Body Image and Mirror Use in the Ballet Class

Copyright © 2012 International Association for Dance Medicine & Science • www.iadms.org Mirrors have long been used as teaching tools in ballet instruction and have proven to be a potent element in affecting perceptual attitudes toward body image. Body image is the perception, thoughts, and feelings we have about our bodies.1 A dancer’s personal vision of her body image is an important part of her psychological health and well-being and can help or hinder her dance performance in the studio.2 Several dance studies have shown that heightened self-consciousness can contribute to the development of negative body image.3-4 Mirrors have the ability to entice individuals to see themselves externally as objects, and imagine how others view them in comparison to other dancers. This heightened self-consciousness may have a positive or negative psychological influence on the dancer, depending upon other individual and classroom factors such as technical difficulty of the dance phrase, experience level of the dancer, and degree of stress experienced when learning a phrase. Overall, researchers have concluded that mirror reflections of self, teacher, and other students affected students’ body image and level of distraction. In a series of studies, Radell and colleagues set out to answer the following questions about mirror use: 1) How does the use of the mirror in dance class affect a student’s body image? 2) Does the technical level of a dancer affect how a dancer perceives his or her body image when using a mirror? 3) What are dance students’ preferences and opinions regarding the use of mirrors in the studio? In a 2002 study, Radell and associates5 compared changes in body image of women college ballet dancers who trained in front of mirrors with ballet dancers who trained without mirrors. The study used the Cash Multidimensional Body Self-Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ)6 to measure changes in a dancer’s body image. For dancers taught without mirrors, there was a significant increase in satisfaction with the appearance of different parts of their bodies. The dancers taught with mirrors, on the other hand, experienced significant dissatisfaction with the appearance of their body parts. In summary, these results show that the use of mirrors in the ballet studio may negatively affect dancers’ body image. In a subsequent 2004 study, Radell and colleagues2 looked at the relationship between level of performance of dancers and their use or non-use of a mirror in the classroom. Technical performance skills were assessed using the Radell Evaluation Scale for Dance Technique (RESDT) which involved a videotaped evaluation process of dancers performing two phrases at the beginning and end of the semester. Two ballet teachers independently viewed the videotapes to evaluate the dancers’ rhythmic accuracy, ease and flow of movement, and mastery of steps and alignment, and rated the students’ skill level on a scale of 1-5. For analysis purposes, students whose scores averaged three or higher were categorized as “high performers,” and those who averaged less than three were “low performers.” These teachers had no knowledge during the evaluation process of which dancers were from the mirrored or non-mirrored class. They reported that higher skilled students performing without mirrors experienced a significant increase in body image scores, while similar higher performing students taught with mirrors had decreased body image scores. Overall, it appears that the effect of mirrors on dancers’ body image may be dependent on varying factors such as performance skill level, comparison of self to others, and level of material taught. The effect is fluid in nature, with various factors overlapping and potentially influencing each other.