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!
Michelle Obama was at an elementary school promoting her Let’s Move campaign in the fight to end childhood obesity. She along with teachers and the student body worked out to the new remix of Beyonce’s “Move Your Body”. I have to say our First Lady has some moves, although you can tell that she is holding back because, after all she is the First Lady, But you kinda get the feeling that at a house party in private with no press or cameras that she can get her wind on for real!!! check out the video and hey dance along!!
Wow I have to say these ladies are really pulling it together, J-Hud, Jordin Sparks and Raven Symone, all look incredible these days. I think the most interesting thing is none of them were super big, definitely big by Hollywood standards but by average African American standards they were what is considered “Thick” not in a bad way but in a good and healthy (as far as attractiveness) way. But they are all so young and to be overweight, or more importantly not to have good eating and exercise habits at a young age when you have the propensity to carry extra weight is not good. Culturally Jennifer Hudson hit the nail on the head when she said that at her heavier weight she felt normal because all the women in her family and around her looked like that. Albeit just because something is common doesn’t make it a good thing. ( Raven is giving you a bit of Nicole Ritchie now huh? what with the hair color and jaw line and all)
Then My mind goes to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, and how she has recently lost a great deal of weight and reformed her diet and exercise regime, and not only does she look great (which actually should be considered the inconspicuous benefit to eating well) but she might have extended her life by getting her body in balance internally and externally, while no doubt improving the quality of the life she is living. Keep up the stellar work sisters!!! We’re proud of you!
Aretha before:
Oh Lawd, I hope this is a unclothed as it gets! ( no leaked nude photos!)
I know that she must me so psyched that she has slimmed down just in time for bikini weather. The worst thing in the world is to not feel good about your body when you are shopping for a bathing suit. She looks good! I think the womanly hourglass figure is so beautiful. I have to say that I am glad today both the waif like, boyish, no hip aesthetic and the zaftig figure, eight silhouette are celebrated in terms of women in the public eye, however when it comes to the Fashion Industry we still have a long way to go. Hopeful the more women learn to appreciate and accept their forms regardless of what end of the spectrum they fall, the more that as consumers we demand to see ourselves reflected in the advertising and marketing!!!
Courtesy of Hello Beautiful
Jennifer Hudson recently revealed to the UK’s Grazia magazine that the entertainment industry that once discriminated against her is now more receptive since she’s lost weight.
She said, “In this slim world I do now realize I was being discriminated against. I’m offered more parts. There is much more excitement about me now.”
While it seems as though casting directors and the public in general have embraced her slimmer physique, Hudson says she’s still getting accustomed to being a smaller size.
“Last week I saw some footage of myself as I was five years ago and I was surprised. It was like I recognized myself but I didn’t. It seemed another world away.”
“I never thought I was overweight. I thought my old look was pretty normal. That was how all the girls looked growing up in Chicago. I didn’t have any problem with it. It makes me smile to think back to myself when I did ‘Dreamgirls’ with Beyonce. I did see all these women in Hollywood, all very slim and I thought, ‘Wow, these ladies are very into themselves.’ I loved that I stood out in a room. You knew when you saw this woman
We discussed this as our inaugural issue in Donnish Delights Taylor Owens Ramsey took the issue of double standards on as it pertained to Gabourey Sidibe and Jonah Hill, quite ironically Hill has just lost a ton of weight let’s see how his dance card looks in the next 6 months!
Just about a month ago I had the great “pleasure” of going through international security at JFK on my way to Italy. The lines were unusually long and slow, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why. When I finally reached the actual x-ray area it became clear, it was the full body scanner that was slowing things up. It was the full body scanner, since I had not flown internationally since the new body scans had been introduced I had completely forgotten. I know this has been the source of great controversy, I had seen the stories on the news and on the Internet about people being groped and prodded, there was even as story where a TSA officer asked a breast cancer survivor to remove her prosthesis. I couldn’t image it going that far. Actually things seemed to be moving along, I didn’t see any one refusing the scan.
