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The dance world is filled with technique books, which certainly serve an important role in helping dancers improve their performance. But the market has been conspicuously void of instruction on a vital aspect of dance performance: the mental aspect.
Developing Psychological Strength in All Dancers
Jim Taylor, a veteran sport and dance psychologist and author, and Elena Estanol, a dancer, instructor, and sport and dance psychologist, bring their experience and knowledge to Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence to help dancers at all levels develop psychological strength to maximize their performance.
Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence will help dancers in these ways:
• Understand how to use the mental aspects of dance to their advantage.
• Learn simple techniques to raise their dancing to a new level.
• Refine their technique and overcome performance challenges.
Individualized Program and Web Resource Tools
Dancers will build a strong foundation for performance by employing the dance-specific psychological strategies. The individualized program will help dancers reach their potential in artistry and excellence in school, the dance profession, and dance-related careers. The book comes with a companion web resource containing 40 worksheets that will help dancers grow mentally through reflection and self-examination. Dancers will be able to use these tools to refine their technique and overcome performance challenges.
Scientifically Proven Psychological Methods
Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence incorporates some updated content from Taylor’s original best-selling book Psychology of Dance. Through the authors’ research and experience with dancers over the past two decades, this book offers the latest in scientifically proven psychological methods and practices that dancers have used to achieve optimal performance. As the authors write in their preface:
What separates good dancers from the best dancers lies in how mentally prepared they are to perform their best, despite circumstances that dance and life throw at them. Dancers who are the most motivated to train, who have the greatest confidence in themselves, who perform best under pressure, who stay focused on their performance, who keep their emotions under control, and who are able to direct their emotions to elevate their performance and technique to true artistry are the most successful and revered.
Key Psychological Concepts Explored
To help dancers elevate their performance, the authors explore these concepts in the context of dance performance and provide practical exercises for each concept:
• Self-knowledge
• Motivation
• Confidence
• Intensity
• Focus
• Emotions
• Goal setting
• Imagery
The authors also examine the foundations of dance psychology and delve into special concerns for dancers, including stress and burnout, pain and injury, and disordered eating.
Making Your Mind the Most Powerful Tool
Once you get to a certain level, your mind is your most powerful tool—or your most harmful weapon. Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence will help dancers turn their minds into powerful tools not only to improve their technical and artistic performance but also to enhance their enjoyment, bring greater fulfillment, and enrich their lives personally and professionally. This text is an important contribution to the Human Kinetics dance list because it equips dancers with the psychological tools they need for success.
Part I Building a Foundation
Chapter 1 Foundations of Dance Psychology
Chapter 2 Self-Knowledge
Part II Prime Dance Pyramid
Chapter 3 Motivation
Chapter 4 Confidence
Chapter 5 Intensity
Chapter 6 Focus
Chapter 7 Emotions
Part III Prime Dance Tools
Chapter 8 Goal Setting
Chapter 9 Imagery
Chapter 10 Routines
Chapter 11 Individualized Program
Part IV Special Concerns for Dancers
Chapter 12 Stress and Burnout
Chapter 13 Pain and Injury
Chapter 14 Disordered Eating
Chapter 15 Dance for Your Life
Jim Taylor, PhD, is a long-time sport psychologist and a consultant, speaker, and author who has worked with dancers for three decades. He is also a coauthor of Psychology of Dance, a predecessor of this book, and has consulted with Miami City Ballet. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Taylor received a PhD in psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He enjoys skiing, running, and cycling.
Elena Estanol, PhD, MFA, is a counseling sport psychologist, speaker, peak performance, wellness, and ADHD coach and executive director of Synapse Counseling, LLC, a wellness center that provides cutting-edge sport psychology services, eating disorder and ADHD treatment to dancers, athletes, and performing artists in Fort Collins, CO. She has spent most of her life dancing, teaching, and choreographing dance. She is a frequent consultant to dance schools, companies, and teams. Estanol is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She received her PhD in counseling psychology, MS in sport psychology, and MFA in kinesiology, choreography, and pedagogy from the University of Utah. In her leisure time, she enjoys hiking, yoga, dancing, writing, and aerial silks (aerial dance).
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Understand the complexity of eating disorders in dancers
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet.
Disordered eating is one of the biggest risks faced by dancers, particularly women. Though few dancers develop a clinically defined eating disorder (ED), many engage in some form of dysfunctional eating due to the physical aesthetic woven into the fabric of much of the dance world, especially in ballet. Quite simply, many choreographers, dance masters and mistresses, and dancers themselves expect dancers to look a certain way.
