How Can Teachers Encourage Their Dancers and Reinforce Healthy Body Image? | Healthy Body Image Series Part 5 of 5
Teachers affect the future in the way that they influence their students.
Because teachers have the power to create change, the final part of our Healthy Body Image interview with Ballet 5:8 founding company member and former Lead Artist Lauren Ader-Cumpston explores the issue from the teacher's perspective.
School of Ballet 5:8: How can teachers encourage their dancers and reinforce healthy ideas for body image?
Lauren: As dance teachers, we have such a great influence on our dancers. Working to establish a culture in our classrooms and studios that embraces and celebrates all types of bodies will go a long way. We first need to look at ourselves and address any negative perceptions that we have of our own bodies, being careful about how we think and talk about ourselves because it will be observed and mimicked by our students. Then, we need to be sure that all aspects of our studios including our teaching, casting, advertising, social media, costume choices, etc. also reflect a celebration and acceptance of all body types.
Moreover, we need to be very careful about how we give corrections in class. Use anatomically correct language when giving corrections and avoid any wording that may be perceived as commentary on someone's body or body type. Be careful of using comparison as well, particularly regarding a person's appearance.
Educating our students is extremely important and we can teach them about the impact of external influences on our body image that are prevalent in the dance world. We need to talk about this with care and wisdom; however, because it is a subject that we need to discuss more often with our students so that we can empower them to be on guard against negative external influences, particularly social media.
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Thank you for joining us for our Healthy Body Image series and for caring about healthy body image in the dance world! Catch up or review parts 1-4 of Ms. Lauren's interview below:
What Feeds Unhealthy Body Image?