I, a seasoned traveler had already taken my jewelry and outerwear off, had prepped my shoes for removal and was ready to grab my 3 bins (coat and shoes, computer and purse). I inched my things towards the x-ray machine and prepared to be scanned. When I was summoned forth I stepped into the contraption and assumed the position; hands above head legs apart, and just a moment later I was asked to pass through. I peeked at the monitor where I thought my image would appear, but the woman told me that is was not located there, but in another area of the airport. I have to say that I was kind of disappointed, I wanted to see what I looked like, I was having a thin day. The agent asked me to wait with her before gathering my belongings, “I have to wait until they clear you” she said with her hand on the walkie talkie attached to her shoulder. While I awaited clearance I decided to get as much information as possible. “How much does it show?” I asked, “Like do I need to suck in my stomach?” She laughed and said that it wasn’t that bad, and that’s all she said, then waved me on. As a collected and reassembled my belongings I couldn’t help but think, that at there are so many times during the day that I have to worry about my body, I worry when I pick out what to wear to Bikram, or to teach my ballet classes, I have to find the jeans or outfit that makes me look slim or makes me at least feel slimmer then I might be at the time. Now I thought I have to diet before I go to the airport so that my full body scan (which is probably more revealing then the outfit adroitly chosen to camouflage my body flaws shows) looks good. Just another added stress! So Rhianna I feel you girl. However I have to say that the cost to my ego is a small price to pay for being safe. *note, if you are going to the airport you might want to wear a pair of spanks!
Hair is a MAJOR issue for Black Women. (holler if you feel me) It has a great deal to do with how we feel about ourselves and our image. I am the baby of nine, there are 6 girls and 3 boys in my family. I remember with great distinction the time before hair relaxers were a household item. In our house we had “hair washing day”. We would go in shifts, the older girls washing theirs and then mine. For that Saturday or Sunday my mother was a permanent fixture at the stove hot comb in hand pressing out one head after the other. I was always last. I recall the smell of hair and pressing oil wafting through the first floor of our home. Since the girls were the majority in the house I never thought that this hair ritual cost me precious hours of free play time and that if I had been a boy instead of waiting form my fuzzy plaits to dry and be pressed out, I could be whizzing around the corner on a big wheel. Later Revlon liberated my mother from the stove, at least where pressing and curling hair was concerned.
I think I got my first relaxer when I was 11. It was an old school lye relaxer that burnt and smelled but did the job. After 45 minutes of toil, my hair was a close to Barbie’s as it was ever going to get. There were no more edges to contend with (Edges are what black people call the hair line when it is fuzzy) and my “kitchen” ( the nape of the neck, where the peas of kinky hair appear) were all but vanquished, that is until the new growth started to show letting you know that it was time once again to have your hair touched up. Hair straighteners were life altering for the black women. For years though the desired aesthetic of straight, silky hair like that of Caucasian women was obtainable through pressing out the hair, with the slightest hint of humidity the illusion dissipated. With a permanent relaxer all those worries were a thing of the past.
Later I went back to my natural kinky state, it was in the early 90’s. Oddly though I felt liberated in a way, no longer beholden to what we now call the “creamy crack” of a relaxer, it took a long time to feel myself attractive with my kinky halo. What was more interesting and telling was the reaction I got from others. All of the sudden Black men referred to me as “sista” on the street, when my hair was twisted, I was “rasta” and though I lived downtown in the west village, where ever I went people assumed I lived in Brooklyn. It was then that I realized that in the African American Community hair was in some way used as an identifier, if you were natural you were “down” if you had a relaxer you were assimilating, or just not down. I didn’t quite understand it and I certainly didn’t prescribe to it. My hair has never been a political statement, if it was saying anything at all it would be that this is what I find attractive for me at the time. My hair is like a bag, or shoes, or a pair of earrings, it is an accessory, it has nothing to do with how I feel about my blackness (or anyone else’s for that matter) It does not herald my consciousness, or lack thereof, it is for me just hair.
Black women have long been at odds with and/or conflicted about their hair, it’s type, and grade, it is part and parcel of the light skin/dark skin issue and societies concept and perception of beauty- that of which we traditionally do not fit into. Recently I took out the double strand twists that I had been wearing for about a year, I put them as an homage to the passing of Farrah Fawcett, it was what I called my Charlie’s Angel hair. About a month ago I released the beast of my Afro and let her run wild. I had forgotten what it was like to be “natural” and have an glamorously unruly head of hair and I love it, however there was that transitional moment when I looked at myself in the mirror and thought that I did not look attractive. I had to get used to it, again. Now am rocking what I call my rock Star look!