Although this aesthetic is changing in some parts of the dance world—for example, under the influence of noted choreographer Mark Morris—the perceived need to sculpt a certain type of body drives many dancers to eat in unhealthy ways. For a significant number of those dancers, this change in eating behavior results in clinically diagnosable eating disorders with dangerous implications for their physical, psychological, and emotional health. Moreover, in some cases, this harmful eating causes severe health problems and even death.
Our concern for dancers' health has been heightened by public and private accounts of struggles related to eating disorders. Examples include the highly publicized death of 22-year-old ballerina Heidi Guenther, autobiographical accounts such as that of Gelsey Kirkland, and ongoing anecdotal reports from current dancers. We encourage the dancers with whom we work to become informed about their eating habits and, most important, to make good choices about their diet and health.
This chapter first presents the diagnostic criteria for each eating disorder described in the current (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the "bible" of psychological diagnoses, which is published by the American Psychiatric Association. Often, athletes and dancers have a narrow idea of what constitutes an eating disorder; as a result, they may underestimate the severity of disordered eating behaviors in which they commonly engage. Our hope is that you will be able to recognize any disordered behaviors in which you may engage, as well as the associated risks, and then be willing to seek appropriate help.
The second part of the chapter provides a broader understanding of the complexity of eating disorders, describes the risks factors contributing to their development, notes associated features, and makes recommendations for what to do if you suspect that you or a friend may be struggling with an eating disorder. The chapter also teaches you how to recognize unhealthy eating patterns and validates your efforts to fuel yourself properly. Finally, the chapter offers guidance for seeking help to get yourself back on the path to healthy eating.
Eating disorders are complex medical and psychiatric illnesses that go beyond body or weight dissatisfaction and lead to destructive patterns of eating behavior. To summarize quickly, these problems are disorders of both too much and not enough. They usually involve a high drive to do too much, a need for order and control, as well as a sensitivity to feeling emotionstoo strongly, often causing great distress. The behaviors of the eating disorder are attempts to regulate this sensitivity, but, due to the drive that people with eating disorders often have, they take things to an extreme. As a result, guilt and shame keep them in a state of secrecy, often feeling "not good enough."
These disorders are often accompanied by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behavior, an eerie detachment from reality, and, in extreme cases, dissociative disorders. For example, when one young dancer was confronted with the damage that she was doing to her body and the risk of dying from her illness, her response was this: "At least the pallbearers will be able to lift my coffin without hurting themselves."
Indeed, eating disorders constitute one of the leading contributors to mortality among psychiatric disorders, and their prevalence is on the rise, particularly among adolescent and young adult women living in a culture in which thinness is revered. Studies have found that athletes are about 13 percent more likely than members of the general population to develop eating disorders. More specifically, many studies have indicated that dancers are particularly vulnerable, due to the intense pressure they experience regarding their weight and appearance.
In fact, research has shown that dancers (and participants in other aesthetic sports, such as figure skating) are at the highest risk (20 percent) for developing eating disorders. Studies have reported prevalence rates of eating disorders in dancers that range from 7 percent to 45 percent. For example, a study conducted by Elena in 2008, involving more than 200 dancers in professional schools and companies, found that fewer than 10 percent of the dancers admitted to a current or past diagnosis of an eating disorder. However, 55 percent of female dancers and 27 percent of male dancers admitted to being currently dissatisfied with their weight. These findings indicate that many dancers experience pressure to lose weight and conform to a certain physical aesthetic.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Maintain a healthy balance between dance and life
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety.
Entering the Dark Side of Dance
People who enter the dark side of dance are driven by a variety of unhealthy motivations, including self-doubt, insecurity, and fear. At the center of these motivations is the need to feel better about themselves, safe, and free from anxiety. These individuals believe that by achieving dance success, they'll receive the respect and admiration they want from others, the love and value they crave from themselves, and, ultimately, inner peace. Unfortunately, their involvement in dance can exacerbate these needs rather than relieve them.
Three concerns lie at the heart of the turn to the dark side of dance. Foremost is low self-esteem, in which people view themselves as unworthy of love and respect and lacking in competence. They get involved in dance in an attempt to show how capable they are and how deserving they are of love and respect. Dance provides them with a modicum of security in an otherwise threatening world. These individuals approach dance from a position of weakness in which they need to be successful in order to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, because their needs are so great and their expectations so extreme, their participation in dance rarely satisfies them.
People can also be drawn to the dark side by getting overly invested in dance. A person's self-identity can become excessively connected to his or her dance efforts. Ideally, dance should be part of your life, not life itself—just one slice of the pie that is your self-identity, which should also include school or work, family, friends, and other interests and activities. But dance can become the dominant slice of the pie, in which case you may draw most of your beliefs and feelings about yourself from your dance pursuits. The danger of this over-identification arises when things aren't going well in dance—whether due to overtraining, poor performance, failure to get coveted roles, or injury—and you feel bad about yourself, even as if a part of yourself has been removed.
