The role of Shame in dance.

 

Continuing my search for my literature review, I came across a more 'traditional' piece of research today, discussing the effects of shame on pre-professional and professional dancers. 

I'm noticing throughout my thematic analysis, that I'm picking up on various texts that signal low self esteem of dancers, both throughout their training and then into their professional careers. Out of curiosity I decided to see if other in the dance research 'environment' had commented on this. 

A number of articles in fact did come up, but I found a piece in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science(Vol 22, Number 2, 2018), that discussed how shame plays an important role in the rate of anxiety experienced by dancers. Not only this, but this particularly study also highlighted how exposure to childhood adversity, can increase a dancers potential of developing long term anxiety. 

I found this particularly interesting as I began to reflect on my personal experiences through my childhood, as well as the number of children I currently come across in my line of work. Since working in state education, I have become acutely aware of 'misbehaving' children, simply displaying anxious behaviour but unable to articulate their feelings effectively. 

Typically, within the school environment, shame is used to deter those students as well as their peers to behave poorly. However, I personally think we (adults) expect too much from children and young adults, and forget that we weren't always able to communicate our anxieties and frustrations. I have used dance as a tool to both allow a child to attempt to communicate the causes of their anxiety, but also as a way to release the tension caused by prolonged periods of stress. 

It is quite likely, that these children experience 'adversity' in a range of ways, including the ones used in this study, and I'm curious to understand how intervention at an early age could help 'buffer' the effects of anxiety as they develop into adults. However, it would also be useful to know how professional dancers with low-self esteem, have managed to navigate a career, that is known to use shame as a method to achieve. Is a successful dance career only possible with extreme standards, expectations and pressure applied to individuals?