Below is a video of , Cassie, Solange and Selita Ebanks talking about “Good Hair”, what that is and what it means to them with Lisa Price
I collected several of my mother’s dresses from back in the day that are labeled a size 8 and I can’t get my baby finger in them even though I am a 2011 size 6-8, I knew then that there was something hinky going on with sizing. I have noticed through out the years whether I stay the same size or get a bit fuller my clothing size stays relatively the same, or I go to one brand and I’m a 6 and another and I’m a 10 (which brand to you think I buy:) Clearly when you can fit a size 4 instead of a 6-7 you feel better about yourself and it encourages you to buy the garment but does it matter that it’s somewhat of a lie? This is really becomes an issue (as stated in the segment below) when one shops on line, what is the real size? would you rather have the truth of your size (even if it meant looking at a larger number in the back of your clothing) or would you take the hassle of the hunt for a garment that fits so long as the tag makes you feel good. * we have to remember that the tags are inside of our clothing and no one reads them but us!!!
Courtesy of Huffington Post: full entry here
“The Today Show” took a look at the difference in clothing sizes among retailers, after the New York Times’ most e-mailed article on Monday was “One Size Fits Nobody.” Said report, in a nutshell:
Take a woman with a 27-inch waist. In Marc Jacobs’s high-end line, she is between an 8 and a 10. At Chico’s, she is a triple 0. And that does not consider whether the garment fits in the hips and bust. (Let’s not get into length; there is a reason most neighborhood dry cleaners also offer tailoring.)
Uh-huh. Exactly as we suspected.
Writer Stephanie Clifford told Ann Curry that men’s sizing was standardized around the time of Civil War uniforms, but there were no measurements put in place for women and eventually designers started dabbling in the dark world of vanity sizing. Clifford also believes that sizing issues have upped the outrageous amount of clothing returns — $194 billion last year.
Contributing Writer Jessica Danser-Schwarz shares lessons learned from her time as a dancer, teacher and choreographer
Intensive dance training is one of the most rigorous and demanding tasks imaginable, both physically and emotionally. There really is no way to take it lightly and still get results, so it is incredibly important that young people who are serious about pursuing professional dance careers educate themselves not only on the art of dance, but also about the special physical and emotional precautions they need to take in order to enjoy a long, healthy career and not burn out. When I was a young dance student, I was incredibly dedicated to improving my technique, but like many young dancers, I neglected many of my physical and mental needs.
Because of this, I spent the majority of my 4 years of conservatory training (and, come to think of it, a lot of my high school pre-professional training) injured, depressed, and demoralized. When I graduated, I went into teaching rather than intensively performing, and also started a small company. I was no longer dancing the number of hours I was while in school, but I was taking class 3-4 times a week, teaching class daily, and rehearsing multiple hours a week, so my load was still pretty heavy. After my first year out of school, I noticed a remarkable change had happened– despite a sharp decrease in class time, my technique had actually improved. My balance was better, my extensions more solid, and my injuries had subsided. I realized that more than changing my schedule, this new life post-college had changed a lot of my HABITS, thus enabling me to dance smarter and stay healthy.
I don’t deny the value of the intensity of conservatory training, and I only wish I had figured out some of these healthier attitudes sooner so I could have gotten even more out of my programs. Now that I am on the other side of the mirror, so to speak, I try to pass along some of these ideas to my students, so that even at a young age they can form routines and, attitudes which will help keep them sane and healthy if they choose to pursue an intensive study of dance. The following are some suggestions which in my opinion, would greatly reduce injury and frustration in young dancers.
1. Warm yourself up.
I don’t just mean before rehearsal, although clearly dancers who jump into choreography ice cold are doing themselves a disservice. I feel that it is also necessary to warm up before CLASS. No matter how thorough a warm-up class provides, no teacher is able to give a warm-up which focuses on the specific needs of every unique body in the room. Maybe you are tight and need to mobilize your joints before class. Maybe you are hyper-mobile and need to do some stabilization exercises. Perhaps you have a chronic ankle problem and need to do some theraband stretches to get the kinks out before doing relévès. Whatever your specific issues are, don’t simply rely on class to take care of all of them. Additionally, if you arrive 15 minutes early to your first class of the day and take the time to check in with your body, you will be more focused and better able to pick up in class.
