I was invited to write blog articles for Dancewear Center earlier this year because I wanted to share with the dance community as a whole what the words disability and mental illness really mean, and why they’re important to me. I want to break down stereotypes around disability and mental illness piece by piece and give my perspective about disability in relation to the dance world.
Read MoreBallet class expanded from watching someone perform a proper plie and trying to mirror it, to understanding the muscles involved, the physics, the balance and strength. It built depth to seemingly simple movements, transforming them from mere exercises to art. When a dancer becomes an artist, they learn to not only use the vocabulary that has been ingrained in their mind for years, but also use the emotions, experience, and grace they have developed from life. The process of building technique in any dance form requires a methodical logic, but without the creativity and intuition of an artist, dance becomes just a form of exercise.
Read MoreAs dancers, we encounter many different dancing environments. Some are adaptable and favored and others are not. In these unfavored environments, it can be easy to fall into a rut and create mental challenges that can slow your progress. Each person has their own reasoning as to why they are preventing themselves from growing. Our environments and the people we surround ourselves with play a part in this, but sometimes we are simply just overthinking. Dancers are infamous for adapting at a rapid rate and those changes come with high expectations. This change overload often requires dancers to uproot their entire lives to pursue our passion. This is what we sign up for, but sometimes our adjustment to these changes do not happen as rapidly as we like.
Read MoreA few facts about dancers:
Dancers are athletes.
Dancers have seasons of overtraining and seasons of no proper dance training at all.
Dancers are extremely susceptible to injury due to hypermobility.
A dancers goal is to be able to perform any physical movement that is asked of them.
Dancers must be able to hear a correction and implement it into their body immediately.
Now after reading those statements consider the fact that very few dancers cross train. *enter jaw dropping emoji here*
No? Still didn’t get you —— read it like this:
I am an athlete. No, I do not cross train.
Read MoreIt can be hard to hold onto happiness and positivity in the midst of everything happening in our world. I know that I have been struggling a lot with maintaining a bright attitude lately. The negativity and depressing truth of what is going on around us is suffocating, and I feel that needs to be recognized. I had a teacher in high school who once had us all yell “this sucks!” right after they dropped a pop quiz on us. On the count of three we all yelled. I feel like we need that right now. Ready? One, two, three: This sucks! It's important to get that out, and to acknowledge that everything is not always great. And that’s ok. Everything doesn’t have to be amazing, but with what is going on in the world it’s important to look for what is good around us or risked getting dragged down by that looming force of depression and negativity that may be spreading faster than the virus.
Read MoreMay is Mental Health Awareness Month! In this series, we are giving the staff here at DWC a platform to talk about their personal mental health journeys. We believe in supporting the wellbeing of the whole dancer; both body and mind. We want you to know that you are not alone. We believe in the importance of talking about mental health openly, especially within the dance world. So let’s talk about it! Madison, Senior Pointe Shoe Fitter here at DWC is sharing her words of wisdom regarding positive self image and practicing self compassion.
Read MoreMadison, Senior Pointe Shoe Fitter at DWC is sharing her experience and tips during this time of isolation. We hope to give a little inspiration and a few tools for dealing with this hard time. We’re all in this together.
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