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Theresa Ruth Howard Dancer/Writer/Teacher Theresa Ruth Howard began her professional dance career with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company at the age of twelve. Later she joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. She has worked with choreographer Donald Byrd as a soloist in his staging of New York City Opera's Carmina Burana, his critically acclaimed Harlem Nutcracker, as well as the controversial domestic violence work The Beast. She was invited to be a guest artist with Complexions: A Concept in their 10th anniversary season. In 2004 she became a founding member of Armitage Gone! Dance. As a writer Ms. Howard has contributed to Russell Simmons’ One World magazine (art), and The Source (social politics), as well as Pointe and Dance Magazine. While teaching in Italy for the International Dance Association she was asked to become a contributor for the premiere Italian dance magazine Expressions. Her engaging, no nonsense writing style caught the eye of both the readers of Dance Magazine and its Editor in Chief who not only made her a contributing editor and has collaborated with Ms. Howard in See and Say Web-reviews. Her articles about body image prompted her to develop a workshop for young adult (dancers and non-dancers) My Body My Image that addresses their perceptions both positive and negative about their bodies and endeavoring to bring them closer to a place of Acceptance and Appreciation. She recently launched a blog by the same name to reach a broader audience (mybodymyimage.com) As a teacher Ms. Howard has been an Artist in Residence at Hollins University in and New Haven University in addition to teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, Marymount, Shenandoah, and Radford Universities, and the historical American Dance Festival. As a result of her work at ADF Ms. Howard was invited to Sochi, Russia to adjudicate the arts competition Expectations of Europe and teach master classes, and in Burundi, Africa where she coached and taught the Burundi Dance Company. Currently she on faculty at The Ailey School but also extensively throughout Italy and Canada. Ms. Howard's belief in the development, and nurturing of children lead her to work with at risk youth. At the Jacob Riis Settlement House in Queensbridge New York, she founded S.I.S.T.A (Socially Intelligent Sisters Taking Action) a mentoring program for teen-age girls where she worked to empower them to become the creators of their destinies. In addition she developed a dance program, which lead to an exchange with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Through her teaching and travels Ms. Howard began to observe a universal disenchantment and disconnection in teenagers that disturbed her, thus she set out to address it. Combining her philosophies of life and teaching, with the skills she garnered through outreach programs with diverse communities, she developed the personal development workshop Principles of Engagement: Connecting Youth to the Infinite Possibilities Within which gives teens a set of workable tools to increase their levels of success at tasks, and goals not only in dance, and all aspect of their lives. Theresa Ruth Howard is certainly diverse and multifaceted as an artist, and is moved to both write and create work; however she sees every student she encounters as a work in progress, and the potential to change the world one person at a time. The only was to make this world a better place it to be better people in it!

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Body Hero Jean Kilbourne on the Virgin/Whore Contradiction

“Females have long been categorized as either virgins or whores, of course. Whatʼs new is that girls are supposed to embody both within themselves, and that even very little girls are encouraged to look sexy long before they have any real understanding of what that really means. This creates an impossible double bind. In the same way that the girdles and the corsets of the past have been replaced by an internalized standard even more suffocating, so the sexual repression of the past has been replaced by something in some ways even more demanding and constricting.”

Jean Kilbourne

Guilty (but forgivable) Pleasures

Fashion Chic Speak- A Guide To the Fashion Terms 2012

I thought that this was absolutely high-larious! and apropos this time of year when everyone is promoting and predicting the fashion trends of the upcoming year. Enjoy it I did

Hosted by mydaily.co.uk

Struggle to decipher the difference Dior’s New Look and your local New Look store? No problemo. Just chuck a few of these into your lexicon and you’ll have the fash-pack hanging onto your every word. No need to thank us.

fashion-speak-guidePhoto: Getty

…, no?
As in “I look very chic, no?” – confusingly the correct answer to this question is actually yes. Replying with the word “no” will lead to perpetual banishment from all things fashion.

‘Ironic’ abbreviations
To Sho (Topshop), Gooch (Gucci) Channel (Chanel) – so as to indicate that you’re so au fait with the brands you can hilariously mispronounce them. Ironic, no?

