Literature Review.....

Diet for Dancers: A Complete Guide to Nutrition and Weight Control

Authors; Sally S. Fitt/ Robin D. Chmelar

This is a diet book based on research with dancers, it provides information about proper dietary procedures that will enable dancers to reach and/or maintain their optimal body weight for dancing. Areas discussed include weight control, individual differences in metabolism, body composition and eating disorders.

About the Authors:

Robin D. Chmelar has contributed to the journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists.
Sally Sevey Fitt is the author of Dance Kinesiology.

What I like about this book as opposed to the many available on diets for dancers is that Chmelar and Fitt are not telling dancers they have to be thin, rather they are reporting the realities that face most dancers who pursue careers in theatrical performing dance and encourage dancers who do not fit the body composition standards for being a professional ballet dancer to seek a style of dance that suits their bodies. They actually assembled research on the body compositions of 15 female professional and university, ballet and modern dancers and compared them to those of five kinds of female athletes. These results show that such dancers need to fit into a pretty narrow range of percent body fat and weight relative to height. These values are substantially below what is considered an average healthy weight for non dance women. Yet the values for these same categories of male dancers are very similar to those of healthy non dance men. So it is the research that shows that female dancers have to maintain a lower than healthy average body weight. They simply report the facts based on sound research and offer  a diet that can be followed whilst remaining healthy. 
I was a bit sceptical about using a dieting book for dancers, as I know how severe the pressure is for a dancer to be thin and figured all books would promote and/or encourage anorexia. However having been subject to comments about losing weight at college my Mum bought me this book  to help me eat healthily as a dancer and I was really surprised when reading this book as it strongly advised against anorexia and gave some wonderful facts on dancers losing weight which did work for me.
I find the book so useful for myself as well as using it for this course as it not only focuses on diet but gives lots of other information. The authors give opinions on how to promote healthy weight expectations for female dancers. In the section "Professional Realities and Ethical Considerations" p43 they  write, "In no way can this or any other book dictate what a school or company's weight standards should be. We can offer guidelines based on our current knowledge, but any dancer who reaches professional status is bound to be met by strict standards.... directors, faculty, and students in university programs should ask themselves a number of questions (some of which might also be considered by professional companies) such as: Should we have weight standards? If so, how strict should they be for performing-emphasis students? Should we have weight standards for students going into non performance dance fields? What kind of policy should we have for students who don't meet weight standards? Are we familiar with appropriate referral sources for students with eating disorders? How do we strike a healthy balance between ensuring our dancers are healthy yet meet the aesthetic standards of dance? And what are those aesthetic standards? There are obviously a variety of answers to these questions; however, the important thing is that they be discussed openly among faculty and student representatives."
To me this shows a responsible attitude on the part of the authors for both recognizing the pressures of the real world in certain areas of dance and in encouraging dancers, instructors, and directors to recognize their responsibilities in shaping healthy aesthetic expectations for body weight among dancers.
The book explains the way diet and exercise interacts as it applies to dancers, lists the functions of all vitamins and minerals, and notes those nutrients in which research has shown dancers to be deficient. This book worked for me whilst I was at college and guided me towards how to plan my meals and eat correctly and healthily and  towards maintaining a healthy, fit body composition rather than trying to force an unhealthy skinny one.
This book is particularly relevant to my line of inquiry researching the health education of dancers, body issues and image of dancers and the aesthetic expectations of dancers.

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780916622893/Diet-for-Dancers


Is the world of ballet as brutal as the Black Swan portrays it? Ex – ballerina Arlene Phillips gives her verdict.

