What “Love Your Body Week” Means to Me
Promoting Self-Love in the Studio
By Dominique See DWC Ambassador
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We use our bodies for our art. Our bodies are our medium. We strive to make the most interesting/beautiful/unique art with our bodies, sometimes forcing them into harmful situations. However, most of the time, we don’t take a moment to appreciate our bodies for what they are and can do. At All That Dance, there is a week dedicated to loving our bodies. It’s now become a national event, and the National Honor Society for Dance Arts has brought it to many studios around the country.
Love Your Body Week (LYBW) started in 2005, with Rachel Stewart. Rachel was teaching at All That Dance (ATD) and was concerned with the negative body image talk she would overhear students saying. The main idea is to take time out of each class during this week, and have discussions with the students about dance and self-love.
This program has grown over the years, and now makes use of student leadership to facilitate some class activities, overseen by Mary Pisegna Gorder. There is now a curriculum that Mary and Rachel develop each year, with different topics of discussion and activities for different classes. Each of these prompts culminates with each dancer writing or drawing a positive statement about their body. All the dancers then tape their artwork and words of love on the mirrors in the studios till the mirrors are completely covered with heartwarming messages.
As a new teacher at ATD, I experienced my first in-person LYBW in 2021. It was my first full year of teaching a full teaching track load. I was over the moon ecstatic to be a part of this incredible program and week long event. When I grew up, there wasn’t any such thing as LYBW. Looking back, I often ask myself if I could have avoided many nights of tears and frustration that my body wasn’t the perfect “ballet body” if I would have had this program. I struggled with my identity as a dancer since it was a dream to do ballet professionally. I didn’t know what else to do and I felt betrayed by my body. This was all when I was just 12 years old. It was horrible. The pressure I put on myself and the disappointment that I kept feeling left me so uncomfortable in my skin.
I started getting into modern more, and that is where I found my stride. I believed that in modern, it would be ok that I have a much more muscular frame, and shorter legs with a long torso. I believed that I could potentially be a professional modern dancer because of these physical traits.
Thinking about how I leaned into modern dance because I thought it would be more forgiving to different body shapes makes me sad. Don’t get me wrong, I do love modern dance. I love rolling around on the floor, and minimalistic hand gestures (not that that is all that modern dance is). But the fact that I fell in love with modern dance because I was “let down” by my non-ballet body, is not the healthy love story I’d like for my students to hear.
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Long story short, I still never got over how my body wasn’t “perfect” for dance. This led to me developing an eating disorder in my early 20’s out of anxiety and fear. This was a dark time for me, and it was during what was supposed to be a highlight of my dance career as well.
I met with Mary pre-LYBW to discuss what I would have to do as their teacher. The National Honor Society for Dance Arts runs LYBW, but the teachers are in the room still for support. I was concerned that my state of mental health and my eating disorder issues were going to get in the way of me holding space for my students. We looked over the curriculum and I felt pretty safe about all the topics besides one. Compliments. The students were going to discuss compliments and how giving compliments to others is easy, but giving a compliment to yourself is much more challenging, if not impossible. The thought of trying to give myself a compliment turned my stomach inside out. I was very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to keep steady in the room with this discussion. We came up with a game plan for me to keep my mental health safe during this day, and I’m so thankful that Mary was understanding.
LYBW kicked off with my Teen Ballet dancers. It was so much fun seeing them excited for LYBW since they’ve been a part of ATD and have experienced it for many years already. They were stoked. The mirrors started filling up with sweet messages. Lots of spelling errors from the little dancers, and big hearts from the older dancers. One said “Taylor Swift loves you just the way you are!” Another said “I love my tummy because it helps me eat.” It was heartwarming reading these messages and then watching my students read them as well. Some dancers had some trouble thinking about what they loved about their bodies. It made me sad for a second, but once I started pointing out the amazing things our bodies do for us, they were able to pick up one of those and run with it.
In talking with the older dancers, they all say that LYBW has really shaped their perspective of themselves and dance. It’s also found its way into their life outside dance. They’ve been quick to point out when a friend at school was being unkind to their body, and look at social media with less self-judgment. I’m so excited and proud that I’m able to work at a studio that holds this week with high regard. And we continue the ideas of LYBW throughout the year. It’s become so embedded in ATD’s culture, there’s a different feeling just walking into the building.
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By the end of the week, I was mentally exhausted. My brain was on overdrive trying to protect itself while also holding space and being a supportive teacher to my students. I took all the discussions to my personal therapy sessions and have been slowly picking away at the iceberg that is my mental health and body image. It’s a bummer that I didn’t grow up with LYBW to potentially save some of these issues from existing, but as a dance educator I’m so excited to see what LYBW does to the future of dance. It’s a promising future, and an idea that should never be overlooked. Dancers need the support and reminders that our bodies are amazing. No matter what shape, size, color, or ability. Our bodies are our medium for our art. And if we don’t treat our medium with love and respect, our mediums won’t be there to support us for long.
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