This question comes up a lot among dancers – whether you’re already dancing professionally or working towards that end, you’re not alone in  your desire for guidelines. Unfortunately, ballet companies still expect you to list your weight on your resume. Although, I sort of think this practice should be banned. It’s definitely not helping anyone.

So there’s BMI, different height-weight charts and body fat percentage measurements. Which is the right measure? What about the old Russian Ballerina height-weight charts? Ignore those recommendations. And that the fact is this is a completely personal question.

Don’t let your ballet mistress or Artistic Director tell you what to weigh.

Your Artistic Director (whether of school or company) really shouldn’t get a say in the number you see on the scale. Want to know why? That’s a little bit of what I dive into in this video. Check it out here:

Do you feel conflicted about where you think you should be with weight? You’re not alone. This is super common among dancers and something that might keep you up at night. Your dance goals shouldn’t be a distraction…shift your perspective around weight.

My goal with this video was to share some realities about those numbers on the scale and to assure you that you can support yourself (maybe with a bit of outside help) to reach your healthiest, most powerful dancing weight. And that’s what you should weigh as a pro dancer. It doesn’t matter what any other dancer concludes is her best weight.

Your best weight only has to do with one factor. YOU.

To get started, download The Whole Dancer 7-Step Best Body Guide. It walks you through The Whole Dancer process of reaching your personal best dancers’ body in a healthy, sustainable way.

As you go through the guide, remember that taking the pressure off weight actually helps a lot. Your body goals can feel pressure filled and impossible to reach if you’re obsessing over the scale. What would it feel like to focus on just dancing full out and with energy?

Dance makes it extra hard to stop worrying about your body. Your teachers and artistic staff have told you that the thinner you are, the better off you are…especially in ballet. What you weigh does not determine your worth, nor does it decide your future in dance.

Make your priority feeling good and dancing your best.

This will help you build confidence! When we take the focus off of the external and commit to turning inward, confidence grows. It helps to step out of your comfort zone as often as possible as well. When you do that, you prove to yourself that you are capable.

You can create and reinforce the story that you can dance center stage (or center studio) and shine.

It’s all about the stories we tell ourselves.

Much of life is about the stories we tell ourselves and the evidence we collect to reinforce those stories. If you tell yourself, “when I’m thinner I’ll be a better dancer”  you’ll hang onto the messages that reinforce this story.

Instead tell yourself, “when I’m well fueled and dancing with energy I’ll be a better dancer” you’ll collect evidence to back this up. So really, it’s up to you. Which story will you choose? So to get back to our question: what should a pro dancer actually weigh? Bottom line: the weight where she can dance her best with energy, vitality and JOY.

As always, if you need support reach out. I’d love to hear from you!!

The post What should a pro dancer actually weigh? appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Guest post by Katrena Cohea

When we think about young dancers, we tend to think tutus, freeze dance, and all the inherent cuteness that accompanies early childhood dance classes. While this age is full of sweetness and it can be fun to see dancers experiment and explore, this also a great age to introduce body love and respect.

If you chat with any 4 year old for a length of time, they’ll likely tell you all the things they’re good at, all the things they can do, and a plethora of other facts ranging from dinosaurs to what they had for snack. Young dancers usually don’t have any problem identifying their strengths, so it’d be easy to assume they don’t need any further foundation for body acceptance, but developmentally, young dancers at this age are at the perfect stage for cultivating a loving relationship with their bodies and abilities that can see them well into their tween and teen years.

Here are three smart strategies you can use to encourage young dancers to continue loving their bodies and abilities.

1. Be aware of language

Dance has its own unique language. Especially with young dancers we use a lot of imagery to convey technique and movement themes. While there’s nothing wrong with imagery, it’s worthwhile to tune into the words we use with young dancers and update if needed.

