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Christina Gallegos

Instructor McCann

English 1301.127

1 December 2021

Dancing One’s Stress Away: A Rhetorical Analysis

The dancing community has grown to include a large number of young dancers as a result

of social media. In their piece "I Feel Free," Anna Duberg, Margareta Moller, and Helena

Sunvisson tackle a contentious issue. Which is about how stress affects young dancers and what

they're doing to assist. This topic explores the many experiences that dancers have when

struggling with internalizing issues. This dance intervention research group focused on 59 girls,

24 of whom were chosen strategically to be interviewed (Duberg et al.) The writers divided the

issues into five categories. These three writers employ rhetorical appeals to bolster and educate

their audience on dancer’s stress and how they conducted their research.

The concerns were grouped into five categories by the authors. These three authors use

rhetorical arguments to support and educate their readers on dancer stress and how their study

was performed. One of the groups was called "An Oasis from Stress," and it was developed since

every female considered stress to be a part of their everyday lives. The dancers said that dealing

with internal and external pressure was sometimes tough, and how the pressure and problems

were regularly influenced by the media. The dance intervention was described as a fun break

from school, with the girls looking forward to it throughout the day. The unstimulating and

encouraging atmosphere compared with the enormous pressure and demands these dancers went

through were subjected to elsewhere. These ladies were able to "be themselves" while in this

environment. They also felt free of pressure and expectations, all with the feeling of being
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included without having to give and perform. They felt free to "take off the disguise" for a bit

after the dancing intervention, which provided them with a nonjudgmental breathing space. All

of this connects to pathos because they both deal with emotion. All of the emotion and stress

these dancers carry with them makes them a different person to that of their true personality, so

their dance studio is a safe place that helps them release all the negativity they carry. Another use

of pathos that the author uses is "Supportive Togetherness", which refers to a secure environment

with nonjudgmental acceptance. These young girls go through so much, and having a secure

place to go where they can be themselves is really beneficial to their emotional development.

This study clearly shows that having a stable place to breathe and let go helps with the process of

clearing your internal problems (Duberg et al.) This goes to show that they have feelings and

different emotions pouring in and out of them while they are not dancing.

The author's next major rhetorical approach is logos, which is the appeal of logic through

logistics. This refers to appealing to the logic or reason of the audience. The author employs facts

and figures, as well as evident, logical connections between themes. In the article they use many

results and facts based off of what they found in the study. “Research shows that mental health

problems are currently among the biggest public health challenges globally (Ferrari et al., 2013)

and affect 10-20% of children and adolescents worldwide (Kieling et al., 2011)”(Duberg et al.).

Logos helps the author's argument due to the fact that this sentence is globally fact checked about

public health challenges in children dancers. Another sentence where they use logos is “It has

been shown that girls are more exposed to interpersonal stress, tend to be more sensitive to

others’ reactions over their successes and failures (Murberg & Bru, 2004; Rudolph, 2002), and

strive to live up to the needs and expectations of others more compared to boys (Wiklund, Bengs,

MalmgrenOlsson, & Ohman, 2010).”(Duberg et al.). This line, too, employs data and numbers
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from a graph to demonstrate that females are more prone to stress as a result of their many

emotions. However, the study raises the question of whether these sentiments are common across

all young females or if they are imposed on them by society.

Ethos, the third of the three rhetorical arguments, is an appeal to an audience's ethics.

This draws attention to the dependability and authenticity of the information they're providing.

An example noticed from the article that was Ethos was “A total of 112 girls aged 1318 (mean

age 16) were included in the study”(Duberg et al.). The author stated that they were going to do

the study on teenage girls and they did keep their word, the study only interviewed the

mentioned ages and genders. Staying true to their word and established credibility and showed

true ethos. Another statement would be gender roles. As listed above the author's use of Logos

helps the article keep their word. An example would be when they said they would only examine

and interview teenage girls. This also has to do with girls going through many different feelings

that teenage boys are not going through at that time. The passage states one feeling being with

body image, “Moreover, adolescence is an important time also with regard to gender differences

in body image concerns (Jones & Griffiths, 2015)” . The authors use credibility from the

“philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (Merleau-Ponty, 2002)” to back up the reason for the added stress

about their body image (Duberg et al.). They show their trustworthiness by giving factual

information on how some dancers join to better their body and self-health.

Moreover, this article also has to do a lot with the formatting in order to help the reader

understand the study. Some may say that each section could fall under a Ethos, Logos, and

Pathos category. The way that the author’s wrote this and broke it down into many sections really

helped the reader understand and maybe even relate to the problems. At first they provided an

abstract, this is basically a summary of what is going to be talked about. From there they start to
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describe the different methods they used for this study. They provided much detail and statistics

on how the study did or did not work. In the methods section they also added a procedures tab.

The next section is the results, this helps the reader see if the study actually worked or not. Keep

in mind each section has more tabs inside of them with more explanation and sources.

Finally, we can tell that this study had an effect on these adolescent dancers. They

displayed not just factual data, but also emotional and statistical data. Which helped not only the

study but the audience. The readers were able to feel all that the dancers were feeling. The three

authors demonstrate why and how these females were assisted while being watched. Their

reasoning and tactics were sound, and they ultimately helped these troubled dancers with

whatever they needed. Pathos, Logos, and Ethos, as stated above, assist this article with the

material provided. This is how the key category of the survey serves to portray the girls'

increased self-confidence and ability to approach life with more flexibility and openness.
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Works Cited

Duberg, Anna, et al. “‘I Feel Free’: Experiences of a Dance Intervention for Adolescent

Girls with Internalizing Problems.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies

on Health and Well-Being, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2016, p. 31946,

10.3402/qhw.v11.31946. Accessed 4 Nov. 2021.