Holistic Dancers
Holistic Dancers
Being a dancer is a busy, dedicated life. In my research project, those dancers I interviewed agreed that dance enriches life, and life enriches dance.
For many dancers, dance is inseparable from their lives, and thus, their daily habits, body-image, and ways of thinking and acting are often strongly associated with their dancer identity and practice.
Because dance is intertwined with who you are, it is valuable to take care of yourself both as a dancer and person.
In my research study, I identified the themes of The Dancing Body (Drive to Dance), The Functional Body (Dancer Mentality and Body), and The Personal Body (Personal Uniqueness) as foundational elements of a dancer's experience. When those elements are in an optimal balance, you can experience a flow state where you feel free, euphoric, and fun. However, when those elements are unnecessarily unbalanced, you can experience more struggles and challenges.
Following are some ideas of exploring these elements.
The Dancing Body
As babies express themselves, connect with others, and explore the surroundings through body and movement, dancing (body movement) is fundamental to human experience. Through dancing, we can intuitively experience our sense of self and belonging, which can foster joy and fulfillment. The Dancing Body refers to your drive to dance.
"Dance is the hidden language of the soul." (Martha Graham)
The following questions may help you delve into your dancing body:
What is your drive?
How does dancing attract you?
What do you like/love about dancing?
How do you feel while dancing?
Why do you dance?
What motivates you to dance?
What do you want to express through your dance?
The Functional Body
Each dance style and community has its own culture and discipline. Through its unique training, dancers internalize specific norms, knowledge, and techniques and shape their lifestyles and perceptions accordingly. The Functional Body refers to the manifestation of such internalized community standards and is linked to dancer identity and associated values and expectations.
While the functional body fosters communication and connection within dance communities, exclusive identification with the functional body may increase the risk of physical and psychological struggles. For example, a dancer may try to be more functional by eating mindfully. Whereas mindful eating is a reasonable choice, when the dancer becomes obsessive with eating, they can become restrictive to their choices and vulnerable to injury, fatigue, and anxiety.
The following questions may help you delve into your Functional body:
What has dance experience taught you?
What do you do for dance?
What are your strengths as a dancer?
What would you like to improve as a dancer?
What would your dancer profile look like?
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)
When you don't have enough energy for your basic body functions and activities, you will have low energy availability in the system.
Low energy availability negatively impacts your physical and psychological health and performance.
For example, low energy availability can cause attention issues, emotional dysregulation, irritability, low motivation, memory issues, slow processing, and others.
The impacts can have a long-term effect on your health and wellbeing.
The Female Athlete Triad specifically addresses the correlations between low energy availability, bone health, and menstrual function.
Female ballet dancers are at high risk of menstrual abnormalities.
If you have no menarche by age 15 or have missed 3 or more consecutive menstrual cycles, talk to your doctor.
Athlete Plates
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee introduces Athlete Plates for easy, moderate, and hard training days.
If you have any questions about your nutrition, contact your doctor, dietitian, or nutritionist.
Body-Image
What does a dancer body mean to you?
Make a list of elements you associate with a dancer body.
You may notice that a dancer body refers not only to the appearance but also the function.
As you saw in the Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport slide, when you try to pursue a certain body appearance by restricting your diet, you can limit your body function, which can negatively influence your enjoyment and performance.
Performance Profile
Performance Profile is a self-assessment tool that can support your self-awareness and goal setting. Performance Profile can visualize your current status and clarify your strengths and areas for improvement. The profile is very unique to you.
- Imagine the dancers you admire or the ideal version of yourself.
- Identify the qualities or characteristics the dancers or ideal version of yourself possess.
- Technical, physical, psychological, artistic, and social attributes
- What do you believe is essential for your performance?
- Write down the identified qualities or characteristics on the corners of the chart.
- Rate your current status of each quality or characteristic on a scale from 0 (no ability) to 5 (highest possible ability).
- Look at your profile and make any adjustments if needed.
- Keep track of your progress by updating the profile.
Upon clicking the button above, you will be directed to payhip to download the worksheets.
