`Not Just Any Body' Debates Balance in Dancers' Lives.

DANCE, in its myriad forms, is becoming safer and saner for students, or at least that was the overall sense as the Not Just Any Body conference drew to a close in Toronto. Each session of the three-day conference reinforced the idea that the autocratic "dancer as instrument" concept has been replaced by "dancer as perishable commodity," and that the goals of excellence and wellbeing can work in tandem for the education and growth of dancers.

The conference, held jointly in Toronto, Canada, and The Hague, Netherlands Nov. 12-14, was global in scope. Designed to advance health, well-being, and excellence in dance and dancers, its steering committee was comprised of four partners: The National Ballet School of Canada, and in the Netherlands, Theatre Instituut Nederland, Stichting Gezondheidszorg voor Dansers, and the Holland Dance Festival. During the conference, the satellite feed reached institutions around the world whose participants could fax in questions. There was a joint satellite session each day with speakers, panelists, question-and-answer sessions, and workshops in each city. The days were divided in their focus--Friday on excellence, Saturday on dance, and Sunday on the future.

On Friday, New York dance writer Deborah Jowitt spoke first in The Hague and fired the big guns. "If all were well in Western theatrical dance," she said, "we wouldn't be here." Dance oldtimers--in Toronto, at least--took issue with Jowitt's presentation and grumbled that the conference was attacking ballet in particular.

Toronto-based Jungian analyst Marion Woodman received cheers for her poetic paean to the archetypes of dance. She warned that "deadly perfection" can be a killer. Another Toronto panelist, American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, described his forty years of research into defining the optimal creativity that he calls "flow." In a state of flow, he said, artists lose track of reality, process takes priority over goals, and challenges and skills achieve a perfect union. If achieving the ecstasy of flow is what artists crave, he suggested, they must not imperil their health in its pursuit, particularly if challenge and skill level are out of balance.

Belgian philosopher-anthropologist Patricia de Martelaere spoke from The Hague on the idea of "scars"--that once a dancer is injured, perfect health is illusory; the organism has been permanently affected. She also debunked a Western belief that health is synonymous with mediocrity and suffering with art. Jowitt said society must alter its dangerous expectations of virtuosity in dancers, while Woodman added that the audience must learn to accept the sacredness of the body.

In Saturday's keynote address, Dance Magazine Executive Editor Richard Philp spoke eloquently about dance as history, and how today's dancers have finally found their own voice, and that the rise of dance medicine has helped enormously in the prevention and care of injuries. Philp also expressed concern for young people's need for instant gratification, an issue that came up many times at the conference as audience members charged that young people are not willing to pay their dues for fame and glory. The Sunday speaker, Philippe Braunschweig, founder of the Prix de Lausanne and the International Organization for the Transition of Professional Dancers, said that short careers, low pay, and poor image do not make dance an attractive prospect for the future, and he urged new strategies to increase both status and opportunities for dance. He also stressed the importance of developing additional centers for dancers in transition.

The international panels and Q&A sessions that followed each talk encouraged dancers to take responsibility for their lives, to speak up in defense of their physical well-being, and to eliminate the perverse glorification of suffering for one's art. Choreographer Jiri Kylian earned enthusiastic applause for his call to "educate the educators" as a key to resolving problems, and to replace the word "excellence" with "integrity" because the former fosters competition. Juilliard dance program director Benjamin Harkarvy lamented that dance training lags fifty years behind the demands of the great choreographers, and that dancers have to learn to make the move from loving dance to loving work. Canadian dancer Sylvain Lafortune engaged legendary Canadian ballerina Karen Kain in a lively debate over forced turnout versus the ballet aesthetic. Kain insisted that the ballet ideal can be maintained without destroying dancers' bodies, an idea with which Lafortune did not agree.

Highlights from other sessions included:

--A call for companies and schools to hire counselors and physiotherapists, to reduce emotional stress and, consequently, physical injuries.

--An emphasis on training alternatives to avoid tension, a conduit to injury.

--A reminder of the need (expressed primarily in Toronto) to re-educate outsiders and insiders about the ideal of perfection, so that "a couple of extra pounds" should not be a death knell. The role of mature women in dance was also discussed.

--A plea for common sense in discussing health, excellence, and art, and a suggestion that choice take precedence over sacrifice, Having a life outside of dance was also emphasized. Rachel-Anne Rist, from Dance UK, spoke succinctly about the excellent benefits her organization gives to dancers, particularly the Healthier Dancer conference it holds every two years. The Toronto panel "Nutritional Issues for Dancers and Dance Teachers," meanwhile, spelled out what a dancer's body needs to survive, and identified the Female Athlete Triad (lack of eating, no monthly period, and loss of bone density) as the danger sign of a dancer in crisis. Nutritionist Elizabeth Snell said that the dangerous "Five Cs" diet (chips, Coca-Cola, cigarettes, coffee, and cookies) must be replaced by the high-octane balance of fifty-five percent carbohydrates, twelve percent protein, and twenty to thirty percent fat to sustain necessary energy for training and performing. She also said that dancers must eat three meals and two snacks a day to maintain their health.

The panel "Preparing Dancers to Meet the Demands of Today's Choreography" (moderated by this writer) was a microcosm of the entire conference. All the panelists were or are performers; three were educators, three were choreographers, and one served as The National Ballet of Canada's physiotherapist. No matter what their dance backgrounds, they agreed on certain issues: A dancer needs to master one technique to establish strength before exploring other methods and styles; educators are working with neuromuscular systems to individualize training and eliminate tension; being a good mover is no longer enough--dancers are now expected to be imaginative collaborators in the choreographic process.

In a lively discussion that followed, students said they wanted to be nurtured, while educators described their mission as encouraging confidence and teaching students to make the right choices. The panel concluded that dancers should listen to what their bodies tell them and follow their instincts in choosing the type of dancing they want to pursue.