Your a dancer? Wow. So I take it your good in bed?

Oh the wonders of sterotypical views of a female dancer.Some of which I tend to receive from the shallow parts of the male gender pool.Dont worry, this blog isnt going to revolve around ME stereotyping all of the male gender because funnily enough,male dancers feel the brunt of stereotyping too from parts of both genders. Yes, homophobic comments lie alongside stereotyping rather well and both play big parts within the male part of the dancing world. For example, Ian Murray of Southampton finds himself on the receiving end of `omg your a dancer i bet your REALLLLY flexible,`finishing with a flick of the hair and a batter of the eyelids. I mean come on girls, you cannot expect male dancers to somehow impregnate you whilst sitting in box splits reaching to the floor for a count of eight, do you? And boys, dear oh dear oh dear, you have a lot to learn about dancing if you think that all us female dancers do in class is work on the best ways to improve sex lives. I promise you, its not. People need to see that dancer is an occupation. Just like working in a shop or working with the elderly. Its a career. Its a passion that a lot of people wish to pursue. Its an industry people want to say they `succeeded` in. Yet stereotyping stops this passionate image from coming across.

Stereotyping, I fear ruins everything in life. Although,people stand up for themselves by saying` who me? stereotype? no. I hate it` however I beg to differ. Everyone has stereotyped at least once in their life. About anything. Yet in dance, every stereotyping human seems to have the same image of dancer. False tan, false nails, ditsy personality, somewhat illiterate and uneducated and a bit of a slapper with no brains. I assure you the majority of this is false. Okay, I agree, for a large amount of dancers, false nails, false tan, ditsy personality and no knowledge of anything are not just the correct statements, but an understatement. I fear these so called "dancers" are people who have fears of becoming pushed aside, scared of being an outcast and unaccepted, so they feel they need to conform. Conform to something that not everyone likes.Yet its an accepted (but what i feel is the wrong) image none the less

What people don't seem to realise is that to become a dancer, a good one at least, you need to have a strong will power, originality and intellect. Oh and did i forget to mention, a dancer needs to be oozing with creativity?and unique choreographic ideas are essential to becoming your own dancer. Dynamics? structure? motifs and phrases? stimulus and themes? emotions?

Yes.You need a lot of things to be able to say your a `dancer`.Not just the face for it. I admit, for some styles, it is necessarily all about what you look like but isnt this wrong? Shouldnt it be on potential and want to succeed.Other than skills of applying St Tropez and potential or inserting clip on extensions?

As a dancer myself, I have and never will conform to the category of a "stereotypical dancer". I get told ` I dont look like a dancer` but what does a dancer look like? Is there a specific look for that. No. Just an image that everyone has concerning ALL dancers appearances. Maybe its the style of dance that I do. With me being a contemporary dancer, do I have that contemporary and abstract look about me? You could say that if you see the way I put my items of clothing together. But what if I was to tell you I am not only a contemporary dancer, but I am a hip hop and jazz dancer? What would your image change to?

Everyones different in the dance world. There cannot be just ONE stereotypical image because no two dancers are the same. What we all need to realise is that within this specific industry, happiness sometimes never follows with being different. You get slated for it. No matter how hard you try to back up and hide from sometimes the malicious comments that you receive due to being "different", happiness will sometimes not be there to pick you back up. It is what part of being a strong dancer is.Being able to stand and say ` no this is who I am, I am a dancer and I am different to what you imagine me to be` because the sooner all dancers realise this, the better and stronger dancers will be.