Support for Mental Health and Body Image

At Fireflies Dance, we want everyone to feel confident, safe and supported when attending our dance classes. In light of recent news coverage on ballet training, body image and eating disorders, we have put together a resource list for students and parents/carers to help you find support in developing positive mental health in relation to body image.

Image: One Dance UK

Remember, your body is yours to live in for a lifetime and taking care of yourself is nourishment for your self-esteem. This will help you to create healthy boundaries, and gain a healthy perspective that will also have a positive influence on the culture in your dance classes. With a conscious effort to build a healthy body image and increase self-esteem, you will be able to balance out any negativity. For example, if you’re comparing yourself negatively to your classmates, try focussing on other things:

• Remember non-body related aspects of yourself

• What are your strengths and values?

• Focus on the progress you are making

• Think about how your personality contributes to others around you

When you come back to these core aspects of yourself, you can focus on continually improving and positively influencing the world around you, and look beyond the body shape of other dancers too. Notice things like:

• Their personality

• How they work

• How they handle challenges

• The ways they inspire you

• Compliment them on non-body related things

Below is a resource list for further information and support.

Body Image and Eating Disorder Specific:

Support for eating disorders and body image | One Dance UK - This document provides support for eating disorders, disordered eating, and energy concerns among dancers.

Ready to Boost Your Body Image? Start With These 3 Small Steps (pointemagazine.com) - Tips for reframing how you think about your body. Pointe Magazine also has many other interesting, inspiring articles for dancers on a range of topics.

Dance Nutrition - Dancer Nutrition Improves Health and Wellbeing - Free resources and information for students, parents and carers relating to dance and health, nutrition, and body confidence. See this article Dancers & Disordered Eating - Dance Nutrition for specific information regarding eating disorders.

Advice for parents – Eating disorders - NHS (www.nhs.uk) - Advice for parents/carers whose child has been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Get information and support - Beat (beateatingdisorders.org.uk) - Leading eating disorder charity in the UK for information and support.

What is an eating disorder? (rethink.org) - An overview of what eating disorders are, symptoms and treatment.

National Eating Disorders Association- NEDA - Support for individuals and families dealing with eating disorders.

Mental Health Support:

YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds - Help and support for children and young people with their mental health.

Help4Dancers – Apps on Google Play - Useful app for dancers with information and advice on developing positive and strong mindsets.

United Kingdom | Self-care tips (royalacademyofdance.org) - Self-care tips for young dancers from the RAD.

Our best mental health tips - backed by research | Mental Health Foundation - Tips and advice for developing positive mental health.

Mental Health | nidms - Free useful resources on various mental health topics, for students and parents/carers.

If you have any concerns relating to mental health and body image, either yourself or someone you know, please don't hesitate to contact us.