Review of ‘Advice For Dancers’

‘Advice For Dancers’ is a Q&A section of ‘Dance Magazine’. I am reviewing one question and answer segment from the December 2008 edition of ‘Dance Magazine’. The advice is given by Linda Hamilton. Ph.D., a lecture and psychologist in private practice and also a former New York City Ballet dancer.

The question I am reviewing comes from a 20 year old, female student dancer named Lauren who has aspirations to be in a ballet company. Lauren states that takes 2 classes a day and eats 3 meals per day with whole grain carbohydrates and lean sources of protein and dairy. She says she also snacks on fruit and nuts. According to Lauren she eats 1200 calories per day. And her question is whether or not she is eating the right amount.

The advice Hamilton give to her is that she is doing well to eat nutritious food yet the quantity is too low. She recommends Lauren eats between 2000 and 2700 calories due to her age and level of exercise. However, if Lauren wants to lose weight she should never dip below her BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) because all that will do is slow her metabolism down. She gives web address which will calculate her BMR for her. Finally, she refers Lauren to perhaps seek advice from a dietician who specialises in dancers.

This piece is relevant to my inquiry because Lauren is writing in to seek advice about her diet and perhaps this shows that she is unable to obtain nutritional advice from other sources. Whether or not dancers feel they get enough advice on this topic and whether they know how to best eat for their health and performance is one aspect I am looking into specifically for my inquiry. As the research in another piece I reviewed, ‘Body composition, weight control and nutrition in dancers’, showed dancers wanted to be healthy but lacked the guidance on how. That research was done in 1996 but the piece I am currently reviewing is from 2008. Does this mean that this guidance is still lacking?

There is no way to tell the answer to that question from this piece because it is far too limited and basic. There is only one girl in question not hundreds like in the research piece. Also, it could be argued that what she does know about the kinds of food she is eating has insight. She is not, for example, cutting out carbohydrates.

I think the advice given by Hamilton is helpful to dancers but she knows her limits in the field and refers Lauren to other sources, which in itself, is helpful. However, despite Hamilton’s experience in the field of dance and psychology she is not a dietician and therefore her advice can only go so far. If Lauren had asked a dietician perhaps the answer she got would have been different.

Also, in this piece Hamilton says,

“Because ballet dancers generally need to weigh less compared to the general population”,

Showing that it is a given that ballet dancers need to be light. It is interesting that Hamilton danced at the NYC Ballet because in another piece I reviewed, ‘Frozen Landscapes: A Foucauldian genealogy of the ideal dancer’s body’, the author Ritenburg uses Balanchine’s ideas of ‘perfect’ dancers in the NYC Ballet to explain why ballet dancers look the way they do. If Hamilton practiced what she preaches i.e. if she used the advice she gives to Lauren and was healthy enough to perform at her best yet slim enough to fit the NYC Ballet’s ideals, then she is probably a great source of information.