What’s the difference between a person who dances and a dancer?
Let’s start with a person who dances.
A person who dances:
- Will socialize with non-dancers.
- Might have short hair or long hair.
- Listens to their body’s cues, and stops when something hurts.
- Will consider nutrition but does not diet.
- Is a “normal” person.
- May consider “normal” to be a good thing.
- Exists wherever they find themselves.
- Does not always need to dance but likes to.
A dancer:
- Socializes primarily with other dancers.
- Has short or long hair depending on what is best for roles.
- Will show their body who is boss, and push beyond pain.
- Is typically on a food-restrictive diet. Knows the number of calories in the coating on vitamins and in sperm.
- Is not a “normal” person.
- Does not consider “normal” to be a good thing.
- Exists primarily in a dance studio and on a stage. Tolerates time elsewhere.
- Does not always like to dance but needs to.
There is nothing wrong with being either a person who dances or a dancer. But they are not the same thing. Non-dance people typically confuse one category for another. This causes problems for understanding the people who inhabit the dance world. And it causes problems for understanding the special problems and issues that dancers have. “Why don’t you dance just for fun?” They ask. Or, “I have a niece who’s a dancer! She’s on her cheerleading dance team and does Color Guard.”
A loss of the ability to dance full-time, for example, for a person who dances, is sad but not tragic. For a dancer it is a loss of identity. When dancing full time ends, nothing else ever feels normal or right and all other identities feel false. The best you can do is to be someone who used to dance. Or perhaps what I am now … someone who is a dancer inside. Someone who IS a dancer and who is struggling to express what that means in a non-dance medium. And, no, I’m not normal. But I am ok.