As I mentioned above, the needs of each dancer are unique in terms of warm-up, but some general rules of thumb are that you want your warm-up to get your blood flowing and wake your muscles up (move around, don’t just stay in a static position for a long time– I find leg and arm swings while lying on the floor to be very useful), include gentle, mobilizing stretches (yoga cat and cow back good, splits and straddles not good– save deep stretching for after class or after barre), and focus on aligning your body for your class work (spine and abdominal strengtheners like Pilates can be good to include.)
If you’re clueless as to what to do for a warm-up, ask a teacher you trust, a physical therapist or trainer, or even a friend you see consistently warming up, then start to develop a routine based on what makes you feel best. Trying some bodywork classes in Pilates, yoga, Klein, or Gyrotonics (if you have time) can also be very informative.
2. Practice restorative stretching.
It is distressing to observe how much young dancers tend to focus only on stretches they feel will improve their extension (splits, straddles, shouldering the leg, etc) and how little time overall is spent on stretches to release chronically overworked areas. I encourage all of my students to stretch their glutes, quads, hip flexors, and calves daily. These muscles are constantly working if you are doing classical dance, and allowing them to get ultra tight through neglect can result in a host of injuries. While they don’t obviously contribute to extension in the ways that, say, the hamstrings do, everything is working together in the body and an excessive tightness in one area is going to lead to problems in other areas.
3. Stop forcing turnout
Ok, I may have to give up my tutu and the stick I bang on the floor after this one, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it: most dancers force their turnout. We all know we’re not supposed to, but we also all know that 5th position is heel to toe and tendú a la seconde is supposed to be in line with your shoulder. I am definitely not advocating the total abandonment of turnout, and feel that turnout is useful as well as beautiful, but forcing yourself to stand in a position you can’t maintain muscularly in order to meet a certain aesthetic standard doesn’t make sense. We’re dancers, not Barbies, right? The point is to be able to MOVE, not to be a perfect, yet non-functional, ballet statue.
When finding one’s real turnout, I would suggest going through the same checklist I give my Level 1 8 year olds: are all 10 toes on the floor? Is your pelvis underneath you? Can you straighten your knees without any twisting? Can you balance without the barre? Can you transfer to standing on one leg or to relévè without having to alter your turnout? Once you have found the turnout level which meets that criteria, stop looking in the mirror for a few weeks. Learn to locate your rotation kinesthetically instead of visually. You may be amazed at the improvement in your technique.
4. Focus on the pelvis.
I subbed a high school modern class once in which the students complained, “All we’ve been working on all year is PELVIS!!” My response was, “What else is there?” Whether doing ballet or modern, understanding and being able to properly control your pelvis is one of the most important things dancers can do. I could easily write an entire essay just on the many impacts of the pelvis on dancer health and technique, but for the moment, the following are chronic problems many young dancers need to address:
Stop tucking your pelvis in order to “look skinny.” First off, pelvic position and weight have very little to do with each other. If you do have excess weight around your stomach or butt, walking around in a perma-contraction is not going to help it, only diet and exercise can make one lose weight (and I’ve found that most dancers employing this trick are NOT overweight at all.) Secondly, constant tucking can actually make your glutes and quads bulk up due to the overuse they suffer when trying to work around a misaligned pelvis.
Stop distorting your pelvic alignment in order to turn out more or get your leg higher. If you keep using an improper means towards your desired end, your results will be unpredictable and possibly hurt you. Don’t be so eager to developè over your head if the only way you can do it is jacking your hip up. Accept the limitations of what your body can do CORRECTLY and then advance from there.
Remember to strengthen all areas of the pelvis. Crunches only get the upper abs. A proper abdominal workout for dancers must also include strengthening the lower abs, the obliques, the back muscles, and in my opinion absolutely must include exercises to engage the pelvic floor and trunk stabilizers in a neutral position so that dancers learn to engage the abdominals without altering the position of the spine.
checkout our pelvic placement series with Leslie Journet
5. Have a healthy attitude about corrections.
I can’t tell you how many classes I’ve left in tears because I didn’t get a correction. As a young dancer, I completely relied on the validation of my teachers for self-worth, so that every time I got a correction I couldn’t immediately master I felt incompetent and every class I wasn’t singled out in I felt worthless. Now that I’m a teacher, I have learned how challenging it is in a large class to give individual attention to every student every single week, (as well as the fact that whether or not I correct someone has nothing to do with whether I like them or think they’re talented—I’m simply noticing a problem and addressing it) and I realize how silly it was for me to spend so much of my training being so upset over attention I was or wasn’t getting. Now that I am taking class for personal enrichment and on my own terms, I focus on enjoying the movement, learning new things about my own body, and learning from listening to the teacher, whether he or she is addressing me or not.
