Eating Disorders And Dance

EATING DISORDERS AND DANCE

Observation Paper on

Eating Disorders and Dance

On June 14, 2006 an observation of a Weber County School District drill team took place during their summer training session. The team consisted of 24 adolescent, high school girls; each girl differed from the next by way of hair color, skin color, height and weight along with other character traits. When the group first walked into the dance room for their morning training session they all had on the same outfits. As a group, according to the K. Lamar, they are required to wear body forming dance wear in an attempt to unify the team by not allowing any of the girls to standout from other team members and to make sure their body line is correct (personal communication, June 14, 2007). From first glance it seemed that the team was unified as a whole but during closer observation one thing was drastically different in some of the girls. A fair majority of the girls looked as if they were at a healthy weight for a particular height; however there was a few that did look severely underweight. The girls that appeared underweight seemed to form a group of their own within the drill team and were often singled out by other team members as being too Ð''skinny' or unhealthy. Additionally, the adolescent girls that were underweight were made fun of and talked about by other members of the team, thus leading them to form their own clique within the drill team. The girls that formed their own clique never confronted the other members of the team but rather kept to themselves. All of these observations and its findings could exhibit signs of eating disorders which is leading to group separation and self isolation within the drill team.

Eating Disorders: Eating disorders are one of the key health issues facing young women today. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health currently 1-4% of all young women in the United States are affected by eating disorders with anorexia nervosa ranking as the third most common chronic illness among

adolescent females in the United States (Eating Disorders, 2006). The two most common eating disorders for weight loss are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa causes an overwhelming fear of being overweight and a drive to be thin, leading to a restriction of calories

that can lead to being underweight where as bulimia nervosa is a loss of control and binge eating, followed by purging behaviors (Eating Disorders, 2003). Some of the factors that put adolescents at risk for eating disorders is participating in certain competitive activities, especially dance (Eating Disorders, 2003).

Eating Disorders and Dance: The beginning of the observation started with the girls warming up and making sure they were all in the same outfits. These outfits were body forming in order for the advisor to see the movement and line of the girl's bodies. In addition the required outfits reveled that some were severely underweight and unhealthy looking. These underweight girls appeared to have very little body fat with their bones (ribs and hips) protruding from under their skin, which could suggest an eating disorder. K. Lamar stated that she noticed a few of the girls losing some weight after joining the drill team and has met with them personally to discuss their weight loss (personal communication, June 14, 2006). Considering that the group adolescents are in high school they are within the age group (fourteen or fifteen) when eating disorders commonly develop. Also, eating disorders are at a high rate within the dance world because of its competitive nature and the type of body one must have in order to be successful (The Incidence of Anorexia in ballet dancers, n.d.). Dancing has a long history starting with the origin of the dancers' body in the eighteenth century. The female dancer's physique was drastically different than her predecessors; she became shorter and more delicate than her male counterparts (The Incidence of Anorexia in ballet dancers, n.d.). The ballet world conceived of a new body type for the dancer, one who was skinny and short, which sets mandatory requirements for anyone wishing to succeed in the world of dance (The Incidence of Anorexia in ballet dancers, n.d.).

Often times these girls spend hours in front of full length mirrors practicing their dance routines, critiquing their movements and trying to fix what they perceive is wrong, including their weight. According to K. Lamar the girls on drill team do not have to meet any specific weight requirements to be on the team (personal communication, June 14, 2006). As part of a school sponsored group they perform in front of their peers in form fitting costumes and considering that they are adolescents these girls have a hard time accepting their bodies and want to change to fit what they think others find appealing. "To many adolescents, how they are seen by their peers is the most important aspect of their lives (Santrock, 2007, p311). According to John W. Santrock (2007) adolescents go through Erickson's "identity versus identity confusion" in an attempt to decide who they are (p. 151). Maryna Vaschenko (2005) states that as an adolescent move beyond the primary influences of the family they begin to develop individual identities, looking to their peers as guidance systems. Another factor could be that during adolescence teens are faced with many challenges, this case being drill team, and the pressures to maintain the Ð''perfect body' may lead them to focus on external appearance leading to weight loss attempts that may cause eating disorders (Vaschenko, 2005).

Eating Disorders and Group Separation: As the observation progressed through the practice session there was a noticeable separation between the girls that could be suspected of an eating disorder and the rest of the team. During the practice the girls were asked to pair off into groups of two and to perform in front of the rest of the team for critiquing purposes and when the groups were formed the Ð''skinny' girls were the first to form groups with one and another and were often talked about while performing in front of their team members. Over the course of the practice many of the team members voiced their concerns about some of the girls being too Ð''skinny', about their health and the way that they looked; by commenting on particular individuals the team is creating a further separation between the two groups. As an adolescent develops they try to find who they are, thus they tend to pick friends that they share a commonality and create a clique, which was evident