Body Perspectives: Re-evaluating the Ideal

This is not a conference about appearance. It is a conference about how body image affects participation, wellbeing, performance, health and culture in dance, and what we can do about it. Attendees leave with evidence-based knowledge, practical tools, meaningful connections, and concrete actions they can implement immediately.

Info: A professional dancer's lived experience navigating disordered eating in vocational school and early on in his professional career. Discussing causation, the visceral and emotional experience of relative energy deficiency, and tools used to find a path toward a healthy relationship with body image and food.

Info: Concurrent sessions will run from 12:00-12:45, and repeat from 12:45-1:30

Info: The session will examine how puberty and adolescent development intersect with the unique demands and cultures of dance settings, highlighting what current research tells us about body image, maturation, wellbeing and participation. Drawing on qualitative research with dance teachers and young dancers, alongside insights from the Growing up in Dance (GuiDANCE) project and network, the presentation will explore how maturity timing, changing bodies and dance training environments can shape young people’s experiences.

Info: Dancers can view pain and body dissatisfaction as normal parts of their art. This can create a risky cycle where negative body image drives overtraining, and physical injury triggers poor mental health.
This session explores the complex interaction between psychological well-being and physical health in professional dance. Jonny will share research on training load & injury in dance and how body image may contribute to this. Attendees will gain an understanding of the strategies a professional ballet company uses to manage these issues, learn some practical tools to spot early warning signs of Relative Energy Deficiency in Dance and hear about lessons learnt from Jonny in this space.

Info: Body image plays a powerful role in shaping a dancer's relationship with food, influencing what, when, and how much they eat. A dancer's ability to apply nutrition knowledge is often influenced by the balance they feel between pursuing performance and managing the pressures associated with appearance and perceived body ideals.
For some dancers, challenges around fuelling stem from uncertainty about what their body needs to support training, recovery and performance. For others, the picture is more complex. Pressures to look a certain way, comments that connect success to weight or body shape, and environments that place value on appearance all contribute to unhelpful relationships with food.
The consequences can extend far beyond nutrition. Under-fuelling, low energy availability disordered eating and eating disorders can influence health, wellbeing, injury risk, recovery, performance, career longevity and quality of life. Yet these outcomes rarely arise from a single factor.

Info: This panel will bring together perspectives on body image from across the dance ecology. Panellists will be invited to share their experiences and views on how body image affects participation, wellbeing, performance, health and culture in dance, and what we can do to support healthier dance environments and experiences.

Info: After a day of research, lived experience and honest conversation, this closing session turns insight into action. It's an upbeat, practical and encouraging look at what change can look like, whatever your role, and how to start from where you have the agency, confidence and scope to make a difference. Alongside the speaker's own perspective, you'll hear from organisations already putting positive change into practice, with real examples of what's possible across the dance sector. You'll leave energised, with ideas you can take straight back to your studio, school, company or practice.

Event venue & nearby stays

Elmhurst Ballet School, 249 Bristol Road, Birmingham, United Kingdom

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