Another group of people who are drawn to dance are perfectionists. Indeed, dance is the ideal art form for perfectionists. Because of its complexity, intensity, rigor, minute details, precise organization, and highly competitive environment, dance satisfies the punctilious needs of individuals whose standards are higher than high. Perfectionists are drawn to dance because it allows them to focus on the smallest details, gives them the sense of control that they crave, and enables them to create an artificial world characterized by the precise structure with which they feel most comfortable.
At the same time, however, dance can be a chamber of horrors for perfectionists. It may appear at first to be a perfect world made up of regimented training, precise movement, immaculately prepared costumes, clearly defined hierarchies, and no room for flaws or missteps. But the real world of dance is much messier. In reality, dance is filled with frustration, pain, mistakes, and failure—the very antithesis of the perfect art form. An opening night that is superbly planned, highly organized, and well structured can quickly devolve into a chaotic experience due to unforeseen events, unanticipated problems, and a constantly changing environment. Therefore, what starts as a dream day for perfectionists can turn into a nightmare of frustration, lost control, and inflexibility.
Perfectionists attach their self-esteem to their achievements, which, no matter how lofty, are never enough to meet the unrealistic standards these individuals set for themselves. Perfectionists aim their often misdirected efforts at achieving the impossible goal of perfection in pursuit of feelings of competence and a happiness and contentment that they so desperately crave.
Dancers who have gone to the dark side persist in their efforts despite their failure to find what they want. Often, these dancers tend to believe that they simply haven't done enough to achieve their goals rather than recognizing that their goals are misplaced. They are also loath to admit defeat in pursuit of their goals because such an admission would only confirm that they are a failure unworthy of love and respect.
Their intense and continuing efforts in dance act as an anesthetic against the painful sense of inadequacy they feel in their lives. When they're training hard and feeling physical pain, they're distracted from their emotional pain. In addition, when they achieve small successes in training and performance, they experience highs that, however brief, offer them a respite from their angst. The poignant truth, of course, is that they—and you, and all of us—are worthy of love, respect, and acceptance regardless of dance achievements.
The most unfortunate reality of the dark side of dance is that all of the efforts that perfection-driven dancers put into their art are ultimately self-defeating. They put so much time and energy into their dance in the belief that they will find what they seek, and they don't realize that they're looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. Not only do they not find what they want, but also they are kept from charting a new course that could lead them to what they're searching for. Furthermore, as they spend more and more time in their dance pursuits, their lives become increasingly unbalanced. They may flounder in school, lose valuable friendships, and have trouble with their families. When all of life becomes dance and it's no longer fun, you have gone too far.
Keys to the Light Side of Dance
To ensure that you don't enter the dark side of dance—or that you get out of it as soon as possible—take a healthy perspective on the role that dance plays in your life and maintain a healthy balance between your involvement in dance and the rest of your life. Dance should add to rather than detract from your life as a whole. It should also foster qualities and experiences that enhance other parts of your life, including relationships, school, work, and other activities. Dance should contribute to your growth as a person by helping you develop admirable qualities, such as confidence, passion, and perseverance. It should also discourage less desirable attributes, such as selfishness, perfectionism, and self-doubt. In short, dance should make you a better person.
Feeling the Love and Joy
Dance should be about love—love of yourself, love of others, love of music, love of movement, love of dance, and love of life. Yet because dance is a competitive art form, it can sometimes turn into a love of results, of a position in a company, of leading roles, and of rave reviews. If you fall in love with these results, you may lose your true love of dance. Without that passion for all things dance, your interest and motivation to train and perform may wane. But if you love the process of dance, the physicality, the artistry, the music, the emotional expressiveness, the exhilaration of performing on a stage in front of an audience, then dance will bring you both love and joy.
We have found that, more often than not, if you love the experience, you'll also get the results you want, even though you aren't focusing on them. If you love training, you put in the time and effort necessary to gain the benefits you need in order to achieve your goals. Because you're not overly invested in your results, you're more confident, relaxed, and focused; less anxious about how you'll dance; and better able to perform up to your ability in auditions, productions, and competitions. The end result is that you have a wonderful dance experience while often getting the results you want.
Joy can be found in the dance experience itself. Enjoy giving your best effort, improving your dance, reveling in the intensity of an audition, and getting to know like-minded people. Dance remains a joy when it serves as an antidote for stress and a healthy escape from the demands of your life. It continues to be joyful when you maintain a positive balance between physical exertion and rest and when your commitment of time to dance doesn't cause you to sacrifice other parts of your life.
