Almost every dancer has had an issue with their appearance at some part of their training or career. I have seen by reading other BAPP students' blogs, that image seems very important to us as performers. Both Ross Dunning and Hayley Jayne Bence question which is more likely to get you a job, being a talented dancer or looking good?
I want to take my inquiry further and look at the effects of what such pressures on looking good can do to dancers within my area of practice, concentrating specifically on weight and being slim. Over the last three years I have worked in cabaret shows to cruise ship productions to pantomimes I shall 'draw on existing knowledge' (Kahn and O'Rourke 2004) from all these contracts to look into my inquiry. The knowledge I have gained from working in these productions is informal and transdisciplinary because I have learned it while in a working environment.
So, why is being slim so important within my area of practice? Are you more likely to get cast if you are slim? From a personal point of view, every contract I have done has required me to wear small outfits often showing legs and stomach which makes me want to keep in shape because I do not want to look fat in my costumes. I think I have put it down to the idea that an audience would only want to see thin girls on stage, but is this true? Would an audience mind what size the dancers they were watching are?
The issue is how do we know what slim is when everybody is a different shape and size to begin with? I have yet to do a contract where all of the dancers are happy with their weight. In fact most of the contracts I have done have had at least one dancer who is currently dealing with an eating disorder or has been in the past. I wonder how many dancers are dealing with eating disorders of some description? And I wonder how many dancers are genuinely happy and contented with their size and weight?
