Dancers and Green Spaces | This Dancing Life

https://pixabay.com/de/baum-kn%C3%A4uel-wild-wald-natur-umwelt-wald–1209774/

Dancers generally have a wonderful life. They love what they do, and they do what they love, all day – not many people can say the same. Audiences look at them with awe, sometimes even a hint of envy. What a great way to make a living, eh? Get paid for prancing around having fun, never doing a stroke of work – not like a real job, though, is it?

“People tend to look at dancers like we are these little jewels, little cardboard cut-outs, and yet we have blood and guts, and go through Hell“.
— SusanJaffe

The thing is, (as all dancers know) it’s not as easy as it looks. This career is not for the lazy or the faint-hearted – dancers put in long hours of sweated labour, surgical concentration, integrity; even their apparent effortlessness has cost them years of painstaking toil.

“If it doesn’t look easy, it’s that we haven’t tried hard enough yet“.
— Fred Astaire

Professional dancers love their job, but even with all the excitement and satisfaction, they’re under constant stress and pressure. How could you not be stressed in a job which involves hours of unremitting toil, speed, precision, a computer-like memory for steps, the courage to perform for crowds of strangers, perpetual crises, fear, physical pain, fatigue, career uncertainty, monastic self-discipline and perseverance, all for very little money? Of course they know stress, they live with it, all day. Maybe the buzz is even slightly addictive…

“Ballet technique is arbitrary and very difficult. It never becomes easy; it becomes possible“.
— Agnes de Mille

The problem is, even when the day is over, when there’s no more class or rehearsal or performance, for some people the stress is still there. They’ve given their heart and soul to every professional thing they did, and they’re still unsure, terrified it might not have been right. Anxiety nags on in the back of the mind — worries about whether it was any good, what everyone else thought, whether you look wrong, or you were too loud or too naïve or made a fool of yourself, worries about money, family, relationships – these thoughts persist, like wasps, and it can be very frightening, because it feels as if you’re losing control.

How do exhausted, stressed-out dancers survive this constant punishment? How can they stay sane?

One option is to get away from the studio and the job, change your head and take yourself off outside into green places. If you’re tired, depressed or anxious, it can help to be in a park or near some trees. Everyone’s always known this, but it seemed somehow subjective. Recently, though, scientists in Japan and Korea have been exploring the science behind “Shinrin-yoku”, the concept of “forest bathing” or “taking in the atmosphere of the forest”.

This idea originated in Japan, as therapy for people under stress. It’s an established alternative treatment, and very effective. Experiments in urban and forest environments have shown why and how it works. In one study (1) volunteers walked, either in a city area or in the forest. After half a day among trees, the forest group had significantly lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in their saliva, compared with those who had been sent to the city. They also had less activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the area responsible for planning and inhibition of inappropriate feelings or thoughts. In other words, they felt calm and comfortable. Each group was then sent the next day to the other environment. In both cases, the forest group had lower stress levels.

Other studies (2, 3) produced participants with lower blood pressure, less heart rate variability and improved mood state after forest walking; their anxiety levels also came down. Rather wonderfully, research in 2007 (4) even found strengthened levels of the body’s natural anti-cancer defences; these improvements are thought to result from exposure to volatile natural chemicals secreted by trees, collectively known as “Phytoncides”. Different trees produce different phytoncides, but what they all seem to have in common is the beneficial effect they have on the people who walk among them. Isn’t it somehow both logical and reassuring that trees, which allow us to breathe, also help to save us from cancer?

For many years, walking in the forest has been prescribed for all sorts of illnesses, including tuberculosis. People who practise Shinrin-yoku (5) claim numerous other benefits, including improved focus, rapid convalescence and recovery, higher levels of energy and better sleep (and dancers certainly need that).

“Dancing is like bank robbery, it takes split-second timing“.
— Twyla Tharp

Dancers are acutely aware of time (and how little time they have). Iit’s very easy to drag all the hurry and deadlines around with you, everywhere you go. This is why green spaces are so important. If this sounds like you, get out there among trees. Make a decision — put down all the stress and worry, and just walk, slowly. Take time. Empty your mind of all the stuff that preoccupies you. Sniff the fresh, oxygen-rich air, look at the colours of plants and insects, absorb the scents and sounds of the forest, explore the shapes of rocks and stones and fallen trunks, the textures and vivid, velvet greens of moss. Put your hands on trees, feel their life-force. They are full of energy – liquids, sugars and carbohydrates pulsing through them, electrical currents, changing temperatures. There are things about trees that most people have never considered. For example (6), trees with white bark protect themselves from overheating because the colour of their bark is reflective. Trees with deep crevices and dark bark create cool, shady microclimates within the fissures, so they can regulate their internal temperatures. Trees with no bark adaptation against the climate grow in close stands, to shelter and protect each other. They are amazing life forms.

“A forest’s beauty lies with its inhabitants.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

This process of concentrating on the here-and-now is an accepted therapeutic practice, known as “mindfulness”, and it can do you a lot of good. There is solid scientific evidence (7) that it:
• Reduces rumination (worry about stuff you can’t change) and improves working memory capacity.
• Calms stress and helps to modify negative thought processes.
• Lowers anxiety levels, soothes depression and helps alleviate psychosomatic pain.
• Enhances ability to focus and encourages flexible thinking and creativity.
• Decreases emotional reactivity and facilitates adaptivity to crisis or distressing situations.

There is also a correlation between mindfulness and satisfaction in relationships.

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”.
— John Muir

I tend to go to trees and forests when I’m in stressful situations. It always helps, but I imagined it was just my personal idiosyncrasy, and it’s reassuring know that there is actually a scientific basis for it (7).

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”
― Susan Polis Schutz

Green places can be the salvation of mind and body. Dancers need to find these places, to go there and relax, to (literally) re-mind themselves. You need to rediscover the important and wonderful things about your own self and about this dancing life, to use this knowledge, to stay happy and well. You should definitely do this, and soon. It’s important….

Take a deep breath… close your eyes…listen… then open them …. All this treasure is right there, all around you. It’s all yours…

References
1. Park B-J, Tsunetsugu Y, Kasetani T et al, Physiological Effects of Shinrin-yoku (Taking in the Atmosphere of the Forest)—Using Salivary Cortisol and Cerebral Activity as Indicators—, 26 November 2006, Journal of Physiological Anthropology, pp.123-128.
2. Li Q, Otsuka T, Kobayashi M, et al, Acute effects of walking in forest environments on cardiovascular and metabolic parameters, Eur J Appl Physiol (2011) 111:2845–2853.
3. Lee J, Tsunetsugu Y, Takayama N, et al, Influence of Forest Therapy on Cardiovascular Relaxation in Young Adults, Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2014, Article ID 834360, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/834360.
4. Li Q, MorimotoK, Kobayashi M, et al, A FOREST BATHING TRIP INCREASES HUMAN NATURAL KILLER ACTIVITY AND EXPRESSION OF ANTI-CANCER PROTEINS IN FEMALE SUBJECTS, Journal of Biological Regulators & Homeosatic Agents, Vol. 22, No. 1, 45-55 (2008).
5. http://www.shinrin-yoku.org/shinrin-yoku.html
6. Volker N. “The Bark of Trees: Thermal Properties, Microclimate and Fauna.” Oecologia 69, no. 1 (1986): 148-60. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4217921.
7. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=14&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjKzqrRj97dAhUMlosKHX53D1sQFjANegQIBhAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apa.org%2Fmonitor%2F2012%2F07-08%2Fce-corner.aspx&usg=AOvVaw1oqZVDUrrVwXCP3f3AmHTe