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Reflections on the mirror: six teachers on when you should--and shouldn't--look.

Article Excerpt
You enter the studio, drop your bag, and find your place at the barre. As you switch sides during your initial stretch, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. But that glance is often far from casual, and what crosses your mind in that split-second sighting can flavor the rest of your class. Are you happy with your visual image, or does it initiate a doubt-riddled downward spiral? If used as a means of self-sabotage, the mirror can be hazardous. But viewed mindfully, the mirror is a dancer's most honest friend.

Donna Silva, who teaches at The Boston Conservatory and Boston Ballet School, knows how the mirror can play havoc with self-esteem. Says Silva, "Dancers can get caught up in their imperfections and think, 'I'm not good enough.'"

Once a dancer is caught in that downward spiral, says Silva, they "see" that they're never thin enough, and that their legs are never high enough. "I got into such a habit of looking in the mirror and judging myself," says Silva, a former Joffrey dancer, "that I never felt I was living up to my potential."

Silva acknowledges that being thin is part of the dance aesthetic. "They're always conscious of their weight," says Silva about her students. "At some point they have to...

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