Cheryl Burke was one of the professional dancers on Dancing with the Stars for 23 seasons. She was the first of the female professional dancers to win the show, and the first professional dancer to win twice and in a row. She also placed second and third several times during her participation on the show. When I think of the professional dancers on the show, it’s really her and the Hough siblings that jump to mind. Cheryl was last on Dancing with the Stars in 2021 and now has a podcast called Burke in the Game. She’s also a mental health and recovery advocate and appeared in that capacity on the Hypochondriactor podcast (what a mouthful) to discuss body image and anxiety.
Cheryl Burke revealed her struggle with body dysmorphia while talking about body image as a professional dancer.
The Dancing With the Stars pro opened up about having a complicated relationship with her body while appearing on the Hypochondriactor podcast hosted by Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali.
“I suffer from social anxiety now that I’m sober, I have body dysmorphia because I’m a dancer,” she shared. “I mean, tell me one dancer that doesn’t.”
Burke shared a piece of her story on YouTube in November 2020 with a video titled “My Struggles with Body Image,” where she said that she had long had a difficult time feeling comfortable in her skin. While on the podcast, she shared more detail about what that means to her.
“When I look at myself in the mirror and someone says, ‘Oh, you look amazing’ I see someone who is overweight and in my eyes and in my way of judging myself, not amazing. So it’s like no matter what I look like,” she said.
Ultimately, she said it got to the point where she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Her negative thoughts were also reinforced by a conversation happening publicly about her body.
“The nation decided to call me fat about season seven or eight when I actually got off my birth control and I retained 15 pounds of water weight, which I thought was obviously going to be the opposite. And then it was like a big deal, like ‘Cheryl’s too fat for TV’ and then I had a couple of my coworkers blasting my ass too and then I would wake up to like KTLA ‘Cheryl’s too fat.’ I was like, this is crazy.”
Some of the headlines appeared in the 2020 video that Burke had put together, as they are a contributing factor to her feelings. Still, she told Hayes and Wali that body negativity is something she suffered from long before being in the public eye. Her experience on television has only exacerbated it.
Burke said that she believes “it will help when I’m done with Dancing With the Stars,” and no longer on a public stage in tiny outfits alongside gorgeous celebrity dancers. And while she’s “doing the work” to get to a better place in her relationship with her body, she’ll deal with the intrusive thoughts forever.
“I do believe that it will always be a problem,” she said. “Maybe this is why I haven’t frozen my eggs, maybe this is why it’s hard for me to even say that I’m ready for a kid is because the last thing I’d want is to blame my kid for the way I look at myself. That is just not ideal. You have to heal first before we do that.”
Credit to Cheryl for being so open and specific about her struggles with body dysmorphia. I think sometimes, with people who are professionals in very physical fields, it’s assumed that they’re more comfortable with their bodies because of what they’re capable of doing and it’s hard to fathom that people so skilled can fall victim to the same body image issues as everyone else. Or worse, in Cheryl’s case because the way she describes dance it sounds particularly unforgiving. Staring at yourself in the mirror constantly to get the steps right is a necessary hazard of the profession, but combined with weigh-ins and being literally judged/graded — like, of course, dancers have body issues/dysmorphia because of all that. And adding to that the media, audience, and coworker (wtf?!) commentary on Cheryl’s weight sounds absolutely horrible. Those kind of comments hurt and you never forget them, even when you look back at photos or videos of yourself, as she did, and you’re like “wow, I actually looked good then even though I didn’t think so; I wish I knew it then.” I think it’s admirable that Cheryl is self-aware enough to wait until she is in a more accepting space with her body before she has kids because she doesn’t her perception of her body to affect her child and their relationship. But it’s unfortunate she has to delay something she wants because of the insidiousness of body dysmorphia. Hopefully she is able to take the steps she wants to soon.
Photos credit: Avalon.red, Cover Images and Getty
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