Thursday, November 22, 2018
Why Every Company Should Have a Performance Psychologist
www.dancemagazine.com: A dancer once contacted me because he was devastated after walking in on his girlfriend with another man. While he was distressed about ending the relationship, he was most concerned about a major performance coming up. They had to dance a romantic pas de deux. When I met with them together, she was afraid he would drop her and he didn't want to look lovingly in her eyes. My role was to help them find ways to make magic onstage and keep their personal difficulties offstage. They ended up dancing to rave reviews.
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7 comments:
A performance, of any type, requires immense diligence and commitment. One can not be distracted while performing because that is going to take away the magic that the performance initially intended to make; rather the performance would start to function on the distraction ( which could be any) and this is something that is undesirable to both the performer and the audience.
A person can be very committed and up for the challenge to create a magical performance but there are moments and situations that can hamper with the mental state or physical state of a performer, which ultimately affects the performer and the performance.
This is the reason why every company should have a Performance Psychologist. A PP's essential job is to ensure that the performers are in a mental state where they are able to separate their personal life from their professional life, as should be the case: no firm should suffer at the hands of its employers. A PP should be in a state where they can tabulate the problems the performers are going through, help them find a solution for that, in a way which shields the ultimate performance from being affected.
This is extremely helpful for all types or performers, not just dancers. It can be complicated from a payroll stance, if a company wanted to have one on staff. But Its mandatory to have a list of physicians in the area in a visible space, usually the call board. it would not harm to add psychologist and mental health professionals to that list. This way if an actor feels the need, they can always reach out and get an appointment. This would be extremely helpful for regional theatres, where performers are far from their home base for weeks at a time, and can get overwhelmed by being far from their usual physicians. This summer, one of my housemates, prior to her relocation to Vermont for her summer internship, made sure to locate a therapist near the area, among other services she needed. It made a real impact in her Weston experience.
This is such an interesting concept and definitely one that I think should be put into place. Especially in dance, where there is such a demand for physical perfection and agility, that the mental health of a person can easily and quickly fall to the wayside. Additionally, from what I have heard and read lately, the dance world is still very much a boys' club and not as progressive in terms of how they care for their dancers' well-being. As the article mentions: "Without a psychologist, dancers might be more likely to push through pain, unaware of the psychological factors associated with dance injuries. Performers with extreme perfectionistic thinking may strive to reach unattainable standards, making them susceptible to burnout and injury." These trained professionals can make their sole focus the mental and emotional health of their performers, and are an advocate for them in the room. I can understand that theatre has not caught on to this yet, as there is already more of an understanding that their performers are human beings who need to be cared for both physically and emotionally. Additionally, there are several jobs in place that already look out for this in theatre: the company manager generally, the stage manager in the rehearsal room, etc. That being said, it would be a great role to put in place for every performance company, so that performers know they are being taken care of and not simply seen for their talents.
I don’t know much about the world of dance or the life of dancers, but I have certainly heard of the mental and physical stresses that the pressure can induce. The industry is somewhat notorious for pushing young talents into eating disorders, body insecurities, etc. in addition to being generally cutthroat and demanding. I can’t recall ever hearing about career-specific psychologists, but the concept makes perfect sense to me. Having a resource that understands your field and its psychological challenges must be much more useful and productive than a general therapist. I think it is also significant that the psychologist who wrote the article discusses ways in which they have helped dancers beyond the world of dance, including ways in which to explore new passions after retiring. I wonder what more of the arts industries would look like if we began embracing more of this kind of specialized care and attention for our artists’ emotional and social wellbeings.
The need for company psychologists is not only beneficial to the dance world alone but to every form of art there is. Performers in all areas are expected to work through the pain and sometimes use that pain to create amazing work but having someone on staff to help discuss and work through this can be very helpful. Even if the company cannot afford a staff ,member who is a psychologist, there are other things the company can do for their employees that show that they care about their well being and show support. Things such as providing staff with places they can go to get help and allowing staff take time to be able to talk to someone. Emotional and mental well being is just as important as the physical well being. People go through different issues at different times of their lives and talking through it can be very helpful and can also better the way people relate with their colleagues.
Every time I see a headline on this page that starts with “Every Company Should…” I think of fifteen companies I have worked for that could not or would not follow the mandate. But that’s a gut reaction. Upon actually reading this article, I found myself comparing the teams of healthcare providers that large professional dance companies have to the teams of providers that professional sports teams have. In essence, adding a performance psychologist to the roster of a dance company is the same as adding a sports psychologist to a sports team. Both positions involve reducing performance anxiety, teaching focus, and developing end-of-career goals. As for transference of this idea to smaller companies that cannot support full-time healthcare providers: it is not uncommon for companies to have a provision in contracts for subsidized bodywork, and it is not too far of a stretch for companies (that do not already have health insurance that covers it) to have a provision for subsidized mental work.
Performance of any kind is inherently psychological, and I really like that this article is focusing on the mental health of this dance companies performers above all else. Everyone needs therapy sometimes, but it is often hard to find it for many people, especially with the strange hours we work. Just at CMU, I’ve found it hard to be able to find a consistent time to see a therapist, because we are given such strange hours that many therapists do not offer. I think that this company’s solution of having a psychologist for the entire group is really useful, because then this psychologist can not only help each individual person, but also make sure people who would normally be reluctant to get help are able to get it. Being able to take a snapshot of the general mental health of the entire group also seems very useful to me, because then the professional will be able to know when everyone has been pushed too hard. The dance community is notorious for being pushed too hard, and I think having someone who will know before that happens could be very beneficial.
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