Task 4b- Special Interest Groups

The bottom line is, generally dancers dance because of enjoyment, otherwise they would not put themselves out there to train long hours, perform till late, where they will do their utmost to develop as an artist, and just keep on dancing. I believe the vitality of a dancer is what is key to the utmost enjoyment of this demanding yet most exciting lifestyle. 

This is why I would like to discover a lot more about the mental and physical aspects towards a dancer's general well being, so to help them have the best and longest career they can possibly have. 

Having always been interested in nutrition, keeping fit and healthy, I would like to explore these topics more in depth to bring out a meaningful inquiry.

After finally grabbing the concept of developing an SIG, I have found a quite a few fellow BAPP students on the same line of inquiry towards the 'health and fitness' as well as as 'psychological' route towards dancing.

Heather Smith caught my attention on her narrowed down questions to the pressures of the dance industry. This is what 'makes or breaks' dancers. There is a lot of pressure on a dancer to be their best in order to succeed, but from the outside perspective it is a visual art where the audience generally don't know what hard work goes into it. The physical side and issues of dance is being addressed to more often with all the new scientific researches on how the body/muscles reacts to certain diets, exercise programs etc. but I feel the mental side is neglected at times. Pressure affects this, and it is something I would like to know more about and am sure other dancers would too!

As well as Megan Lewis posting about Dance Psychology week on Dance UK, some of her inquiries struck some interest. One was asking about generic weaknesses in dancers linking to age and genes. and whether it creates faults. This got me thinking what would help with overcome these weaknesses in  their dancing- exercises, strengthening, certain diets?

Her other inquiry related to trigger point therapy, which I know helps with balancing the energies of the body and mind. Something that could link to improving in mental well-being? 

Emma Price has similar questions towards health and fitness. What got me more enthusiastic was her question about where we can gain specific information for dancers? There is general basic information out there, but to go more in depth, personally I have found it difficult to find certain things. Instead we are often having to discover things for ourselves, all about trial and error. Sometimes if there was a bit more of a guidance on what can be done to help us develop as a dancer to our best, that would be great. 

Emma also picked this issue up:

Reading Gabrielle's posts I can see the health and fitness theme is similar to that of my own thinking. Asking what does it take for a dancer to be fit and healthy physically and mentally and how do you keep a balance of strengthening muscles yet staying lean. All these are questions I have asked myself throughout my training and career & I find a lot of information about sports related fitness programmes whereas less that are specified to dance. My boyfriend is a professional footballer & the amount of time and money spent on injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes in a professional football club compared to most professional dance companies is astounding. Obviously football has a lot more money to spend than the arts however even just the importance stressed in their education on nutrition & daily gym training/workouts compared to in dance is huge. It means they get into eating/sleeping/training routines from a young age that they then maintain throughout their career. My routines have often changed due to me testing things as quite honestly I was never thoroughly educated in this side of my profession.

There are some other BAPP students like Rohanne Compson Bramford on pressures of dance, and the effects of injuries (something that frustrates me so much as dancer myself!) and Laura Houghton who have shown interest in related topics to mine.

I would like to create a couple of SIG groups via Facebook as I thought it is very easy and accessible. I am also going to create tags on my blog, posting about the different topics. Please let me know if you would be interested in joining my SIG and feel free to comment on my upcoming posts...