Societal norms inflict strict standards on the female body. There are pressures to be a certain height or a certain weight, to have specific features, or lack others. For years, women’s bodies have been a topic of conversation in all aspects of life, but they are especially prevalent in the dance world.
Growing up as a dancer, body standards are strictly enforced. As dancers, our bodies are our instrument, and they are critiqued constantly. There is no room for error; the shapes you make and the exact time that you make them have to not only be perfect, but they have to be exactly identical to the people around you. In dance we spend hours staring into mirrors in skin-tight clothing. We wear the same uniform as those around us, and are constantly compared to each other. From the point of our fingertips to the strength of our ankles and toes, your entire body is expected to be perfect. The strength, stamina, and perfection that dance requires forces you to stay active, but under very specific restraints. When I stopped dancing after 15 years, and lost the forced structure of activity and exercise, I didn’t know how to do it on my own, but I knew I had to find something.
Change is scary, particularly when you have been doing something for most of your life. The gym can also be intimidating, particularly when you are someone who has never done it before. Even more so as a person who has only ever been taught to be one kind of active. As much as it was scary, it was equally as liberating. The gym became the new place where I expressed myself. Instead of feeling through prescribed choreography, I worked out anger by lifting heavy weights. Rather than having to follow a strict class structure, sometimes I go to the gym with no plan and just do what strikes me in the moment. Instead of having to listen to whatever music a teacher plays during warm up, I pick the playlist that matches exactly how I am feeling at that exact moment.
In dance, all the milestones end while you are young. You stop learning new steps and techniques and start having to perfect them. All of your progress is about how many turns you can complete or how flexible you are. But in the gym, you make your own milestones. Whether you are seeking to run faster or farther or wanting to lift heavier or more often, the goals are yours to set. You are not required to strive for perfection or compare yourself to those around you because there is no one right answer.
However, routines in dance aren’t the direct opposite of routines in the gym. Dance taught me discipline, technique, structure, and precision, which are things you need to be consistent with in the gym. Without proper technique and form you get injured. Without discipline you will never meet your goals. Dance taught me everything I needed to be successful in the gym, and the gym brought me the freedom that I didn’t get from dance.