How Dancers Respond to Challenges

Two fifteen-passenger vans. Fifteen dancers. One choreographer. Two stage managers. And one huge load of costumes.

I realized something important on the drive out of the city and up to Tivaly, NY and the Kaatsbaan International Dance Center where we would spend the weekend performing:

Dancers are very good drivers.

The kind of drivers who can parallel park a fifteen-passenger van and expertly maneuver it down the West Side Highway and out of the city. With impeccable posture and a small smile the entire drive.

This tells us something about dancers and the dancers' approach to wellness. It's a way of looking at how we, as dancers, respond to challenges. Any average twenty-something city dweller would cower at the prospect of driving a huge van through Manhattan. Dancers do the opposite.

They jump right in to the chaos.

On the last leg of the trip, coming back into the city down FDR drive, one of my fellow dancers whom I shall refer to as ML even critiqued the dancer driving the other van.

"She's just being too tentative," ML said, leaning over the wheel as a motorcyclist careened narrowly past us. "You can't be tentative if you're driving in New York."

ML was right. But I could hardly blame AM, who was driving the other van. The lanes were constantly changing, taxis and other cars jumping ahead of one another. It was complete chaos. I thought AM was doing just fine, considering the circumstances.

But I also thought about how ML faces every challenge - even challenges in the studio - in the same way. She leaps right in and refuses to be timid.

There is something important to learn from ML's driving. If we could all face health and wellness challenges in the same way, perhaps they would be easier to manage. Perhaps things like managing injuries, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep would be easier if we approached those things as we approach parallel parking that huge van.

This week, I will be trying to face all the challenges, inside and outside the studio, just as ML did on FDR Drive in that colossal van. Head-on.