Eating disorders and body shaming rife in Australian dance industry

Teachers in the dance industry are facing shocking claims they are fostering eating disorders in young students, with harrowing figures revealing the harmful diet beliefs held by Australian dancers.

Dietitian Fumi Somehara helps young dancers with from eating disorders. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Dance teachers are at the centre of shock claims they have fostered eating disorders in young teens, forcing them to keep food diaries and lose weight in order to “be a good dancer”.

After we revealed a dance teacher was under police investigation following grooming allegations, dancers across the country have come forward claiming dance teachers are body-shaming girls, telling them not to eat chocolate and that cocaine “kept you skinny and energetic”.

Former dancer Fumi Somehara founded the Dancers Don’t Diet Centre for Recovery at Chatswood to specifically treat young dancers dealing with eating disorders and learning better relationships with food after living with the industry’s unrelenting standards.

Dietitian Fumi Somehara helps young dancers with from eating disorders. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“I was training in ballet from the age of five, at a few different schools and under different teachers,” Ms Somehara said.

“Unfortunately, I did observe and experience myself a lot of body shaming, criticism, food rules, and the promotion of the thin ideal.”

The accredited dietitian and eating disorder clinician decided she wanted to draw on her personal experience to help others. But, after 11 years in her profession, Ms Somehara said fat-shaming and disturbing behaviours around body and food consumption endured in dance culture.

“This culture of dance really allows body shaming – and I do know the reality, which is that if dancers lose weight, it’s more likely they are provided with better roles, which equals more success, more income, and more stability,” she said.

Alarming figures from a recent study by Edith Cowan University in Western Australia reveal two in three dancers believe weight loss will ensure they can get a lead role.

“The tricky thing is that a lot of the time it’s not explicitly said as ‘you need to lose weight’ or ‘you need to be thinner’,” Ms Somehara said.

“It’s this implicit message that dancers are aware of like: ‘You need to be fitter’.”

However, many dancers said the messaging was often overt.

Founded the Dancers Don’t Diet Centre for Recovery at Chatswood. Picture: Thomas Lisson

One dancer labelled her experience at a studio as a “type of coercive control”, saying her food intake was monitored and tracked by teachers.

She said her dance teacher told her to “lose 5kg or I would never be employed. She would make us do gruelling workouts before a full day of dance and threaten us with additional workouts if we couldn’t complete the ones she set for us”.

“She would line us up in our underwear and critique our bodies in front of each other.”

In text messages seen by The Sunday Telegraph, an instructor told her teenage student they “should track everything” they ate.

“The skinnier the better … it just makes you a batter dancer,” the instructor said. “Track everything, even down to the exact weight of the food.

“Send me pics of what you eat if you want.”

Another Sydney teacher is accused of telling a student cocaine use was “good” because it “could keep you skinny and give you energy”.

One former dancer said she landed in intensive care due to an eating disorder she says she developed following bullying by an instructor.

Another student at a regional NSW studio described being berated for her food choices at the studio’s canteen.

Ms Somehara said cultural change must come from the top.

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Originally published as Eating disorders and body shaming rife in Australian dance industry