Studio Mirrors: A Response

This post is a response to the post "Mirrors in the Studio: Do They Help or Do They Hinder?" which can be viewed here on the blog, The Healthy Dancer. 

Mirrors are part of what defines dance training. And yes, dancers are a little obsessed. They scrutinize those mirrors. No flaw goes unnoticed. Student dancers learn this behavior from older dancers, older dancers from professionals, and here is where the mirror debate begins: do we have to?

Certainly, there are students who rely too heavily upon the mirror. But that is a journey almost every young student goes through. It's one I went through, and I'm a better dancer because of it. I learned to think of my dancing in the context of the entire space, not just the flattened space in the mirror. Learning to pull my focus out of the mirror was an extremely important lesson as a student.

And so I agree with the conclusion that is made on The Healthy Dancer. The use of mirrors requires balance. Balance between looking in the mirror to correct yourself and pulling your eyes out of the mirror for stability and spacial awareness.

But there is one crucial concept that always pushes me to one side of this debate. One that for me, as a professional dancer and dance educator, is the bottom line, the final say on why mirrors belong in a studio.

When I was fifteen, I was cast as a Snowflake in The Nutcracker. The Snowflake choreography was a series of incredibly challenging corps work. The kind of work that required a type of precision, spacial awareness, and focus that on a level I had no experience with.

All the other snowflakes were older than I was, and they had done the Snow scene last year. Everyone but me knew the choreography, and most unfortunately for me, the spacing tricks to making sure we all danced as one.

I have terrible, gut-wrenching memories of being screamed at in the studio, "What are you doing? Get in line!"

Finally, by the very end of the rehearsals, I succeeded in getting through an entire rehearsal without getting yelled at or wanting to cry. It was a huge learning experience for me.

And I couldn't have done it without the mirror.

So here is the bottom line: the use of the mirror in class is one thing, and yes, it requires a delicate balance. But rehearsals are the reasons why every dance studio needs a mirror. They are essential to the professionalism that is dancing together, creating one clean line with a number of bodies.

True, professional dance is created with the space in mind. With unison, difference, movement, and stillness. With the overall look and focus intact. And this is impossible to achieve without a frame of reference.

It's impossible without a mirror.