Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls is delivering a huge wake up call to the dance industry

Jezebel

Alexandra Patrick, a 30-year-old freelance dance teacher and choreographer, is the kind of person Lizzo's new Amazon reality competition is designed for. "After decades of being othered both as a woman of color and as a person in a body that didn’t fit the 'status quo,' Patrick had internalized the messaging that her body simply wasn’t right for the dance industry: If the industry wouldn’t make space for her, then she’d have to shrink to fit into it," says Jezebel's Emily Leibert. "Her weight yo-yoed to extremes. She auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance three times and never made it. Eventually, she stopped dancing altogether. For years, she had to watch the girls with long legs, washboard abs, and beautiful extensions—the ones dubbed elegant and graceful (who were often white)—book the gigs she dreamt about. Then, along came Lizzo." Leibert adds: "The trickle down effect of the mere existence of a show like Big Grrrls isn’t just helping women heal old scars created by a racist and ableist dance industry. It’s also helping young girls fast track their own dance careers. It’s offering a huge wake up call for the dance industry to take a closer look at their own internalized biases and start having those tough conversations about the often unhealthy body image it has glorified for decades." ALSO: Lizzo: “I don’t have to fit into the archetypes that have been created before like Tyra Banks or Puff Daddy."