Dancers and Emotional Eating Dancers and Emotional Eating Many dancers who I work with consider themselves “emotional eaters.” And while I’m not into labels, I’ve been there and I know it can feel like you’re eating all your stress and emotions. Emotional eating was a big part of my story in dance, and food was one of my primary coping mechanisms. Here’s the thing. Emotional eating on its own isn’t necessarily a bad thing. When you eat for fun or in celebration, that’s perfectly normal and doesn’t have to be a big worry. If that’s what you think of when it comes to emotional eating, just work ..read more

My Body Image Story in Ballet When you start dancing, it’s about the joy of it. You just love to move, and you enjoy the challenge of striving to be better, stronger, more lovely. There’s this great sense of achievement when you’re able to improve something from a technical or artistic perspective. It’s about growth. As your journey in dance progresses, you become more aware of the physical aesthetic. We get messages that this is a thin art form. Because of the age you start ballet, it’s not uncommon to take the messages you’re receiving from teachers, artistic directors, and the dance world a ..read more

Harsh Criticism and Feedback in Dance From the time you start taking dance seriously, the focus is honed in on technique. Your teachers help you to work out all the little technical details . The best teachers create an environment for healthy dedication and improvement. However, a lot of dancers are criticized for not applying corrections quickly enough. The assumption might be that they’re lazy or not dedicated. Perhaps they lack focus or attention in class.  This post will delve into how to deal with criticism in dance. The reality is, if a correction is not applied quickly, it may not ..read more

The Whole Dancer Body Image Booster If you’re struggling with body image, you’re not alone. When faced with your reflection each and every day in just a leotard and tights, it’s easy to get caught up in judgment. I started offering this exercise to my clients who were really struggling in the body-image department. For some of them, a shift happens after incorporating the exercise just once. For others, it takes a bit more time and consistency. The Whole Dancer Body Image Booster is a great place to start if you struggle to come up with any positivity concerning your body. If your body image s ..read more

Is Perfection Holding You Back? Probably. When I was pursuing dance and dancing professionally, I didn’t take chances – not most of the time anyway… I would stay in the back of the room and unless I felt I had mastered something I wouldn’t put it out there for all to see. Mostly, I was afraid of embarrassing myself. I also wanted things to be closer to perfect before their debut. Now, looking back I think this hurt me much more than helped. I progressed more slowly and didn’t gain the confidence necessary to really thrive in this career. It also made those moments when a guest choreographer be ..read more

So now you’re probably saying, ‘ok…then what is?!’ It’s easy to look to your metabolism as the reason your body progress is slow. What if your metabolism isn’t the problem? First, let’s look at the things that likely aren’t keeping you from reaching your body goals. Your Metabolism: A common scapegoat, do you ever have that feeling that you just have a slower metabolism? Your metabolism (resting metabolic rate) is the amount of energy your body requires to simply function. Things to keep in mind – if you lose weight, restrict calories, or lose muscle mass this will negatively impact your ..read more

The Info that Matters The Nutrition Label is worth discussing… As much as I preach about eating whole foods – fruit, vegetables, nuts, beans, seeds, avocado, maybe some lean meats and fish, I know dancer’s will end up eating some pre – packaged, convenience food. Your schedule is crazy a lot of the time. When your body is tired and you’ve got a lot going on, prepping food isn’t always gonna happen. It’s helpful to be able to incorporate some pre – packaged foods into your eating plan. So what should you look for when choosing packaged foods? The number one thing I want to stress when it comes ..read more

You don’t have to be an expert in nutrition… Nutrition for Dancers is an important topic but you don’t have to be an expert in nutrition to reach your personal best body. Hopefully you find that reassuring. You don’t have to study up on nutrition science or know exactly what each macronutrient (protein, carbs, fat) or micronutrient (vitamins and minerals) does for your body. If you’ve got a desire to dive into nutrition for dancers, have at it. Make sure you’re learning from accurate sources like text books or scholarly articles. Diet books are skewed to whatever the authors beliefs are and wh ..read more

Their approval should not be the goal Recently I came across a post by a dancer who talked about all the “father figures” she came across in dance and her desire to please them and gain their love and approval. I can relate to that. I lost my father at a young age, I had closer relationships with men in ballet than anywhere else. Dance is a people pleasing art. You’re concerned with looking good and living up to the standards expected by your teachers. That goal becomes ingrained early, it’s challenging to shake. As a child as young as 7 or 8 the aim in class is often to perform and show our t ..read more