A Guide for Dancers, a Guide for Us All with Rachel Fine, RD

In a sport that is so aesthetic and relies on the visual aspect of using your body – but also requires diligent nutrition and a secure relationship with food – how do dancers tend to their bodies and perform their best? 

Dancer or not, this is a topic we can all benefit from.

Rachel is a former professional dancer-turned-registered dietitian and nutritionist. She founded To The Pointe Nutrition (get it? Pointe?). To The Pointe Nutrition provides certified nutrition education to dancers of all ages and all levels. Rachel is a certified specialist in sports dietetics and certified counselor of intuitive eating. She also founded Dance Nutrition, a community of free resources, which she shares more about in the episode. 

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Rachel has a long history working with this population. She’s worked at universities, presented research, and practiced at To The Pointe Nutrition for 10 years. So, if you’re a dancer? Dive in, because this info is incredible. But even if you’re not a dancer? This episode provides so much good information on how you can have a healthy relationship with food, no matter who you are. So… let’s jump in! 

A Day in the Life of a Dancer

Rachel talks to us about what a day in the life of a dancer looks like, and notes that it’s going to vary widely based on what kind of dancer we’re talking about. Professional dancer, recreational adult dancer, recreational student dancer… all of these dancers have vastly different schedules. 

Usually, though, dancers have pretty active schedules. Dance is often one part of their busy day alongside school, work, etc., and the energy expenditure level for dance is comparable to sports, so they’re burning tons of calories. In a world in which we are expected to play so many roles and accomplish so much throughout our day, living on the go is something I’m sure we can all relate to.

Additionally, dancers are often required to participate in cross-training. Classical dance especially might look dainty, but it’s absolutely strength endurance training. All of this combines to pull dancers in all different directions mentally and physically.

So, how do dancers hold a balanced dance-work life with sustainable food and exercise habits?

Importance of Food

Food can get so tricky for dancers. First of all, we all know the prevalence of diet culture and pressure to look a certain way in the non-dance world. But now, we’re taking an aesthetic, visual type of sport and exacerbating the diet culture message of needing to look a certain way. 

Secondly, dance as a sport requires a certain level of specialized nutrition education to support the work that they’re doing. This can include meal planning for dance class, recovery, and injury prevention all while on the go. 

Rachel comments that dancers are so vulnerable to disordered eating, and that’s why she became a dietitian; it sounds like a great idea to take the principles of sports nutrition and apply them to the nth degree to maximize performance, but it can become extremely restrictive and damaging very quickly. 

Injury Prevention 

There’s several aspects that play into injury prevention. First and foremost, your body has to have enough calories to be alert and energized enough to prevent injuries during all of the intense movement required in dance. For all you non-dancers, this is extremely important as well. You need to have enough energy to do the things you need to do.

More long-term, we’re thinking about bone health. As soon as dancers experiment with low-calorie or low-fat restrictive diets, they are not providing their body with the tools needed to support hormonal balance. 

Hormonal balance is required to support strong, working bone tissue, and impaired bone health can be seen as soon as 3-6 months of restrictive dieting. When this happens, you’re risking stress fractures in your normal dance routine. You can’t dance at all with a stress fracture! 

So these are endurance athletes needing structured nutrition, but what if they’re working towards intuitive eating?

How do you reconcile these ideas? Rachel notes that in her 10 years after founding To The Pointe Nutrition, her practices have had to shift over time – she notes that while her practices approached it as a sports nutrition, you have to also remember that the visual aspect of the sport leads to studios flooded with disordered eating and misinformation with food. 

Because of this environment and the vulnerability of dancers, Rachel notes that it’s crucial to first make sure a dancer’s relationship with food is secure and non-restrictive. Not all dancers have a damaged relationship with food, of course – but they need this to dive into the nutrition component so that component isn’t triggering any perfectionist tendencies in that dancer. Only then can they have what Rachel calls a “working relationship” with food – one that is sustainable for their entire lives. It is for this reason that the principle of gentle nutrition is often addressed last. It just becomes another diet without healing your relationship with food. 

To achieve this, Rachel highly encourages dancers to work with a nutritionist. 

What about body image? 

For dancers, Rachel notes “It’s 2022 – there are plenty of environments out there that are opening their arms to diversity” concerning body types, and dancers need to aim for environments that are going to support them for who they are and what their body is now. The research shows that diets don’t work – so it’s so important to find a place that supports your body for where it’s at right now. 

Bottom line? If we don’t give our body the tools to support all of its normal functions, it’s going to break down. So we need to strive to find environments that support body diversity. A dancer can have beautiful technique and expression regardless of their body weight. 

Tweetable Quotes

“Impaired bone health can be seen… in as soon as 3-6 months of restrictive dieting.” – Rachel Fine, RD 

“I call it a working relationship with food, one that is coming from a place of sustainability… your habits around food are habits that can be continued life-long.” – Rachel Fine, RD 

“Dieting doesn’t work long-term. 98% of diets fail within the first year.” – Rachel Fine, RD 

“A dancer can have beautiful lines and dance beautifully… no matter their body weight, no matter their body size.” – Rachel Fine, RD

Resources: 

To The Pointe Nutrition, Rachel Fine’s website of services – find Rachel’s services, online courses for dancers of all levels, and e-books here 

Dance Nutrition, Rachel Fine’s website of free resources – free resource site for all dancers to learn about topics of body image, nutrition, and new topics every week