For a long time, I thought being mentally strong meant pushing through.

Pushing through exhaustion. Pushing through anxiety. Pushing through pressure, overthinking, and the fear of not being good enough.

And as dancers, we become very good at doing exactly that.

We learn to smile on stage even when we are struggling behind the scenes. We learn to keep going because that is what dedicated dancers do. We are praised for discipline, resilience, and hard work. But somewhere along the way, many of us stop checking in with ourselves entirely.

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme is Action, and honestly, I think that is such an important conversation for the dance world.

Because taking action for your mental health is not only about reaching out once everything has completely fallen apart. It is also about the small things we do consistently that support our wellbeing before we ever reach burnout.

I say that as someone who wishes I had understood that much earlier.

From the outside, my years touring professionally with Riverdance looked incredible. In many ways, they truly were. I got to travel the world, perform on some of the most beautiful stages imaginable, and live out dreams I had carried since childhood.

But what people often do not see behind professional dance careers, or even competitive dance careers, is the pressure quietly building underneath it all.

The perfectionism. The comparison. The uncertainty. The pressure to always appear “fine.” The feeling that your worth somehow becomes tied to how well you perform.

I have spoken openly before about my own struggles with anxiety and panic attacks, and what is strange is that some of my hardest mental health moments happened during periods where, externally, everything looked successful.

That is why I think open conversations matter so much.

Because dancers can become very skilled at performing wellness.

I also know now that burnout rarely happens overnight. It builds slowly. Sometimes it looks like emotional exhaustion. Sometimes it feels like becoming disconnected from the thing you once loved, or from the people around you. Sometimes it is withdrawing, isolating yourself, avoiding socialising, or simply feeling overwhelmed by things you would normally cope with.

And eventually, if we ignore those signs for long enough, the body often starts speaking for us.

Injury. Fatigue. Trouble sleeping. Loss of motivation. Chronic tension. Anxiety. Feeling flat and disconnected.

Now, working with dancers in strength and conditioning and wellness, I see more and more how deeply connected mental and physical health really are. We talk so much about injury prevention physically, but emotional burnout matters too. Nervous systems matter too. Recovery matters too.

We cannot perform at our best when we are constantly running on empty.

One of the biggest things I have learned is that taking action for your mental health usually does not look dramatic. More often, it is quiet, repetitive, and daily. It is learning to notice when something feels off before your body forces you to stop.

And honestly, I do not think we should only support our mental health reactively. We should support it proactively.

Just like we train strength, stamina, flexibility, and technique consistently, our mental health deserves the same attention and care long before crisis point.

I still struggle at times with separating my worth from performance, in business now and even in my own training. I think many dancers do. Dance can become so deeply tied to identity that a bad class, a result, an injury, or criticism can suddenly feel personal, as though we are the failure rather than simply having experienced a difficult moment.

But I am learning that there is a huge difference between being passionate about something and basing your entire worth upon it. Sometimes the healthiest action we can take is stepping back a little, putting the phone away, taking a break from social media, asking for help, or simply learning to speak to ourselves with a little more compassion.

And I also want to say this to teachers, mentors, coaches, and parents.

The dancer in the room who seems tired, distracted, emotional, withdrawn, blank, overwhelmed, or struggling to pick up choreography may not be lazy or unfocused. They may be carrying far more internally than you realise.

I think it is incredibly important that we continue creating environments where dancers feel safe speaking openly about mental health, and where adults are willing to become more informed, compassionate, and educated around these conversations too.

Sometimes the most powerful thing we can offer someone is not immediate correction, but listening.

At the From Head to Toe Academy, mental wellbeing is something we care deeply about. We are incredibly fortunate to have sports psychologist Dr. Mitchell DeSimone as part of our team, hosting monthly workshops and offering support for dancers, schools, and families through workshops and 1:1 sessions.

No dancer should feel like they have to struggle silently.

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that mental health is not something we “fix” once and move on from. It is something we support continually through awareness, connection, boundaries, support, and small daily actions over time.

With love,

Chloey Turner ♥️