Flexed feet aren’t ‘bad’, or ‘naughty’ for example (this position is used often in modern and tap dancing), just as ‘suck in your tummy’, or ‘pull in your tummy’ isn’t as beneficial as encouraging dancers to lengthen their front body muscles, or asking them engage their core by pulling an imaginary string from the belly button to the spine.

While this may seem like a small and tedious change, modeling the use of positive and accurate language will only help dancers be more accurate and positive themselves as they get older, work on more detailed technique and spend more time in front of the mirror assessing themselves.

2. Focus on feeling

Speaking of mirrors, we can teach dancers from an early age that the mirror is nothing more than a tool. Just like spotting for turns, or costumes to play a role, mirrors are tools to help dancers feel and adjust for technique. How many of our tween and teen dancers go through a phase where they’re obsessed with the mirror?

How many of us, when we were dancing every day, obsessed over every lump, bump, and line we saw in our reflections? If we remove the emotion from the mirror, all that’s left is a tool. And when we focus on feeling, we help remove some of that charged emotion.

Encourage dancers at a young age to be curious about how movement feels in their body. When it’s recital time and dancers try on costumes, ask how they feel in the costume, as opposed to deferring to the mirror for how it looks.

3. Make it fun!

Body acceptance doesn’t have to be a serious subject all the time! Keep it light, especially with young students, and they’ll get the message that loving and respecting all their bodies can do is just a normal part of moving and dancing.

Try movement obstacle courses that show dancers how strong they are, use yoga as brain breaks to point out to dancers how flexible they can be, or let dancers create their own affirmations with markers and paper and hang them all around your studio. Young dancers especially love it when things are fresh and fun, and you’ll be more likely to keep them engaged with this work when it feels like play. You’ll enjoy it more that way too!

Which of these tips will you be trying? I’d love to know in the comments, or hear your favorite ways of bringing body positivity to your young dancers!

About Katrena:

Katrena Cohea is the Owner and Founder of Different Drummer Dance, a dance studio based in upstate New York that’s on a mission to teach dance from the inside out. Different Drummer Dance takes a bright, fresh, and big-hearted approach to dance education, focusing on growth mindset and body positivity to teach dance holistically.

She was trained in the RAD syllabus and completed both the RAD’s Advanced 2 and CBTS programs. She graduated with B.A. in Theater and Dance from CSUEB, where she trained with noted Bay Area directors/choreographers Nina Haft, Eric Kupers and Laura Elaine Ellis. She has performed and taught across the United States and Canada including Vancouver, New Mexico, and New York. Katrena is also a writer for the magazine The Wonderful World of Dance.

The post Instill Positive Body Image at a Young Age appeared first on The Whole Dancer.

Do you think you’re lacking natural talent or ability and that’s what’s holding you back? Good news, there’s so much more that goes into it. Your success in dance has a lot less to do with what’s “natural” and everything to do with what you put in.

What you put in you’ll get out.

Yes, in dance, there are some natural attributes that you may or may not possess.

Check out this video for more on Success in Dance:

In order to excel, you can’t just work on the things that are easy for you. Don’t spend time perfecting what you’re already capable of. Instead, you need to focus on the things that create struggle for you.

Targeted and specific effort are going to take you forward more quickly. To ensure that you’re working on the right things you may need to seek out a variety of teachers who can support you in improving upon those areas of opportunity.

Do you have all of the information for targeted practice?

“Failing should provide you with the opportunity to learn, grow and adapt.” A “failure” is not the end.

If you expect the best, you are given some strange kind of power to create the conditions that produce the desired results.

At the point of performance it’s essential that you up your ability for positivity. So maybe you’re going into auditions or a competition – you have so much power in what you bring to the situation. It has SO MUCH to do with your mindset.

So much of your success in dance is within your control – allow this fact to motivate you to seek out the support you need to take it all forward. Dancer’s should have a team. Just like olympians and pro – athletes find experts to support them in improving, it’s a worthy investment for dancers as well!

The post Are you “talented” enough to succeed in dance? appeared first on The Whole Dancer.