The Personal Body
Dancers are people. They have their unique personalities, personal histories, own emotions, sensations, choices, needs, preferences, and sociocultural roles. Every experience a dancer goes through in life will construct the dancer as a person and may directly or indirectly influence their dance experience. The Personal Body refers to the collection of individualized experiences that support the dancer's uniqueness.
While the personal body can support the depth of artistic expression and life fulfillment, exclusive identification with the personal body may cause disconnection with the functional body. For example, when a dancer pursues unique self-expression without respecting the dance community's culture, they may receive undesired criticism (losing touch with the functional body) and not feel as fulfilled as possible when dancing as if they lost connection with the dancing body
The following questions may help you delve into your Personal Body:
How do you take care of yourself?
What do you like and dislike?
What is comfortable and uncomfortable to you?
Do you have enough sleep, nutrition, and care for yourself?
What do you enjoy outside of dance?
What is your support system like?
What stresses you?
What recharges you?
What is it like when you feel good?
What is it like when something feels right to you?
What have you learned from your family, friends, and society?
The Multifaceted Body
Dancers may constantly navigate the delicate balance of the dancing, functional, and personal bodies. Depending on the context, dancers may intentionally focus on one body mode over another. For example, when a dancer tries to master a new technique, they may emphasize the functional body. Such intentional prioritization of a certain body mode is a necessary skill to adjust and adapt to the present situation. However, overprioritization or obsession can cause harm or dissatisfaction. For example, overtraining can cause an injury.
Environment (e.g., dance community, family, friends, society, etc.) can influence how you think and experience yourself.
When the dancing, functional, and personal bodies are in an optimal balance, you can experience a flow state where you feel authentic and satisfied. As those body modes fluidly interact with each other to support dancers' wellbeing and performance, a holistic approach can help your healthy, optimal dance experience.
Your experience is very unique to you. While general suggestions and recommendations are available, you can evaluate what works best for you and establish your own habits, routines, and coping strategies.
References
Allen, N., Kelly, S., Lanfear, M., Reynolds, A., Clark, R., Mountjoy, M. J., Wyon, M., & Wolman, R. (2024). Relative energy deficiency in dance (RED-D): A consensus method approach to REDs in dance. British Medical Journal Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 10, e001858. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2023-001858
Araki, J., Condie, M., Sturm, D., Thomson, P., & O'Hana, A. (2025). The paradoxical body: Dancers' experience of embodiment [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Western States.
Bird, M. D., Castillo, E. A., & Luzzeri, M. (2021). Performance profiling: Theoretical foundations, applied implementations and practitioner reflections. Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 12(4), 213-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/21520704.2020.1822970
Butler, R. J., & Hardy, L. (1992). The Performance Profile: Theory and Application. The Sport Psychologist, 6(3), 253-264. https://doi.org/10.1123/tsp.6.3.253
Butler, R. J., Smith, M., & Irwin, I. (1993). The performance profile in practice. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 5(1), 48–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/10413209308411304
Cabre, H. E., Moore, S. R., Smith-Ryan, A. E., & Hackney, A. C. (2022). Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S): Scientific, Clinical, and Practical Implications for the Female Athlete. Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Sportmedizin, 73(7), 225–234. https://doi.org/10.5960/dzsm.2022.546
The United States Olympic Committee Sport Dietitians and the University of Colorado (UCCS) Sport Nutrition Graduate Program. Athlete's Plate: Easy Training/Weight Management Day. https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt9e58afd92a18a0fc/blt4e66da686a7275e4/6470c29d731679a2256b4f31/Athlete_Plates_Easy_Day_Handout.pdf
The United States Olympic Committee Sport Dietitians and the University of Colorado (UCCS) Sport Nutrition Graduate Program. Athlete's Plate: Moderate Training Day. https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt9e58afd92a18a0fc/blta16927a1de1e873b/6470c29df6df4f2a41b4feda/Athlete_Plates_Moderate_Day_Handout.pdf
The United States Olympic Committee Sport Dietitians and the University of Colorado (UCCS) Sport Nutrition Graduate Program. Athlete's Plate: Hard Training Day. https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt9e58afd92a18a0fc/blt2a81506e0c10d431/6470c29dce9cf93e01376865/Athlete_Plates_Hard_Day_Handout.pdf
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