The use of the singular
The lip, the pant, the platform, the singular. The little people wear a pair of shoes, trousers and have red lips. But on planet fashion, the use of the singular denotes that you truly understand the wider style implications of what you are wearing – not, as might be assumed by a little person, that the wearer only has one lip, foot or trouser leg. (long before this I always used a pronoun for people-  i.e. The April (my bff) but I could “rock” the singular)

Very Edie
On one level Grey Gardens was a documentary about two abandoned, eccentric and really quite batty women, Big Edie and Little Edie, who lead their lives in the Hamptons. There is cat and racoon poo all over the house, they eat liver pate from a tin and there are massive great holes in their clothes. But to the fashionable mind this is a stinky pool of style inspiration. Hence anything vaguely bohemian/mismatched/layered is Very Edie, as in Little Edie. (I LOVE this one and I hadn’t heard it before but personally when I saw the movie I thought Little Edie was fabulous as well I will definitely be dropping this term, as I wear a turban made out of a sweater)

Homage
Really means ‘rip off’ or ‘copy’. ( Beyonce if VERY fond of the Homage)

 
Ethnic/Global traveller chic
The paranoid fashion writer’s politically correct code for anything nodding to places other than Western Europe or North America. And in using such a generic tone, is actually quite offensive. (It’s like when people say they are from Africa – not the country in Africa, mainly because they feel like most Americans who know where the hell they are talking about  anyway- or what Black folk (‘scuse me African Americans) say “Down South” like it’s one place or on “The Job” like there is only one– Well  nowadays  there might only BE one! The lumping must stop let’s be clear and specific)

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Body Hero Jean Kilbourne: Obsession with Thinness and More…

“On the deepest level, the obsession with thinness is about cutting girls down to size. Now one could say this more vividly than this relatively new size in womenʼs clothing, size 0 and size 00. Imagine a man going into a clothing store and asking for anything in a size zero, but our girls are taught to aspire to become nothing.”

Jean Kilbourne

This is an incredible excerpt from a lecture where Kilbourne not only discusses the Obsession with Thinness but also the themes in advertising that encourage the disconnection with the body (female) and how food is sexualized as a way to create or re-create that connection, the prevalence of and the glorification sexual violence in ads, and how the sexualization and infatilizaton of women / girls is used to reduce women. It is a long clip but so worth watching all of it. if you can’t do it in one sitting, go back and finish, actually it is so interesting it sucks you in!!!

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25% Of Britons Have Obese Body Mass Index

Body Mass Index

Well we all know that the average waist line of America is ever expanding, but we are not the only country in trouble, a report was just released stating that 25% Of Britons Have Obese Body Mass Index. Pardon the pun but THAT”S HUGE!

Via Huffington Post

A quarter of the UK population has an obese Body Mass Index (BMI), but a high number “deny” how severely their weight could be affecting their health, according to new figures.

Only 6% of people believe their weight problem is severe enough to be described as obese, Slimming World’s annual survey showed.

Three quarters of people with an obese BMI underestimate their weight category according to the National Slimming Survey, which had 2,065 respondents.

More than one in three who are regarded as overweight said they felt weight “is the most important issue in life”.

Half of those classified as obese said their weight made them feel embarrassed, while others said they felt awkward, disgusted,
ashamed, clumsy or trapped.

Now I have stated before I am not here to judge the body, anybody’s body, but there has to be something said for health (and yes we all know that size is not an indicator of health), AND the way that you feel in your body. THIS is what I am most interested in. The issue of weight whether too much or too little is more about feeling fit, strong and vital than it is about aesthetics and beauty!

The Article continues:

Dr Jacquie Lavin, head of nutrition and research at Slimming World, said: “This worrying new data reveals the complex psychological issues associated with being overweight.

“Many people, including many health professionals, believe that managing weight is just about energy balance, and that people simply need to ‘eat less and exercise more’.”

However, that approach can never work while so many people deny how severely their weight could be affecting their health by increasing their risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke or while they struggle with the emotional burden of being overweight, which can affect their confidence in their ability to make healthy lifestyle changes.

“As individuals, we need support to tackle the deep-rooted psychological issues around how we feel about our weight before we can begin to make those changes.”

to read the rest jump to Huffington Post

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Meet our Resident Physical Therapist Sheyi Ojofeitimi


It looks like 2012 is going to be good. I have been trying to get a “Team” together for a while, we already have Courtney Veaszey our Mental Health Specialist, Natalie Guarnachelli our Nutritionist and I had spoken about having a physical therapist come on board,FINALLY I pinned and Sheyi down and we shot some segments! So I am introducing what will be called PT TIPS (Physical Therapy Tips not to be confused with the English tea PG Tips!)