Dance is a joy when you feel excited about and look forward to classes, rehearsals, and productions. Find joy by surrounding yourself with other dancers who also get joy from dance. Find joy in the changes you see in your body and mind and the quality of your dancing. Staying continually connected with those feelings is the surest way to gain the maximum joy out of dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
Key concepts that act as the foundation of this book
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally.
Dancing your best requires that you lay a solid foundation of physicality and technique as you develop your skills and learn your choreography. Your foundation must also enable you to develop mentally. To that end, we introduce you in this chapter to several key concepts that act as the foundation for the remainder of Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
One of the most popular phrases heard in achievement-oriented environments is "peak performance." It was first used by athletes, coaches, and sport psychologists and was then incorporated into the vocabulary of business, the performing arts, and other high-performance settings. Peak performance is typically defined as the highest level of performance that a person can achieve, and it is often viewed as the goal toward which all performers should strive. Despite its widespread usage, however, this received wisdom is not without its problems, as Jim realized soon after coming out of graduate school. Here is his description:
"At first, peak performance was what I wanted to help performers achieve. But as I became more experienced as a consultant and writer, I began to appreciate the power of words and how vital it is to use words that communicate specifically. In turn, I began to see several difficulties with the phrase 'peak performance.' For one thing, dancers can maintain a peak for only a very short time. Would you be satisfied if you danced well in one performance, then did poorly in subsequent ones? Also, once that peak is reached, there is only one way to go—down. Finally, you may peak too early or too late for an important performance.
"For several years, I searched for a phrase that would accurately describe what I wanted performers to achieve. One day, while walking through the meat section of a supermarket, I saw a piece of beef labeled as 'prime cut.' This was an aha moment—I knew I was onto something. I looked up prime in the dictionary and found that it means 'of the highest quality or value.' Thus was born the term 'prime performance.'"
Prime performance, or in our case prime dance, involves dancing at a consistently high level under the most challenging conditions. The power of this definition hinges on two essential words: consistently and challenging. In terms of consistency, we want you to be able to dance at a high level day in and day out, week in and week out, and month in and month out. Prime dance is not about being "on" 100 percent of the time—that is impossible. Rather, it means performing at a high level while experiencing only minimal ups and downs instead of the large swings in training and performance that are so common among dancers.
The second key word is challenging. It's easy to dance well under ideal conditions when you're healthy and rested, when you have an easy role, and when you're performing in a familiar venue in front of a small and friendly audience. What makes great dancers so successful, however, is their ability to perform their best in the worst possible conditions, in the most challenging roles, and under the greatest pressure in front of a large and potentially critical audience in a well-known venue. If you attain this prime level of performance, you will not only succeed but also gain immense enjoyment and satisfaction from your efforts. That is a goal worth achieving!
What does prime dance consist of? Although this book focuses on the mental components of dance, the mind is only one piece of the puzzle. For this reason, we have taken a holistic perspective that emphasizes the whole person and thus allows you to dance your best. In addition to being mentally prepared, you must also operate at a high level of physical health, which includes being well conditioned, well rested, well nourished through a balanced diet, and free from injury and illness. At the same time, your technical skills must be precise and well learned. If you are prepared in these three ways—mentally, physically, and technically—then you have the ability to achieve prime dance.
Have you ever experienced prime dance? Do you know what it feels like to perform at that level? Prime dance fosters the experience of flow, a state identified by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and marked by the following characteristics:
- It is effortless—comfortable, easy, natural, and automatic.
- There is little thought. The body does what it knows how to do with no mental interference.
- You experience sharpened senses. You see, hear, and feel everything more acutely.
- Time is distorted. We've heard professionals say that when they're "on," their performance seems to fly by.
- You are totally absorbed in the experience and focused entirely on the process of artistry. You are free from distractions and unnecessary thoughts that might interfere with your performance.
- You have boundless energy. Your stamina seems never ending, and fatigue is simply not an issue.
- You experience what we call prime integration, in which everything works together. Specifically, the physical, technical, and mental aspects of your art are integrated into one focused effort of dancing with virtuosity and joy.
Before you begin the process of developing prime dance, you may find it helpful to create a foundation of attitudes about three areas of dancing. The first area involves your perspective on dance performance and competition—what you think of them, how you feel about them, and how you approach them. The second area involves your view of yourself as a dancer—how you perform in rehearsal versus in performance or competition. And the third area involves your attitude toward success and failure—how you define success and failure and whether you know the essential roles that they play in your process of becoming the best dancer you can be. We encourage you to explore your attitudes in these three areas in order to develop a personal philosophy that serves as your wellspring for understanding and shaping your own experience of prime dance.
Learn more about Dance Psychology for Artistic and Performance Excellence.
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