The somatic body

Somatic authority can be defined as giving the soma— “that of the body”—authority. That sensations, embodied experiences, and bodily knowledge are trusted as valid sources of insight;  guiding decisions, actions, and self-awareness in both personal, social, and collective contexts. For many dancers somatic authority will play a meaningful role in empowerment and autonomy, actively searched for and lived by some, but rejected by others because of the need to “to tune out inner messages” (Green, 1999) that could possibly hinder the attempts to work towards what is seen in the dance world and/or society as an ideal body.                                                             Research  suggests that mirrors in the classroom may contribute to poor body image (Radella, Keneman, Adame, & Cole, 2014, Radell S. A., 2017, Radell S. A., 2004) skill acquisition, (Radell S. A., 2004) and that the use of them can hinder dancers' ability to focus on their kinaesthetic sensations, limiting technical growth as attention shifts to observing individual body parts in the reflection (Green,1999, Radell S. A., 2020). In my personal experience mirrors played a very minor part in the initial stage of my dance education. There were no mirrors in the regular studio, only on Sundays when we were able to train in the theatre dance studios did I see myself in a mirror. Even then we did not work facing the mirror. However, this lack of confrontation with the mirror certainly did not seem to protect me from developing very negative ideas about my body. The teachers, through critical comparison of our physiques and skills (or lack of them) still managed to produce an environment where negative body-image was rife. When I entered higher professional training at the age of 17 and was confronted daily with mirrors on almost all walls, my negative body image literally exploded, and I carried serious body image- and eating disorders (and the shame of this) for many years into and also past my professional dancing life. Now I can say that I am only ashamed of my feet and am frustrated with my turn-out.  So, all in all, I survived! But I feel I wasted huge amounts of time and energy hating my body and trying to change it, and just like a dancer that Green (1999) quotes, I felt then, and still believe now, that I could have been a better dancer if I had not been so consumed with the shape of my body.                                                                                      As a teacher I have observed how energy depleting body-image problems can be, physical strength, concentration, expression and general well-being seem to be negatively affected. To be honest, I have never come across the ideal body. Perfect turn-out, 180° from the hips does not seem to exist, many factors such as pelvis alignment, tibial torsion and ankle positioning come together to achieve the desired en-dehors (Champion, 2008). What are perfect proportions? Warren (1989, p. 66) shows a photograph of what is maybe seen as the perfect female ballet. I personally find this ideal bland, and my opinion is that only when a dancer begins to dance can one see the true beauty. One thing I would like to point out about this picture from Warren is it appears in the second chapter, very early on in the book. First of all she briefly explains the theory and the tradition, the basics: positions of arms and legs, and elementary moves such and running and walking and the concept of en-dehors. After this immediately the reader is confronted with “The Ideal Female Dancer´s Body”. As if to say, “this is what ballet is, this is how it works, here are the lovely shapes and the special tradition, BUT- don´t bother if you don´t have this body!”. Warren does state that:

 “it is important to remember that there are always certain extraordinary dancers whose exceptional movement quality, technical virtuosity, and charismatic presence as performers have caused audiences to overlook certain aspects of their physiques which, in classical dancers of only average talent, would be considered extremely distracting” (Warren, 1989, p. 65)

In this quote it is suggested that for the extremely talented dancer it is possible to have a difficult and/or unsightly body. What I would like to suggest is that these dancers, who despite their “disabilities” became wonderful dancers, perhaps had teachers who encouraged Somatic Authority, which empowered them and brought out their “charismatic presence”, tapped into their “exceptional movement quality” and supported the development of their “technical virtuosity”.

References

Champion, L. M. (2008). Measurement of turnout in dance research: a critical review. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 12(4), 121-135.

Green, J. (1999). Somatic Authority and the Myth of the Ideal Body in Dance Education. Dance Research Journal, 31(2), 80-100. doi:doi:10.2307/1478333

Radell, S. A. (2004). The impact of mirrors on body image and classroom performance in female college ballet dancers. 8(2), 47-52.

Radell, S. A. (2017). Comparison study of body image satisfaction between beginning-and advanced-level female ballet students. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 21(4), 135-143.

Radell, S. A. (2020). Impact of mirrors on body image of beginning modern and ballet students. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 24(3), 126-134.

Radella, S., Keneman, M., Adame, D. D., & Cole, S. P. (2014). My body and its reflection: a case study of eight dance students and the mirror in the ballet classroom. Research in Dance Education, 15(2), 161-178.

Warren, G. (1989). Classical ballet technique. University Press of Florida.