On what began as an ordinary day in early fall, I and the other dancers in my pre-professional ballet program were told that we were going to be measured by the costume shop in anticipation of our upcoming Nutcracker performances with the company. We were lined up in a hallway that led to the open […]

As a student, Maria Caruso was told that her body might be better suited to modern dance than ballet. “But I didn’t want to give up my pointe shoes,” she says. “So then I was told to get a breast reduction. To change the way my body looks. And I just didn’t understand that. Why […]

As a dietitian specializing in dance nutrition, the most common DM flooding my inbox is “How can I drop pounds (specifically from body fat) and gain muscle?” The short answer? Not happening. The more we attempt to control the number on the scale, the more we risk developing physiological, biological and psychological deterrents that can […]

It took two years of intense nutrition counseling and psychotherapy to pull me out of being anorexic. My problem now is that I’ve gained too much weight from eating normally. Is there no middle ground? I can’t fit into my clothes, but I don’t want to go back to being sick. —Former Anorexic, Weston, CT […]