This was a review of the film the ‘Black Swan’ that appeared in the Daily Mail on 21^st January 2011. This was important to me as it was watching this film and then reading several articles discussing issues raised in the film that made me decide what questions I would develop as my line of inquiry. It reiterated to me that there is still a problem in the dance world despite all the moves towards healthier dancers and meant my line of inquiry was useful and important and still very relevant to the industry. Although the characters in the film are fictional all the issues frequently connected to the dance profession are raised again – obsession, perfectionism, body weight, body image and the mental stresses.
The particular article by Arlene Phillips is interesting and very useful but is only one opinion. However it gives an insight into the extreme lengths dancers will go to to make their bodies more suitable for dance, even to the point that a friend would have a bust reduction operation to get a place at ballet school.
I think it made me start to question why even such revered people in the dance world, such as Arlene Phillips, accept the way dance has its aesthetic standards and don’t begin to challenge that perspective. I was interested in how she herself dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer but her womanly curves stopped her and she had to change direction but has made a satisfactory career in dance despite that set back.
The ballerina body image as seen in the film ‘The Black Swan’ put the issues for dancers into the public spotlight again and raised the profile of concerns over body weight, eating disorders, body image and the dancers overall well being. It emphasised to me that there is a need to educate our dancers and that despite claims to the contrary there are still many who suffer as a result of the unachievable pressures put upon them and that there is a need to change attitudes and behaviours.
The movie brings these issues back into focus again but I also found this article  interesting from the point of view of how influential the media and society is on putting dancers, not just ballerinas, under pressure to achieve a  perceived ‘perfectionism’. Despite all the history and the warnings even the most revered in the industry have a submissive perception of how a dancer should look and this is why I found the article useful for my line of inquiry. I think it is up to people such as Arlene Phillips who are influential in the profession to provide support to changing attitudes within the dance profession to advocate healthy eating and exercise habits and embrace dancers as people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1349062/Black-Swan-Anorexia-dark-sexual-encounters-ballet-brutal-film-portrays-it.html#ixzz1FLeCU1CI

Considering  a Health Educational role in the training of dance teachers – Sho Botham,  MA Dance and Health Education.

Sho Botham has an extensive background in the dance profession as well as in exercise, health and wellbeing. Her career includes working as a professional dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, lecturer, adjudicator, examiner/assessor, health education adviser, researcher and writer. She draws on her background in both dance and health education when designing and delivering professional and personal development courses, seminars and workshops for dance teachers and dance teaching bodies and organisations.

Sho was an Executive Councillor of the UKA for a number of years, and represented their interests at the Council for Dance Education and Training (CDET) and Central Council for Physical Recreation (CCPR). She is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) and currently sits on the Development Committee of IADMS.

A PhD student at University of Brighton's Chelsea School, Sho has carried out research into ethics and dance teaching.

I found Sho Botham’s paper on Health Education in the Training of Dance Teachers particularly useful to my line of inquiry. Her research supports the holistic approach  to dance education and encourages further debate on the subject and supports the argument for ethical dance teaching practices.

I found the document thought provoking and agree with the findings of her research although despite her work towards promoting dance ethics this is not followed up in the industry as ethics remain merely guidelines and have no code of practice which is monitored or reviewed.

This inspired me to follow my lines of inquiry as it could have some relevance if the industry would change its behaviours and attitudes and introduce a code of ethics that is administered, monitored and reviewed.  Sho Botham hoped that the ethical issues raised in her paper would be pursued further but despite much research I couldn’t find where it has been and this again gave me the confidence to pursue my line of inquiry as a relevant and useful piece of research.

Her statement in her opening paragraph was music to my ears...... “in order  to be able to teach dance without damaging or suffocating the inborn gift of dance, needs teachers with the ability to support and enhance the flourishing of each individual”.

What I also found extremely useful about this article is there were suggestions for further reading on the subject.  It was also useful to see how she had structured the paper and used her research as an explanation of her inquiry. She also gives useful criticism of where her research could have been done better which I think is useful to learn from where she felt she could have improved her findings.

The lack of a code of ethics and the submissive attitudes and behaviours which contribute to low self esteem and body image issues for dancers is something I mean to research more in my line of inquiry but this piece of research by Sho Botham is useful in its explorations and findings on dance ethics and the role of health education in dance which is a good place to start my journey and take further.

http://www.decodanz.co.uk/

Emphashttp://www.decodanz.co.uk/ising the learning aspect of creative subjects is very important and something The response thus each student learns something different from a project. The article contained a lot of useful information particularly for me and my line of inquiry but the way that