Sunday 10th March 2013 (Part 2)
Happy Mother's Day!
I have been doing further reading and research into the mental health of dance students. Seeing ‘mental health’ may alarm people as they could immediately think of illness but I want to explore the mental state of a dance/Arts student’s mind.
Although not linked to the mentality of a dancer, this was an interesting read:
“...even some dancers are unaware of the interweaving of physicality, sensibility and intelligence”. I agree. Some just see it as their job to give a physical performance, others (and I hope most) become emotionally involved. Dancers do require a specific intelligence. The abilities to become some one else, remember an entire two hour performance and to allow their minds to let their bodies do the most unnatural things.
I have studied the idea of stress in students and how it can affect their performance and other abilities within their working environment.
“Stress is typically assessed through stressful life events, or life stressor, checklists. These measures include positive events such as personal accomplishments and negative events such as loss of a loved one. The basic premise of this area of research is that life stressors involve a change in lifestyle that requires adaptation or adjustment, which in turn requires energy. An event becomes stressful when an individual appraises the demands of the change as exceeding his or her capacity to cope with it effectively. It is believed that the accumulation of life stressors taxes an individual’s coping resources, thus increasing his or her susceptibility to fatigue, illness, or injury. When examining life stress, it is critical to include both major life events that are common to the general population as well as those day-to-day stressors that we encounter in our particular roles. For athletes or dancers therefore, an investigation of stress should include general stressors, such as illness of a loved one, in addition to daily athletic or dance-specific stressors such as interpersonal difficulties with instructors or time demands between school and training.
Prior research has demonstrated significant relationships between psychological stress and illness as well as stress and injury in sport and dance....
...Not only is psychological stress linked to injury and illness, but evidence suggests that the personality construct of perfectionism is linked to both physiological and psychological disorders including coronary heart disease, anorexia nervosa, depression, dysmorphophobia, and ulcerative colitis.”
Donna Krasnow, M.S., Lynda Mainwaring, Ph.D., C.Psych., and Gretchen Kerr, Ph.D. ‘Journal of Dance Medicine & Science’ (Volume 3, Number 2, 1999)
The idea that a lot of stress starts from injury hadn’t actually come to mind but since reading this, I realise that yes, it does. Several students who are unfortunate enough to gain injuries often feel left out, neglected and become frustrated that they can not participate and are falling behind. As well as dealing with criticism, injury, pressures etc, some will have to also take on personal issues, family related for example, on top of it all. I know that many would hide these issues, not discuss them meaning that staff will not be aware of their sensitive and vulnerable state. When feeling this way, people are less likely to be strong enough to take negative comments well which could cause them to feel worse about any situation.
The same article also states: “...perfectionists are motivated by a fear of failure, and thus, any evaluated performance is viewed as an opportunity to fail rather than to succeed.”
Again, I can relate to this. During training, and through out our careers (as dancers), we are constantly watching ourselves, others, being praised and criticised and just want to be the best we can. Nothing ever seems perfect and there is always room for improvement/correction. With this in mind there is a non stop need for perfection and feeling that nothing is ever good enough can have a negative effect on our mental health which could then begin to alter our physical performance.
Researching further, I discovered how mental health is dealt with within certain dance colleges/schools. I began with ‘de Theatreschool - Dans, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten’.
They have a ‘Dance and Health’ course which appears to cover all areas that can be associated with a negative frame of mind such as injury, nutrition and psychological support!
Such a course would be excellent to run along side dance training in schools. Students would be aware of the causes of what makes them anxious or wanting to be perfect etc and would be able to overcome these problems and know how to deal with a situation should it arise. If only we could all gain this knowledge, it would make our entire training experience so much better and understandable.
I then went on to find the ‘Guidlines on Supporting Students with Mental Health Difficulties’ produced by the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama which deals with a selection of Arts schools.
It is excellent and I feel that every school for Arts training should go by these guidelines. It has proved to me that some schools do in fact have systems in place which will clearly support and deal with their students in the appropriate way.
Taken from the CDD guidelines:
“Mental health issues for students studying performing arts
Performing arts training can present particular challenges for students who are mostly in the vulnerable age group of 18 to 25 (or 16 in the case of some of our dance affiliates). Not only is the training we offer physically rigorous and demanding, but achieving the high level of artistry and creativity we seek can release many emotional and psychological issues for our students. In a busy schedule there is sometimes little time or space for quiet reflection. Much of their work is collaborative and failures for a performing artist or stage practitioner are always public”
I could not agree more. Students do undergo a busy, strict regime where there is in fact little time for yourself to be able to take a step back and think about your day, feelings, what is to come etc. This section also mentions about failures being public.. as discussed earlier, this is how some of us felt. If something went wrong in class or in performance, all fellow students or an entire audience would also be aware of this. The same applies for corrections or criticisms in front of a class.
It also comes to my attention when they say “...They may be unaware that they have a problem, aware but feel that they have to cope with it on their own, unwilling to admit it to others or they hope the problem will go away on its own.”
During my own training experience and having seen it in the results of my survey, many of us will keep our feelings to ourselves and should we express them, it would only be to those closest to us who, all in all, can’t do much more than offer positive support. Having the confidence to admit you are struggling with the mental strains of the industry is the first big step, once that has been done, you can move on to solving any problems.
I shall refer back to these guidelines again, they are a strong base, a good source of information for what I want to do and study. They prove that mental health issues and struggles with stresses in the profession do exist but can be helped and resolved with the correct support. Next step is getting this very much needed system across the whole board of Arts schools.