When you are taking class, try to remember the old adage that every correction is your correction. Listen to the teacher, no matter who they’re talking to. Also use class as a time to check in with YOUR body and do as much self-correcting as you can. It’s wonderful when you bring your performance energy into class, but recognize that class is not a show, and you aren’t going to always get that same rush in the studio that comes from having an enthusiastic audience. Also remember that class is where it’s ok to make mistakes—the risks you take in class are the way you learn how to perfect new skills and then eventually bring them to the stage, so don’t be afraid to try and sometimes fail. If we all knew how to do everything perfectly we wouldn’t need class, and dance technique is one of those things that constantly has to be revisited and fine-tuned.
I wish I had had this attitude and developed more of these healthy attitudes as a younger dancer, as class is now a joy instead of a stress, and whether or not I nail my double pirouette or not, I truly marvel at the fact that this body of mine, designed by nature to do things like walking and running, can do something as remarkable as a pirouette at all.
I have been rollin’ in the deep with Adele for a while now. Her soulful sound and heartfelt lyrics are so on point and a rarity in our times. I adore her, but I have wondered how it is that a girl who looks like a …well a regular, real girl managed to get a deal and rise to be a number one artist without someone trying to changer her. I think that she is not only beautiful, and sexy, and talented, but having heard her on a few interviews she has a wicked sense of humor. I think seeing a woman that looks like a real, live, woman instead of a company manufactured concept of what women should look like or a pre-pubescent porn star in the making is refreshing. Here’s what she had to say in Rolling Stone Magazine
Adele’s album 21 has returned to the #1 spot on the Billboard album chart. That’s its fourth week overall at the top, giving 21 the longest run at #1 since Taylor Swift’s Speak Now topped the charts for six weeks starting last October. 21 has also become the first album of 2011 to go platinum: according to Nielsen Soundscan, the disc has sold 1.03 million copies in seven weeks. That’s slightly more than her first album, 19, has sold since it was released in 2008.
Adding to Adele’s heat, she’s the cover girl of the new issue of Rolling Stone. Inside, she opens up not only about her music, but also about her body image. Adele is not a rail-thin model type, and she doesn’t care — she tells the magazine, “I don’t like going to the gym. I like eating fine foods and drinking nice wine. Even if I had a really good figure, I don’t think I’d [show] my [boobs and butt] for [anyone].” But that’s not to say Adele doesn’t appreciate the amazing figures of some of her pop colleagues. She tells the magazine, “I love seeing Lady Gaga’s boobs and bum. I love seeing Katy Perry’s boobs and bum. Love it. But that’s not what my music is about. I don’t make music for eyes. I make music for ears.”
(Source: Ohio State University: Journal of Counseling Psychology)
Women’s appreciation of their bodies is only indirectly connected to their body mass index (BMI), a common health measure of weight relative to height, according to recent research.
The most powerful influence on women’s appreciation of their bodies is how they believe important others view them, the study suggests. On the flip side, the more women are able to focus on the inner workings of their body – or how their bodies function and feel – rather than how they appear to others, the more they will appreciate their own bodies.
And the more a woman appreciates her body, the more likely she is to eat intuitively – responding to physical feelings of hunger and fullness rather than emotions or the mere presence of food.
“Women who focus more on how their bodies function and less on how they appear to others are going to have a healthier, more positive body image and a tendency to eat according to their bodies’ needs rather than according to what society dictates,” said Tracy Tylka, associate professor ofpsychology at Ohio State University and senior author of the study.
Other studies have suggested that about 50 per cent of women appreciate their bodies. This work is geared toward examining how they arrive at their satisfaction with their bodies, and how they avoid any pitfalls that might interfere with their positive thinking.
Ultimately, the researchers say, it boils down to respect. If women are going to treat their bodies well – through nourishment, health screenings and exercise, for example – they first have to like their bodies.
“And it turns out we look to whether others accept our bodies to determine whether we appreciate them ourselves,” Tylka said. “It’s not our weight, but instead whether others in our social network appreciate us. That implies that people should be convinced to be less judgmental and to focus less on weight.” continue
Creating a healthier body image through Acceptance, Appreciation and Respect
