Do you do the "turn and adjust" ?

No this is not a new dance move but most females automatically do the "turn and adjust"  and my observations and experiences are that all dancers definitely do. I know I do it !

I have been watching and observing whilst working my professional contract and in auditions, classes and whilst leading groups of students. On Friday at a rehearsal I noted how many did it as they left the changing rooms and approached the mirror. Result - unanimous, every single one of them!

So what is the "turn and adjust"....................................... you turn ever so slightly to the side looking at your body in the mirror and then  it happens..... the hand moves to the stomach and you suck in.

I know the “Turn and adjust” experience well - I suffer  the same concern.  

How do I look in this ?
Am I too fat?

Have I gained too much weight?

Maybe I should diet or stop eating just for a little while?

But when you’re standing in a room, walls covered in mirrors, wearing only a leotard and tights that cut into your side creating fake love handles, what’s a girl supposed to do?

And the girl at the side of you who is much smaller than you starts talking about how fat she is or how she just has to lose a few pounds.

You can't help but compare yourself and come to the conclusion everything about you is all wrong.

As dancers we face our reflection so much that you would think we know what we look like. We spend hours every day in front of a mirror in nothing more than skin tight clothing. Leotards and tights don't let you hide much. But the opposite is true. Most of us have a distorted idea of our image. Our attitudes towards our bodies are already so negative that by the time we look in a mirror we have prematurely made up our minds not to accept it. We set ourselves up for failure.

There are dancers striving to lose a "last 5 pounds" that does not exist. There are perfectly healthy dancers obsessing over thighs that touch or a stomach that rolls when sitting. They do all they can to lose weight but nothing happens. Some dancers then label themselves as fat out of frustration and desperation. The fact is that they do not need to lose weight and that is why nothing happens. The body reaches a point where it fights to hang on to everything it needs to be healthy. At this point the truly desperate turn to unhealthy measures that inevitably lead to health issues such as eating disorders which can shorten their dancing careers and drastically reduce their quality and quantity of life.

To a dancer the pressure to be thin is enormous. Before anyone looks at the way they dance or the way they move, the way they look is the first thing noticed. An ideal has been set in place in the dance community which reflects the general public's desire and society's expectations to see thin women on stage, in the media and on our screens.

I noticed when I walked into an audition last week that a group of girls automatically scanned me up and down to “inspect” my body, my look. Why do they do that? Fellow dancers sharing the same dance world? But that is what casting directors do too! You can tell the ones they're watching before you even start.

A conversation I had with several other dancers at that audition reiterated how many young dancers feel  the pressure to conform to those demands due to rejection. We all see what they're putting through to the next round and very often it's the ones with the 'right image' and not due to their dance ability. Eventually the constant rejections are going to get to even the hardest of us and we either quit or conform to get a job.

I remember the words from one of my musical theatre parts in my second year at college, the character Val in 'A Chorus Line' says, "I saw what they were hiring so after one audition I swiped my dance card and there it was, for Dance 10,  for Looks 3" but as she also observes that means she's still on unemployment, dancing for her own enjoyment". 

At an audition the week before my agent was actually in the audition watching as it was a private audition for his agency and afterwards I had a conversation with him, he has also been a professional dancer and teaches dance at a vocational level and he said that he  too was 'baffled' by the choice of some of the girls who were rejected and those who were selected and he agreed it was definitely not on the dance ability displayed in the audition. He agreed they were looking for a certain "look", a certain 'physique ', the dance technique and ability was a secondary consideration. He says that's just the way the business works.

I was sent a job advert via one of the agencies I subscribe to this week and they wanted photographs of you in your underwear to be able to assess whether or not you would fit their 'image' and fit into their costumes and uniforms?!   

I had a conversation with an artistic director friend of my mum's at their after show party and he introduced me to a fellow professional dancer by saying, "Laura is great, she has an amazing image!"  I was disappointed.  Yeah maybe but what about her dancing?  Even the  most 'plain jane' can be transformed by make-up , hair style, wigs  and a fantastic costume. Why not choose the dancer and then dress her and make her up for the role as required?

I think all this is evidence that psychologically the dancer faces extreme pressures to meet the 'perfect' body image and that has a detrimental effect on their well being and  why they obsess so much about body imagery.

It would seem the 'turn and adjust' is here to stay for a while longer?!