Because my background is as a dancer, and the genesis of the blog sprung from both my personal experiences in the field, and seeing some of those same issues patterned in my students (as far as body image, and weight) the health, of my body however was always in relationship to the dance. To me (in my youth) Health simply meant being able to dance and dance pain free, period. Now that I am accumulating years….I see and feel how important it is to take care of your body inside and out, and for dancers physical therapy is a life line. I wanted to introduce the idea of, and clarify what physical therapy is to both dancers and non-dancers because it is a useful tool to getting and maintaining health. Most of us think that we use physical therapy if was are injured, however I was shocked to learn from Sheyi that ALL people should have a physical therapist- it’s not just about when your injured!it is also about prevention. I especially wanted to get the information about maintenance out there to young dancers is so vital, first because the work (contemporary) can be so extreme these days and hyper mobility is almost a prerequisite that the bodies of today seem to be more susceptible to injury. Maybe it’s me but it seems that kids these days break more easily, sometimes my classroom looks like a hospital ER with all the students sitting out for this or that, thus learning to take care of your instrument before an injury, during and after one is incredibly important. Also it can extend you career, people are dancing longer because we know more about the body, the sports medicine is better, as is the technology. SO! I finally pinned Sheyi down and we talked about a number of topics that I will be bringing to you every 3 weeks or so. Please We both would love to answer your questions so write in!!!  Our first topic was simple and seemingly obvious but proved not as obvious as you might think.

WHEN SHOULD YOU SEE A PHYSICAL THERAPIST?

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SHEYI!

Sheyi Ojofeitimi, DPT

 

Dr. Ojofeitimi is owner of Divine Physical Therapy, a NY based practice that uses a whole body approach to identify the biomechanical, neuromuscular, and/or motor control dysfunctions that are the cause of musculoskeletal pain. The practice offers on-site physical therapy services to performing arts organizations and private clients.

 

Dr. Ojofeitimi has spent the past 10 years serving in different capacities to several organizations. At Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus, she served as senior research associate at the Analysis of Dance and Movement (ADAM) Center, an on- campus biomechanics laboratory. There she was part of a team of physical therapists, biomechanists, computer scientists, and engineers who conducted biomechanical and epidemiologic research to aide in the prevention and treatment of musculoskeletal injury in dancers. She also served as Coordinator for Project QUEST (Quality Undergraduate Expanded Science Training), a federal grant funded program designed to directly address the shortage of minorities in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields by providing the a comprehensive range of services to support and strengthen the academic skills and educational experiences of minority students. During this same period she and her physical therapy colleagues provided screenings, injury prevention workshops, injury triage clinics, rehabilitation and injury case management services to Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance Company, and the Alvin Ailey Organization (including AAADT, Ailey II, students and staff of The Ailey School).  She serves as the tour physical therapist for AAADT.

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Ads That Might Need a Second Look : Body Hero Jean Kilbourne

Our Body Hero of the Week Jean Kilborne has worked tirelessly to raise awareness to some of the negative, misogynistic, sexist, violent, dehumanizing images and messages in advertising. Some are subtle others quite overt and blatant. I thought it would be helpful to post a gallery of some ads that have some of the elements that Kilbourne is talking about. Sometimes as we flip though magazines or sit on buses or subways we glance over them but don’t really “look” or “see” them.  Sometimes as they stand alone they seem benign but when you collect them together it is like a Chuck Close mosaic when you step back from the collection, you bigger picture becomes clear. Take a look and tell me what you think?

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The First Body Hero of the Week 2012 Jean Kilbourne

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Jean  Kilborne Ed. D is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking work on the image of women in advertising and for her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. In the late 1960s she began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs. According to Susan Faludi, “Jean Kilbourneʼs work is pioneering and crucial to the dialogue of one of the most underexplored, yet most powerful, realms of American culture – advertising. We owe her a great debt.” Mary Pipher has called Kilbourne “our best, most compassionate teacher.”

Her short documentary films Killing us Softly looks at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity. Her work embodies every thing that I, and My Body My Image represents. Her work brings to light the images, messages and stereotypes that are present in advertising and marketing that inform and effect us all by creating and reinforce unrealistic, and unhealthy, perceptions of beauty, perfection, and sexuality. By exposing this information, and bringing it to our attention her work forces us to take notice and take stock of where our concepts of beauty, femininity and sexuality come from and how it is developed. It forces not only the advertising companies and brands to take responsibility but demands that we are consumers also take accountability for supporting it, but more importantly by giving us the information it empowers us, to be informed enough to make a choice! These are some of the reasons thy Jean Kilbourne is our first Body Hero of the week for 2012.

 

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Beauty Tips Celebrities give THAT ARE WRONG!

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Every time you open a magazine or read a celebrity blog there is some actress or singer sharing a beauty or health tip on how to have better skin or giving their diet tips well the Sense About Science has taken some of them to task. I loved this report because so often women look at this  snippets of information and take it to heart heart. Where most of them are not dangerous per se they are on accurate. Here is what the report had to say:

Hosted by the Huffington Post:

Supermodels and celebs always seem to have some secret method for looking so good.

Elle Macpherson swears by copious amounts of water and “organic, locally sourced food,” while Miranda Kerr had eyebrows raised when she expressed her devotion to coconut oil (four tablespoons a day!) For Gwyneth, it’s those kickass Tracey Anderson workouts and those famous detoxing cleanses. And the Duchess of Cornwall supposedly swears by a face mask made of bee venom.

