Every person engages themselves in some or the other recreational activities to enhance spiritual amusement and practice self-care. These activities like painting, singing, writing poems, can also develop into professional work where one puts an immense amount of effort with intense passion in order to succeed as well as shine out. Among all powerful skilful pursuits, dancing is one of the most alluring and delightful creative expressions of the soul. On one hand, it is associated with a release of pent-up emotional energy in a rhythmic artistic manner and on the other hand, it can create extreme strain on one’s physical as well as psychological well-being. Dancers face multiple scenarios where it influences their mental well-being in a highly negative way. The specific situation can consist of environmental factors like physical injuries caused due to accidents or degenerative diseases. Such incidents can induce severe emotional distress among dancers, as with limited movements, their sense of identity is disrupted. The mandatory suggestion of ‘bed-rest’ is a difficult reality for them to accept and the intensity of this emotional shock lingers for several weeks. There is also gradual development of frustration, anger, pessimism and an attitude of despair and worthlessness. 

Performance anxiety is one of the major contributing factors that lead to several mental health consequences. Here the high expectations of perfectionism can easily build an apprehension and uneasiness. It has been reported that there is a presence of both cognitive and somatic anxiety before a dance performance begins. While it is believed that little degree of anxiety can result in better performance due to a highly vigilant state of mind, however, if a dancer experiences that he or she is not in control of their physical entity while being anxious, then they interpret the stress response in a negative manner which impacts their overall health and functionality.

The stress of competition is another noticeable factor that has the probability to stand as an obstacle for dancers. The event of competition can precede dancers going through an emotional turmoil in their interpersonal relationships. In these circumstances, the stress to excel at a competition increases as the focus is divided between two negative stressors. Dancers, before a performance also might have a preoccupation regarding their family’s ill health which again acts as an extra stressor along with the stress of competition. An over-exaggeration of training hours to set into a choreography before competitive events can also generate a state of burnout. The constant exposure to a series of stressors can produce cortisol and its prolonged maintenance can cause long term damage to the immune system, leading to depression and fatigue. The series, ‘tiny pretty things’, has in the form of fiction narrated the realities of struggles faced by dancers. It has attempted to portray how achieving success drives the dancers to make impulsive decisions, from consuming drugs for ignoring injuries to going to great lengths in order to sabotage others’ performances. This shows the level of mental pressure that is created to attain victory and reach the point of being the best, that might threaten their psychological sanity. 

The toll of perfectionism in dancers is another significant factor that impacts dancers’ mental health in a negative direction. They are habituated to practice in front of a mirror for long hours which sometimes drives them to focus on minute details of their mistakes and shortcomings. This strongly creates a negative self-image which lowers their both self-esteem and self-efficacy. There develops a sense of fixating on their appearances and capabilities which can lead to disordered eating if not eating disorders where they force themselves to fit into an ideal distorted image of attaining perfectionism. According to Sanna Nordin-Bates, a researcher from The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences who has specialized in studying perfectionism in dancers, psychologists generally break perfectionism down into two categories: Perfectionistic striving is reaching for high goals and working very hard to meet them; perfectionistic concerns involve the rumination and harsh personal critique. While dancers need to be disciplined in their practice to be successful, perfectionism left unchecked can have serious consequences. The famous psychological movie ‘black swan’, has highlighted a similar case where the protagonist, who is a professional ballet dancer, goes through an anxious desperate desire to overcome her feelings of inferiority through dance and meet her ‘subjective ideal’ criteria of perfectionism. It is a poetic representation of the character’s suffering due to the immense pressure subjected to self. 

Consequently, it can be said there are a series of complex challenges that dancers face which can be managed by understanding the importance of self-care through sleeping adequately, practising calm breathing exercises and limiting overthinking. Accepting oneself thoroughly along with one’s flaws is another critical element along with visualizing their past successes that can easily act as a motivating factor. It is also necessary to focus on positive feedback, grasp proper time management and avoid prolonged self-criticism. Family support plays a crucial role in improving negative attitudes among dancers. Hence, it can be said that dance as an act of catharsis relaxes an individual by giving them the space to overtly express the repressed emotions in a creative manner. From a psychological perspective, it is absolutely healthy to refresh oneself through the use of art like dancing, as it enhances their memory and mood. However, it is essential to focus on maintaining a balance between investing a dedicated degree of discipline and pushing oneself to the extreme edge of pain, in order to achieve an unattainable goal. An adequate amount of stress for any work or sport helps to stay more alert, motivated and gain a healthy competitive edge. Therefore, it needs to be maintained at an optimum level so as to allow one to perform in a relaxed, confident and focused manner. Emphasis should be given to remind oneself of the initial reasons that made them fall in love with dancing and set realistic goals instead of rushing towards an illusion of perfectionism.

– Urveez Kakalia and Debanjana Banerjee.