Musings on the older professional female dancer

The current Western dance world perpetuates the idea that it is an artform for only the “young and beautiful.” Dancers who wish to continue performing after a certain age have to fight for the opportunity to remain visible, particularly female dancers. Why is society challenged by the image of a female dancer of a certain age, whose form was once regarded and admired? For the older woman or dancer, the association of supposed lessening sensuality and closeness of mortality may seem inevitable. Invisibility and disregard of life experience shriek disenfranchisement, and new questions need to be asked as to how this wealth of embodied dance experience can be acknowledged, with audiences looking beyond ageing. The dance-by-date so adhered to in Western dance requires debate from within in order to bring about change, to broaden these aesthetic boundaries, and to recognise the creativity these female dancers embody.