Dancers are known to be very careful about they way they look. If one wants to be a professional dancer it becomes important that one takes care of one’s looks and body. Therefore apart from regular dance practice, daily exercise and good care of skin and hair is important to maintain yourself.
Dance is a visual medium, so looking good is as important as the dance form itself. A beautiful and a good-looking dancer attracts more attention. Take Pandit Shambhu Maharaj for example, he was one of the most handsome classical dancers of India and so was the late Pandit Durga Lalaji, and amongst the living legends Dr Sonal Mansingh is another beauty you simply can’t take your eyes off. Dancers’ beauty and their grace play an important part in portraying their characters. I am sure we cannot imagine or visualise Lord Krishna or a Sita with pimples or acne. So for a dancer beauty is indeed a priority.
Gone are those days when just a good diet and workouts would be enough to look beautiful. Now due to stressful and busy lives with pollution and extreme climate, a dancer has to pay extra attention to their beauty care regime. In today’s modern world many icky products have gained popularity along with usual herbal creams and natural products.
International dancing stars like Britney Spear, Madonna and Victoria Beckham have been trying these new products as beauty treatments. Victoria’s secret is said to be bird poop — she is a big fan of Geisha facials, which has bird poop as an ingredient. If this is making you cringe, there’s more, Hollywood A-listers seem to have dismissed the Botox and caviar regime for snake venom facials and snail slime that claims to rid you of wrinkles and blemishes. It’s very popular in the West, but I just wonder if Indian dance community is ready yet to try the new stuff out.
I know of an Indian classical dancer who specially gets snake oil from Kuwait and uses it for hair conditioning as it keeps her hair shinny. My dear friend, noted dermatologist and beauty expert Dr. Rashmi Shetty says, “All the products cannot be really verified, but yes, it’s true that some products are known to be effective. For instance, beetle juice is supposedly to be a collagen stimulant, then one also hears of certain synthetic snake venom that has a Botox like reaction to the face. There is snake slime which is in great demand today; it is said that to have moisturising properties owing to its proteins, glycolic acid and elastin in it.”
But for dancers while exotic ingredients may seem like a magic wand, I would say one should definitely look at the flip side of this. A case in point is the Japanese Geisha dancers, who are world famous for their beauty and dance. Now the same Geisha facials have become a rage at the local spas especially in America. It is said to have nightingale droppings in its list of ingredients. Apparently that is what the Japanese Geishas attribute their flawless skin to. Dr Shetty says, “It may have brightening agents, but I’ve heard that prolonged use of it leads to bad skin. The problem with so called natural products is that they do not need FDA approval, so they are easy to float in the market.”
My advice to all the dancers who go over the top to take care of their beauty is — better to be safe than sorry and use products that are approved by FDA. Dr Shetty adds, “While one cannot ridicule them, there is no medical evidence to indicate the claims made.” I think it eventually depends on sustainability.