Nourishing Dance is a true gem challenging diet culture and offering a comprehensive guide for dancers, and those working with dancers, to stay informed on best practices for supportive care. Monika brings together science, research, and personal experience from her dietitian and dancer perspectives, creating an invaluable body of work and impactful call to action.

Monika Saigal's book, Nourishing Dance addresses the difficult subject of how some of the current practices in dance training can negatively affect the health of dancers. It is a comprehensive and thoughtful guide to the problems that can arise around body image, misinformation about food and nutrition, and negative aspects of diet culture in the dance world and in general. The book provides clear nutritional guidelines and concrete steps to address some of the detrimental psychological pitfalls of the dance community's entrenched customs and traditions. I hope all dancers, dance teachers, artistic staff, and dance medicine practitioners read this book and use it as a valuable guide.

This is one of those rare books, clearly meticulously researched and written, that we have needed for many years; one that I genuinely feel will change the wellbeing landscape for everyone involved in dance. Monika draws on a huge depth of personal and professional experience which is clearly evident throughout this truly remarkable book, and my hope is that every teacher and teacher-in-training worldwide gets their hands on it.

Comprehensive in scope and grounded by scientific research, this indispensable book will serve as a resource for parents and for all those invested in the health and well-being of dancers. It should be required reading for dance teachers, administrators, and artistic directors, as well as for every health professional who cares for dancers.

Nourishing Dance is a comprehensive guide and a must-read for dance educators, parents, staff, choreographers, and anyone responsible for developing dancers. Monika Saigal demonstrates the importance of education and the use of language as she challenges common practices in the dance industry in the name of "tradition." She provides extensive support for the prevention of eating disorders and provides essential information on nutrition for dancers.

Monika reminds us that dancer health can only be meaningfully improved to the extent that the prevailing dance culture improves too. This book provides clear guidance not only for dancers but also for those shaping the culture to better support them. Directors, teachers, choreographers, parents, health professionals - read these words and put them into action!

Advising dancers is difficult if you haven’t been in their shoes, but Monika Saigal has this box checked: her dual expertise in dance and nutrition practically jumps off the page. The information she shares is so important for not only dancers to have, but everyone in a dancer’s orbit. I appreciate how she addresses disordered eating in a way that feels both practically useful and honest, and also absent of hyperbole. I wish I had this resource when I was a professional dancer!

Monika Saigal’s meticulously researched and essential work is nourishment for the dance field and for the humans who dedicate their hearts, minds, and bodies to its work.

In Nourishing Dance Monika Saigal has deftly blended her experience as a dancer with the expertise she has gained in her subsequent career devoted to the health and well-being of dancers. The result is a rich, essential resource for parents, teachers, coaches, and choreographers who support or come in contact with dancers at any level. I recommend it enthusiastically!

Monika Saigal’s Nourishing Dance is the ultimate book for education on and prevention of eating disorders and disordered eating in the dance community. The breadth and depth of the topics covered in this book – how to recognize and prevent disordered thoughts and behaviors, what language to use to communicate skillfully, reality-checking nutrition information to support dancers’ athleticism – will make it a resource you return to again and again. Whether you are a dancer, teacher, dietitian, parent, or director of a dance program, you will transform your knowledge of diet, eating, body image, and how to support the dancers in your life.