Holistic Dancers
Holistic Dancers
Being a dancer is a busy, dedicated life.
For many dancers, dance is inseparable from their lives, and their daily habits, body-image, and ways of thinking are often strongly associated with their dancer identity and practice.
While dance can take up lots of time and energy in your life, it is important to take care of yourself both as a dancer and person.
I would like to suggest reviewing three areas:
Why is Dance to You?
What is your drive?
How does dance attract you?
What do you like/love about dance?
How do you feel while dancing?
Why do you dance?
What motivates you to dance?
What do you want to express through your dance?
Dancer Mentality and 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?
Personal Uniqueness
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?
Environment (e.g., dance community, family, friends, society, etc.) can influence how you think and experience yourself.
When the three areas are in an optimal balance, you can experience a euphoric flow state. A holistic approach can help your healthy, optimal dance experience.
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 Triangle 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.
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.
Upon clicking the button above, you will be directed to payhip to download the worksheet.
References
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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This blog is made for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as medical, licensed professional counseling, or other healthcare advice.
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