Food for Thought

By Mandy Helmlinger

Would you prefer fast food to a home cooked meal? Would a chef use ultra-processed ingredients for his/her gourmet entree? Would you go to a farmer’s market to buy additives? Now that wouldn’t make sense, would it? Then why do we prefer a fast food, drive-through approach to training? Why are we creating an ultra-processed resume filled with additives?

According to Good Fat Bar LLC, ultra processed foods are meant to be convenient, hyper-palatable, and low cost and are typically high in sugars, refined grains, fats, preservatives, and salt. More and more I see dancers take an unhealthy approach to their training. They prefer convenience over quality. There is a lack of patience and an unwillingness to make a sacrifice. They want to make the least investment with the biggest return. Of course we are all naturally drawn to highly palatable foods. Maybe that’s why we prefer to skip right to the desert. It’s no different in dance or any other pleasurable thing in life. Our high energy choreography classes that end in groups hyping each other up, fancy lighting, sweet videos, ear bursting music, crowd drawing dance moves, are the classes that leave you wanting more! It’s like the Dorito Effect, once you start, you can’t stop. They are designed that way. But that’s not always good for you. Maybe with a healthy balanced meal, the Dorito’s are just fine! But not if that’s all you eat.

We admit, our choreography classes are designed to keep you coming back, but here’s the danger in skipping the cultivation process of your training: Injuries are more likely to occur, your teaching skills become watery, and your ability to choreograph or create original content is limited to replication. If you haven’t taken the time to learn where these moves came from, the meaning and significance behind them, or the culture surrounding them, then it will be nothing more than imitation. Come on! Imitation crab or fresh from the sea crab. There’s a big difference! You will lack flavor, variety, richness and inspiration. All the things a good chef and a good dancer desires to create.

Ask yourself these questions. Are you a dance connoisseur? Do you savor the ingredients of the choreography? Do you know where they were cultivated? All of these things become apparent in a dancer. You can’t fool a food connoisseur into believing a microwaved dinner was cooked in a crockpot all day! Why do we think we can fool an artist or a lover of the arts into believing that our craft has been simmering on low for years deserves a place on the table?

Look, the saying is true: “You are what you eat.” We have an inventory of valuable ingredients offered at the studio, but most dancers opt to go straight for the pre-packaged meal. It’s less time consuming and cheaper, but peel that film back and the product can be less than appetizing. Our choreo classes are jam packed with contemporary, jazz, afrobeats, step, house, breakdance, litefeet, waacking, popping, etc. Take advantage of the buffet! Don’t pass them by or you may get passed by.

Just saying- if you want to keep coming to the cookouts, you gotta put a little love in your dish. You want comments like- “she ate, he left no crumbs” on your posts? I suggest working on your recipe! Stop going through the drive through! Come on inside and stay a while.

(Don’t have the money to support your dream? We have a work study program.)