Advice for Dancers: Emotional Counsel and Practical Strategies

by Linda H. Hamilton

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780787964061
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/23/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Linda H. Hamilton Ph.D., is a columnist for Dance Magazine and a clinical psychologist in private practice in New York City.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"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 body—the 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

Editorial Reviews

"an inspiring book with an impressive repertory of solutions to the 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.

From the Publisher

Examines a number of problems that face dancers from the professional to amateur levels. Advice is offered on how to cope with problems such as: abusive teachers and directors, body image issues, interpersonal relationships inside and outside the studio, the lack of professional opportunities, fear of performance, physical injury, and the loss of dancing ability due to aging. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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