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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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Meet some of my Bikram Family (pt1)

Adam, Chad, Myrna, Veronica, Makeda and Steven share what Bikram has done for them. From weight loss to patience, tolerance, and acceptance of themselves and others listen to how this seemingly extreme practice is a great equalizer- all ages, colors, sizes and backgrounds come together and sweat it out. They are a cast of characters for sure. I thank them greatly for sharing their unique stories. oh I shouldn’t forget Sabastian!!!

A Man’s Story

Take a tour to In Your Words and meet David W. who tells his story of trying to find peace with himself in his new slimmer body. His struggle is a human one and though at times because of the media and commercial focus on women’s shapes and forms we tend to forget that men indeed inhabit bodies that they are less then pleased or comfortable with. We are all in this together and I sincerely that more men enter into the discussion. Thank you David.

David W.’s Story

First off, I think your website is a fantastic idea! Body image has got so screwed up because of the media and you are taking a big stab at helping to set it right again. I was reading the two comments in you “In Your Words” section and realized that I would quite like to share my story (and give a male viewpoint too). I’m not a dancer (yet – I’m starting Ballet classes in a couple of weeks) and don’t know if your blog is only for dancers body image stories but if not here is my story. Feel free to edit it down a little if it is too long.

So, to start, as a guy I feel under a great deal of pressure to maintain a ‘perfect’ body – or whatever that is according to the media. Whereas women have the pressure to be tall and thin, as a guy I feel more pressure to have washboard abs and a perfectly toned body, something I do not have, have never had, and possibly won’t have in the near future. Although I realize this I still feel ashamed that I haven’t reached this “perfection”, even though I am a very healthy weight and an active person.

Growing up (in the UK) I was never an active child (I avoided sports like the plague) and by the time I was 17 I weighed a reasonably hefty 270lbs. At this point I decided I didn’t want to continue that path and so gave up what I classified as “crap”: chocolate, candy, potato chips, non-diet sodas, cakes etc. This was a pretty drastic move for me but it worked and 6 months down the line I had lost around 35lbs. At college I decided to take up Crew and this helped me lose some more weight and I eventually settled at around 200-210lbs. Yes there was a decent amount of muscle, but there were still “moobs” (man-boobs), and a couple of spare tires around my waist I didn’t particularly like.

After finishing college I moved to the States for Grad School and decided to make another change and aimed to drop from 216lbs to 180lbs. There wasn’t a particular reason for this weight other than it seemed to be an appropriate weight for me (I’m 6’1″). This turned out to be much harder than my initial weight loss – I still wasn’t eating “crap” (it’s now been nearly 6 years) and so I had to just be a lot more aware of my diet and exercise habits.

I have since reached 180lbs and have now plateaued around the 185lb mark – a weight I feel quite comfortable. But what about my body image? Well, I still don’t have those washboard abs or rock hard pecs, still far from it! However, I feel I am more accepting of my body now. I still have a couple of major issues though:

First, I still find it hard to accept my new body image. I believe this is quite common with people who have lost a large amount of weight (around 90lbs in my case) and I still find it hard to look at myself in the mirror. There are days when I wake up and look in the mirror and see a trim 185lb guy (and feel pretty happy about myself), whereas other days (more than half) I look in the mirror and I still see the 270lb teenager I used to be (and feel down because of it). I still refuse to take my shirt off at the beach (the thought actually scares me quite a bit) and I find it hard to believe that some recent pictures of me at 180lbs are actually me and not some impostor. It sounds quite ridiculous when I write it down, but that doesn’t change things. I have recently decided to take Ballet (something I would never have even considered a couple of years ago) and although my main reason for taking Ballet class is to learn this wonderful art form, I hope that I will also learn more about my body in the process and hopefully start to shut that 270lb me away and see the 180lb me a little more. If you, or any readers, have any tips about accepting a new body image I would love to hear them!

My other issue is I now associate certain foods with me in either state. I have a lot of friends who offer me a slice of cake or a piece of chocolate with the statement “One small piece won’t hurt”. however in my mind I can’t disassociate that one bite with weighing 270lbs. I feel that by having that one chunk of chocolate I will spiral out of control. The rational side of me realizes this isn’t likely, but I can’t shake the irrational side of me. This isn’t a huge issue at the moment, after all I’m only missing out on things that are generally unhealthy, but I do sometimes worry that it might get worse in the future and result in me being too strict in my diet.

So that is my story. I try to help my personal body image by realizing that I have already improved my body image and so I should be proud rather than unsatisfied. That being said, it is constantly a struggle for me to accept my body although hopefully this will improve in the future.

David

Meet Bikram Yoga Harlem Owners Adam and Erik

I have been an avid Bikram practitioner for about a year and a half now. Though I do it begrudgingly most days it is the ONLY thing that has worked for me. It of keeps me lean, and flexible with the added benefit of leveling off my weight by acting almost like an appetite suppressant- or more that it makes me desire better- cleaner foods. T’ruth be told I am a bloater- I mean there are days were I can sink the Titanic I expel so much water. I’m naturally muscular so the gym is not an option for me unless I want to look like a competitive body builder. And it’s a challenge, it’s 90 minutes where you battle your body, mind and the elements after which I always feel like there is nothing I can’t do!

Come and meet the owners of the studio I attend in Harlem.

Bikram Yoga Harlem
518 W 145th St, NY, NY 10031
tel : 212.926.0753