Stephanie Laing admits she hasn’t been very kind to her body over the years. “I’ve been an alcoholic, I’ve self-harmed, and just been really horrible to myself,” says the comedian. But Laing has found an unexpected way to mend her relationship with her body, at the age of 39, by becoming a dancer. The Lincolnshire-based comic has been doing standup for 17 years. She previously dipped her toe into comedy-dance in the double act Flip Flop with Louisa Robey, but her new show Rudder is more of a full-body immersion; a crash course in different styles of movement from ballet to belly dancing.
“I feel like dancing has really helped me to take care of my body, and to see it as a tool for making cool stuff,” says Laing. But there is more to it than that. “At the obligatory 45-minute ‘sad point’ in the show, I talk about being sexually assaulted a couple of years ago,” says Laing. “I felt like I had betrayed my body. You kind of think it’s your fault.” Dance has been part of her healing, part of learning to connect with her body again. And she is sharing that newfound confidence on stage.
