Getting to Know DWC Ambassador Emily Borders
A Local Dancer and PT Student on Increasing Dance Accessibility
Name pronunciation: Em-ill-ee Borders | Pronouns: she/her
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
There are more ways to be involved in the dance industry than just being a professional dancer. Community members like DWC Ambassador Emily Borders are proving this to be the case by partaking in community classes and studying physical therapy in hopes of making dance more accessible to a wider array of individuals. Read on to learn more about Emily’s personal dance journey, hopes for the larger dance community, and plans as a DWC ambassador!
Emily says that she was an active kid growing up, but it took her a while to realize that dance was her favorite activity. She laughs sharing that it took getting cut from her middle school volleyball team for her to pursue dance wholeheartedly. She danced and competed across many genres throughout high school and majored in kinesiology and minored in dance at Western Washington University. After graduating from college in 2018, Emily has been enjoying taking community classes, dancing around her living room, and trying out aerial silks. She is also in her second year of physical therapy school and plans to graduate in June 2023. Following graduation, Emily looks forward to helping make dance more accessible and affordable to all bodies, particularly to neurodivergent people.
In the larger dance world, Emily sees a great need to make dance teacher education more accessible and affordable as well. She also hopes to see more helpful and accurate information disseminated on how to be a healthy dancer, specifically information on how to nourish oneself, build strength, and cross-train in a sustainable way. For example, she thinks more dance teachers should be educated on how to provide screenings for the female athlete triad, as malnutrition, disordered eating, and a generally increased risk of injury are all common among dancers. Emily shares that when she was 19 she broke her arm by doing a simple cartwheel on a mat, an injury that may have been prevented if she and more dance professionals in the larger industry knew about phenomena like the female athlete triad.
When asked what her favorite thing about dance is, the first thing that comes to Emily’s mind is community. “I feel like my dance friends are probably my closest group of friends,” she says, sharing that they’ve spent so many long hours rehearsing together that it’s hard not to form a tight bond. To this day, the friends she’s made through dance are incredibly supportive of one another.
Emily also appreciates the creativity and artistry that dancers get to hone when practicing their craft. Particularly as an adult dancer, Emily has enjoyed shifting her focus in dance away from improving her technical facility and more on sharpening her artistic skills. “I love that there’s freedom just to move,” she says. Emily also loves that dance is a form of healing. “It’s just really helpful physically, emotionally, [and] mentally,” Emily says of the holistic nature of dancing.
Photo by Robert Borders
Emily says that growing up, she was extremely hard on herself when dancing. She says that being a perfectionist feels inherent in her personality, and can be exacerbated by principles widely disseminated in the dance industry. Dancers are taught that their work is never done - they can always get their legs higher, make their combinations cleaner, and generally improve their technique. But attaining perfection is impossible. For those struggling with this perfectionist mentality, Emily encourages them to acknowledge that this type of thinking comes naturally to them. She points out that having a lot of ambition and drive is helpful, but it’s important to also have balance. For Emily, acknowledging what she’s done well in addition to what she can improve upon is also useful for counteracting perfectionism.
Emily shares that she had been considering applying for the DWC ambassador program for a while. She had been following Dancewear Center on Instagram for some time and was impressed by the fact that the business strives to do much more than sell products. She loved seeing dancers from across the community use Dancewear Center’s platform to amplify their own messages as DWC ambassadors. Emily was hesitant about applying for the program because she hadn’t been dancing for a while and thought she may not be the best candidate. Nevertheless, she reminded herself that she’s a part of this community and has a lot of knowledge to contribute, which led her to fill out the application. As a DWC ambassador, Emily is looking forward to writing blog posts on topics she’s passionate about, especially sharing the physical therapy knowledge she’s gathered in PT school.
“I’ve learned a lot that I felt was lacking in my own life and dance experience growing up,” Emily says, sharing she hopes to give the physical therapy knowledge she’s learned today to others.
Keep an eye out for more from Emily Borders in the coming months!
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