee Gray from “SYTYCD” Season 6) perform in partners behind MusEffect’s resident spoken-word poet Azure Antoinette and […]