Challenging Stereotypes of Women Dancers
By Judi Dalati and Sandra Abdelbaki
“Lose 30 Kilos and come back, we’ll hire you then.” That was the response of a choreographer to an overweight woman after auditioning at a dance competition in Beirut.
Lea Al-Hajj is one of the many girls who didn’t meet those standards. She faced discrimination because of her body shape.“The number of auditions I got rejected in because of my weight made me question my passion for dancing,” says Lea. However, modern dance is trying to challenge these stereotypes.
“I think ballerinas standards are not strictly followed in modern or contemporary dance,” says Vera Jurdi, a dance teacher and choreographer at the Russian Cultural Center.“ When recruiting dancers, my colleagues still look for skinny tall women, supposing they are fitter and better dancers physically,” adds Vera.
Women, in this case, are being left with no choice other than losing weight. In most cases, physical appearance is being prioritized over talent, passion, and energy.
“Whenever I walk into an audition I can feel the strange looks at me, without saying any word they imply that I don’t belong here,” says Lea. Feeling judged because of being overweight will certainly affect the dancer’s potentials.
“Being placed in a judgmental environment will negatively affect any performance. Reminding someone of his/her insecurities is harmful not only psychologically, but it also reflects on the performance,” explained Maha Sbaa, a psychology scholar at the University of Bologna. Nowadays, the media are probably helping to embrace the stereotypes of women’s ’dancers’ bodies. The images of thin and tall females are always promoted, specifically via social media platforms.
Additionally, social media platforms have created a space for people to judge with the use of inappropriate and hate language. Cyberbullying against overweight female dancers is being quite notable.
“I had people commenting on my dance videos in a very hateful way,” says Lea. “They said I should quit dancing and do something else,” she adds.
The young dancer explains that the repetitive series of those comments got her into depression and made her quit dancing for a while.
“I realized that I quit doing something I love, my only passion in life.”
However, being addressed as “fat” helped Lea to rethink about the stereotypes and how they are meant to be broken.
What is the solution?
“Changing starts from the decision makers, they should start recruiting dancers based on their talent, not their body shape,” Vera says. “ They’re the ones who set the norms and stereotypes.”
She suggested that new policies should be made to recruit dancers from all sizes. She also emphasizes the important role the media play in this issue.
As for Lea, she decided to continue dancing. Later on and after a lot of practice, she became a Hip-Hop dancing teacher and began performing in shows as well.
“ One of my goals is to create a dancing platform where females from all sizes can feel free and confident,” says Lea. “ I believe that my role is reminding the young girls to value their talents and passion.”
Feminists say that there is no term such as “ dance body”. Every woman should be able to dance freely without being judged and discriminated. It’s a constructed analogy that prevents a lot of qualified women from dancing.
The concept of tall and skinny female dancers is absorbed in the industry to the extent that some dance institutions only have one size of the costumes.
“When I hear about a job offering I ask first about the costumes because I already know that they won’t fit in,” Lea says.“ In Lebanon, the chances where the institution designs customized outfits are rare. It’s either the costumes fits you or you’re out.”
It’s noted that modern dance is being an open type of dancing that depends less on body stereotype, compared to classical dance.
Fighting stereotypes of women’s bodies in the dancing industry is essential. It doesn’t matter if you weigh 50 Kilos or 60 Kilos. What matters is how passionate you are. Passion is the essence of dancing regardless of what the body looks like. Dancing resembles freedom and it shouldn’t be constrained to body measures that are enforced by society.
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