Why do you lie to me? I know I am Aridane, goddess of pathways. These pathways take us from dread to delight, uncomfortably painful grief to bursting joy, curious child to impactful adult…and yet when I look at you in the mirror, all I can see is a dumping ground…trodden, heavy and rounded over like a forgotten cave.
Why do mirrors lie? Does your mirror lie as well? Why should we ever even look into them!?
Our brains have learned to correlate very specific images with beauty and worth. Repetitious propaganda is incredibly effective! There is money to be made from that correlation in the form of every beauty and weight loss product one could imagine. When we don’t see those images of prescribed ‘beauty’ in our own reflection, we can feel worthless. And Bad. It is nearly impossible for a singular image of ourselves to compete with the torrent of female representation we have seen in the media our entire lives. I sometimes wonder, if the world were free of mirrors, would the continuing challenge of treasuring our bodies even be a thing? How we reflect, what we compare against, matters so hugely. Would a mirror free society be utopia?
Then why, oh why, do we use mirrors when we dance?
It is true that being able to see finely detailed geometry created with limbs and torso enables a person who dances to become a dancer. That knowledge and connection to make articulate shapes and the corresponding emotional response is what makes a good dance transcend most barriers. It creates true artistry of expression, the kind that serves as a gift to people, stewarding personal transformation for both dancer and audience. But, my own daughter shares that mirrors have also done a number on her with regard to cultivating unhealthy perfectionism. When Ariadne, the choreographer, looks into the mirrors, I see human terrain…even my own, as sacred land of expression. I refuse to see myself as a female object. I have learned to use that force of will out of mad necessity. There are so many things in the world that are more important than female beauty!
Every time we see and honor the beauty of rounded curves, and soft, individually distinct lines that make a person as unique as a geographic place occupying a specific latitude and longitude, we are healing. There is only one of each of our bodies in the world, and that alone makes them holy. When we tame our own disgust at “weight” and turn it into curiosity, or compassion, or natural evolution, we are healing. Every time we eat for health instead of an appearance destination, we are healing. Every time we normalize the plethora of body types and shapes and sizes, we are healing. It’s also increasingly complicated. While ‘body shaming’ is campaigned against, we still face, as a people, the very real health impacts of obesity, both for the individual, and the planet. How do we navigate all these nuances?
Capitalism benefits from our body dysmorphia and our perpetual unease and dysfunction around body diversity. It also benefits from us being unhealthy, and needing expensive medical procedures and drugs. To top it all off, it’s an incredible distraction from way more pressing and urgent topics! It’s all intended to support profit making. I want us to choose a path that supports women.
I have allowed mirrors in my classes until this point because I am hopeful a majority can see human topography and learn to honor and relish in its beauty. I want students to geek out about geometric lines, and the impact of texture and dynamic. But recently it has emerged that more than a few don’t dance precisely because there are mirrors, which reflect for them an image so embarrassing and grotesque they can’t handle it and would rather not participate. So they skip dancing in community. That, to me, is a tragedy.
Starting this year, Planet Dance classes will not use mirrors. They are not needed for the kind of dance we do as a community in this class. So, if a dread of mirrors has been stopping you from coming…reconsider. Join us on Fridays from 11:30-12:30 in Takilma, or the first Thursday of January, February and March in Ashland, Oregon at the Co-op Community classroom on Pioneer Street from 5-7pm. It is only together that we can heal our own bodies, and in doing so, the body of earth.