Counselling for Dancers blog

[Terry Hyde]

I am new to this forum and about once a week I will be posting a link to my blog "Counselling for Dancers".  As you will see from my profile I was a dancer and am now a psychotherapist and now I have put the knowledge of the two careers together.  Vastly more money is spent by the larger ballet companies on helping dancers with their physical issues than on their mental well being. 

I have recently started a website and blog and have been asked by One Dance UK to give a talk at their conference in London in November.  You will see from my blogs that I will give links in weeks to come,  that ex dancers who have written guest articles for me still carry emotional issues about their training and performing days.  I hope that you will find the articles of interest, for which I will post individual links for each article, and hope that you will comment both here and on my blog.

My first blog post link in this forum, https://wp.me/p8pUbI-G discusses whether or nor the discipline of ballet training needed from childhood is positive or negative.

 

[xanthe]

Really interesting articles!

 

Just wondered whether you think that early ballet training leads to certain psychological traits developing - or whether it's a chicken and egg situation where children with/or with the predisposition for particular traits such as perfectionism, OCD, hyper-focus etc are the ones that have the capability to be accepted for this kind of intensive training? 

 

 

[Terry Hyde]

Thank you for insightful comment Xanthe.  We are all, to a certain extent predisposed to many of traits.  If the environment is right, whether positive or not, then these traits will develop.  So Ballet training could be one of the environments, but also include in this the parents' need for their child to do well (pushy parents), even if the child either doesn't have enough talent to do well or is only doing ballet to please their parents.

 

The list you gave in your comment are mostly autistic traits, which a student dancer needs to become a professional dancer.  As you are aware, autism (neuro diversity) is a very wide spectrum and comes from the workings of the left brain, the analytical side.  Whereas ballet, movement to music or sound, is from the right brain, the artistic side.  So a dancer who could be high on the autistic spectrum but who is also a dancer who can feel emotions in their work is balanced in both left and right brain.  Being aware of these traits and how it effects you and your relationship with others is very important as without that knowledge of self it will be detrimental to both you and your relationships.  There is more to this and I will write an article in my blog exploring it.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Very interesting being the parent of an autistic dancer & an autistic singer/actor. 

[Terry Hyde]

In replying to Xanthe's comments I was referring to autistic traits rather than a diagnosis.  We all have autistic traits to a certain degree but here is an explanation from the National Autistic Society regarding Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

"The characteristics of autism vary from one person to another, but in order for a diagnosis to be made, a person will usually be assessed as having had persistent difficulties with social communication and social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours, activities or interests since early childhood, to the extent that these "limit and impair everyday functioning". "

 

I have a score of 18 in the PsychCentral's Autism/Asperger's online test (this is not a diagnistic tool), where with 30 or over there is a likelyhood that you have ASD.  My score is due to me being a pedant, perfectionist and a few other traits, but I am not autistic as I am gregarious, I don't have repetitive behaviours and those traits I do have do not impair my everyday funtioning

So Picturesinthefirelight I am not sure whether you think I am implying that you two children, due to my comments, are autistic or whether they have had a diagnosis of ASD.  Perhaps you could clarify.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I meant that, as a parent of two children with an autistic spectrum disorder & the triad of impairments  (1 with Aspergers before it was removed as a term from the diagnostic whatever it's called & one with autism with mild PDA), who are both young performers, one in vocational school, your explanation about the left & right hand sides of the brain was very interesting. 

Edited May 14, 2017 by Picturesinthefirelight

[Terry Hyde]

Here is another post from my blog.  It is the first of a series of Q&A posts from questions put to me by both dance students and professional dancers.  It was posted a couple of weeks ago during Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK.

 

Here is the link https://wp.me/p8pUbI-3w

 

Please contact me if you have any questions regarding any of my posts or any other subject you wish to bring up.

 

Terry