Advice for Dancers
Emotional Counsel and Practical Strategies
1. Auflage Dezember 2002
240 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Dancers experience pain, joy, frustration, rapture, failure, applause, and are above the worldly concerns of food, money, and financial security. They live only to dance.
Or do they?
The reality is dancers of all ages, types, and skill levels often experience incredible physical and psychological stress and have traditionally bore their pain in stoic silence.
In this much needed new book, Dance Magazine's Linda Hamilton offers dancers the same type of advice and understanding they have come to trust from her popular monthly column. Psychologist Hamilton--a former dancer with New York City Ballet under the legendary George Balanchine--offers a complete resource for coping with the day to day pressures of being a dancer. Page after page is filled with the insight that can only come from a person who has been intimately involved in the world of dance.
Hamilton outlines strategies for dancers for dealing with a variety of common physical and psychological issues and shows how to be true to your passion and bring back the joy in dancing. The book is filled with answers to dancer's most often asked questions and offers practical methods for dealing with such difficult problems as eating disorders, substance abuse, ruthless competition, and performance anxiety. Advice for Dancers will teach you how to:
* Achieve you physical potential and select the dance technique that's right for you
* Find out which teaching practices you can trust and why
* Learn how to reach your optimal weight without compromising your energy, health, and career
* Develop healthy relationships both inside and outside the dance studio
* Use a variety of resources to get work, roles, and promotions
* Perform technical feats in front of an audience even when you are frightened
Advice for Dancers is a result of Hamiltion's extensive research and years clinical work with dancers and includes information for a survey of more that 1,000 dancers from across the country.
1 Accepting the Dancer You Are 9
2 Teaching Practices: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly 35
3 Focusing on Body Shape and Appearance 55
4 Your Relationships: Friends or Foes? 77
5 So You Want to Be a Professional 99
6 Performing at Your Peak 123
7 The Mind-Body Connection: Injuries and Your Health 147
8 Is There Life After Dance? 173
Resource Directory 193
Bibliography 213
Further Reading 217
About the Author 219
Index 221
psychological and physical problems that challenge every dancer."
(Dance Magazine, January 1999)
Excerpt in Dance Magazine, October, 1997.
Listed as a resource in Dance Magazine, January 1999.
Dr. Linda Hamilton, an associate professor at Fordham University,
lecturer, psychologist, former dancer with the New York City
Ballet, and author of Advice for Dancers, also writes a monthly
article, Advice for Dancers, in Dance Magazine.
"Linda Hamilton's book is excellent and needed. She touches on all
aspects of being a dancer."
-- Jacques d' Amboise, founder, National Dance Institute, New
York
"This book is an excellent guide that addresses the social,
emotional, and physical needs of the developing dancer. I often
recommend it as a resource for our students and their
parents."
-- Peter J. Libman, Director of Student Life, School of
American Ballet
"Dr. Linda Hamilton has for years brought her expertise and very
special knowledge, both as a clinical psychologist and former
dancer with the New York City Ballet, to her widely read column in
Dance Magazine. Now she extends the range of her work to embrace
the dancer and his or her body¾the problems that can be
encountered, the symptoms that can be noticed, and, most important,
the action that can be taken. Dr. Hamilton is one of the liveliest
writers on dance today, and she has the ability to bring everyday
classes and stage stress and strains to vivid and immediate
life."
-- Clive Barnes, senior theater critic, the New York Post,
and senior consulting editor, Dance Magazine
"The advice and information in this book should be considered
the 'gold standard' for anyone involved in the dance world. Linda
Hamilton covers all the necessary elements in a dancer's life, and
all dancers can benefit from the practical strategies that she
recommends to reduce excessive stress, whether it is mental or
physical."
-- Marika Molnar, PT, director of physical therapy, Westside
Dance Physical Therapy and New York City Ballet and the School of
American Ballet