Dance, Injury, & Identity

The goals for The Green Room were created in a response to research into the relationship between dance, injury, and identity. Below is a breakdown of each element and how they can affect one another.

Dance & Injury

Dancers are no strangers to pain and injury. More likely than not, a dancer will experience injury during the course of their career. The physical nature of dance puts constant stress on the body. Because of the frequency and severity of the injury rate, the focus of recovery remains on the physical health of the dancer within the community. The constant presence of pain and the ever-present “show-must-go-on” culture often makes working through injury an idealized and even encouraged–regardless of the negative effects it can have on mental health.

Dance & Identity

Many dancers begin dancing when they are young, sometimes as early as two years old. Professional training can begin as young as seven years old. Even if a dancer is not or does not want to be a professional, the mental and physical dedication it takes to train and maintain their bodies to safely becomes part of their daily schedule. For many, dance is not seen as a job, but a calling. Those who work towards professional careers do so knowing that their careers will be short and often unstable, but they do so because it is important to them. In doing so, dance becomes a part of a dancer’s core identity–it provides them a schedule for their day, short and long term goals, and even a framework of values to live their lives by in a way that many occupations do not.

Injury & Identity

The accelerated nature of a dance career often only draws more attention to the slow speed of recovery. A dancer’s schedule can feel like a day-to-day survival game of how much you can put your body through before it gives out, and this constant reevaluation of bodily awareness is slowed to a halt when you are forced to cease exercise. It is difficult to disconnect your view of yourself from your view of your body, because the nature of dance forces them to be one in the same. When their body is injured, a dancer may feel that they have lost a piece of their identity because of this nearly indistinguishable connection between their physical ability, their career, and themselves.