But scientists have decided to rain on our Celebrity Beauty Secrets parade. Sense About Science is a non-profit that aim to make sense of scientific and medical claims for the average citizen. In a recent paper, spotlighted by Racked, Sense About Science asked several scientists and doctors to take a closer look at celebrities’ nonchalant claims.

The conclusion? Lots of celebs have no idea what they’re talking about.

For example, Juliette Lewis’ claim that “coconut water is pretty much the most hydrating thing you can drink, and much better than man-made sports drinks”? Not true, says sports dietitian Ann Ashworth: “Coconut water has about half the amount of carbohydrate but also a different balance of salts than a typical sports drink, and so could be less hydrating.”

As for Pippa Middleton’s claim that rinsing her hair in cold water “closes the pores and gives it a lift and shine,” beauty and grooming senior scientist Dr. Frauke Neuser said, “Rinsing with water — whether hot or cold — doesn’t close or smoothen the cuticles” of one’s hair — moreover, hair doesn’t have pores.

And in response to Gisele Bundchen’s self-serving explanation of sunscreen (“I cannot put this poison on my skin… I do not use anything synthetic”), pharmaceutical scientist Gary Moss stated, “You might be surprised that you use a wide variety of synthetic materials in many aspects of your life: ‘synthetic’ does not automatically mean bad, just as ‘natural’ does not automatically mean safe or beneficial.”

For the rest JUMP!
The moral of the story, take every thing you hear with a grain of salt and just to be clear that is not a heath tip

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First Lady Got Back (but is it too much?)

Well that’s what Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) thinks.

Hosted by Huffington Post

MediaBistro reports that Sensenbrenner was overheard talking on the phone, retelling an incident in which he said about Michelle Obama:

“She lectures us on eating right while she has a large posterior herself.”

The most bothersome issue here is the conflation of two entirely separate matters: the First Lady’s (natural) physique and her campaign for healthy eating and physical fitness.

Michelle has traveled the country for her “Let’s Move!” campaign for over a year, talking about healthy eating, promoting a more user-friendly pyramid graphic, getting stores like Walmart to stock their shelves with nutritious items and playing sports with kids.

 

here is more from  Rush Limbaugh:

Yet some conservative critics don’t see it that way. Before Representative Sensenbrenner spoke out, Rush Limbaugh was on the case, disparaging Michelle Obama’s body as a way to critique her healthy eating campaign. The radio host said in February:

“The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice…I’m trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.”

*       *      *      *

Is  he serious? or is he high?

HERE’S A NEWSFLASH YOU IMBECILE: NEITHER DO THEY! THEY ARE LL PHOTO SHOPPED WITHIN AN INCH OF BEING A PAINTING! PERHAPS SHE SHOULD BE ON THAT HEALTHY WATER DIET USED BY ONE OF THOSE VICTORIA SECRET MODELS! THAT WOULD BE HEALTHY HUH?

 

 

 

So Wait! First of all why are you checking out her ass? and second of all what the HELL are you talking about. Michelle Obama is neither fat, nor out of shape. What she has are hips! She has a classic pear shape she’s small on top and wider in the hips. No matter how much weight she loses, she will always be wide across the hips because THOSE ARE HER BONES! I think it’s very interesting because Michelle does not have that “ideal” Body type that the media and fashion have promoted but what I love about her is that she is a shape and size that most American women (and others) can relate to, black white, red or yellow. She is not “camera ready” Hollywood thin (like a size 0) but she is fit and you can see by the way she carries herself that she is in her body she is active and exercises, and not just because her arms of buff!

 

The level of blatant disrespect is mind blowing, but as I say, it’s sad that things like this no longer take me aback. In these days and times with the way the world is…people will do and say anything in public—trust me, they were saying it on private but now they feel so comfortable that they will say it in the light of day and almost with impunity.  These comments are incendiary on so many levels, first of all why are you talking about her ass? When people want to wound (or hope to) they know that most women’s Achilles heel is her appearance, especially their weight. The second thing wrong with this is the fact and I have to say it– You just can’t say stuff like that about a black woman’s behind… seriously now, you know that puts the race card automatically in play. And what is so silly is for a Black woman, Michelle’s booty is not big (as in round, shelf, or as Miss. Phaedra Parks of RHOA would say “Donkey Booty”)

 

I have to break out ma black woman for a second and say a word to crazy white male (and female for that matter) politicians who want to come out of their face with crazy talk about a the first Black Booty…

You better check yo’self before you git wrecked! Don’t know her husband has access to all sorts of cans of whip ass– Secret service, CIA, Nuclear WEAPONS!!! You gonna come out the side of you face wit some nonsense and git yo’self popped!

Sorry that’s the best written black speech I can offer…

continue reading this madness hereHuffington Post