5 Lies Dance Teachers Are Telling Themselves Right Now

With a juicy title like this one, I know you want to dive right into it, but I want to preface this blog with a little story about yours truly.

When I was about 4 or 5, I asked my Mom where babies came from. She told me the basics, and I took it all in, as best as any 4 or 5 year old will. But the next day, I asked my Mom the same exact question. To which she replied, ‘Katrena, I just told you yesterday.’ And my response…. ‘Yeah, but I was hoping the answer would be different.” Let that sink in for a minute:

I was hoping the answer would be different.

Little did I know that this phrase would serve me all my life, and be a cornerstone for me understanding not only my own behaviors, habits and choices, but the behaviors, habits and choices of others as well.

All of us wish that 2020 were different. All of us wish that the answers to questions like ‘can we open the studio again?’, ‘can we have our performance?’, ‘can we attend competitions?’ - we all wish the answers to these questions were different.

But they’re not.

And we’re allowed to grieve for the fact that things are different, but the sooner we can stop lying to ourselves that things are different from they are, the sooner the weight of 2020 will begin to lift.

Here are 5 areas where I’m seeing a lot of resistance in our community; 5 areas where we should stop putting up a front, and 5 areas were we have a lot of room to grow and improve.

1. Dancers Don’t Need Wellness or Mental Health Help

I’ve been preaching and pointing out Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs since March, but if you still don’t know what this is, go read this article and familiarize yourself with it. The entire world is in a state of anxiety right now, and dancers (especially students) are not exempt.

If you don’t have a wellness plan for your students that addresses their mental health, you’re doing them a disservice. Physical learning in the studio (aka traditional dance class) is accelerated and benefitted by a stable emotional and nervous system, which we only get by using self care tools like mindfulness, proper sleep, nutrition and affirmations.

If you don’t know where to start with this, I’ve created just the thing to help you!

2. Someone Else Will Help Dancers With Mental Skills

This is a dangerous assumption. Yes, dance students may get some support around this topic at home, but as a public school teacher, I can tell you that less than half of the teachers I know prioritize mental wellness in their classrooms. You can bet shy pre-teens and teens aren’t starting conversations on their own with their friends on this topic either.

One thing dance teachers often tell me is ‘I wish I’d learned these skills when I was a dancer! They would have helped so much!’ This is your chance to pay it forward. Don’t count on someone else doing it. You have the power to positively influence your students. You have the power to give them the tools, knowledge and habits you wish you had as a young dancer so they can be happy and healthy, inside and outside the dance studio.

3. It’s Not Your Place to Discuss Race in Dance Class

See above about believing that someone else will have these discussions. Race injustice and bias is very real in the dance world, which can only be changed with education and conversation. There are plenty of books you can read, podcasts you can listen to, and courses you can enroll in to navigate these conversations, but do have the conversations.

This topic is also directly related to your BIPOC student’s mental health and wellness - the two go hand in hand, so it’s our duty to keep ourselves informed on this topic so we can continue to learn how to best support our students.

4. Everything Will Go Back to Normal Soon

Our world is going to be very different for quite awhile, friends. I know you’re hoping the answer will be different on this one, hoping that Covid is just a blip, but it’s not. Even if we were to magically cure Covid tomorrow, the ripple effect on our jobs, families, economy and government will be felt for a long time to come.

More challenges will continue to crop up as we navigate our new normal, which is why learning wellness skills like mindfulness are so important. These skills determine how quickly you can bounce back from set backs and challenges, and set an example for your dancers about how to gracefully deal when life gives you lemons.

5. You Need to Lose the Covid Weight

My heart breaks when you post and joke on Facebook about needing to lose the Covid 15. What would you say to one of your students who said this? You’d take them by the shoulders, and tell them that they’re perfect the way they are, that their weight or body size does not determine their worth, and that they are strong, capable and beautiful.

So why won’t you tell yourself that?

I also worry about the example this sets for our dancers. If they hear you making these comments, or see you aggressively poking at your belly as you roll your eyes, what message is that sending them? (It’s sending the message that fat, or increased weight is bad and that they should strive to fit into a cultural ideal that’s completely untenable.)

Please be gentle with yourself. Please use this as an opportunity to question why you feel the need to lose weight, and see this as an invitation to slow down and listen to what your body really wants and really needs.

If you’re ready for the truth serum to these thoughts, I’d love to have you join StudioZen. I designed this program to be a starting point for dance educators who want to help their dancers, mind, body, and spirit.

The good news about these lies is that they can be easily remedied. It all starts with giving yourself credit for how much you’ve done, and how you’ve continued to show up over the past several months, even when it felt really difficult.

Acknowledging that you’v been doing the best you could with what you had takes the pressure off and gives us more breathing room to take on what the future holds, with an open and honest perspective.