Why Dasol Kim Is Destigmatizing Psoriasis within the Dance Neighborhood

A method Kim discovered to get forward of these issues has been to personal her pores and skin — on her phrases. She is public about her psoriasis on her social media, speaking overtly about one thing that impacts many individuals within the dance neighborhood. “I had taken a photograph of myself in a tank high, my psoriasis seen, and I made a decision to submit it on Instagram,” Kim says. “It was the primary time I publicly introduced I’ve guttate psoriasis. And I feel that was the primary time I actually accepted it for myself.”

Kim talks overtly about her psoriasis in hopes that it helps others to speak about their our bodies with confidence, as properly. Doing so was a manner for her to take accountability for her physique on her phrases, in all its fullness, she explains. “I acquired bored with hiding not solely to the world, however to myself. That is after I realized that is my pores and skin, that is my residence. I must nurture [it], I want to present it love.”

Accepting her physique not solely gave her a way of empowerment, but additionally freedom from feeling as if she needed to cover. “I feel the facet of getting folks witness it’s a manner I can proclaim to the world: That is who I’m,” Kim shares. “I really feel very seen, very seen, and but on the identical time, I really feel very untouchable and invincible.”

Our pores and skin is our physique’s most superficial layer, and due to that, it bears the brunt of so many exterior influences. It protects us bodily, however we will typically neglect its vulnerabilities to unseen forces, too. “Once I’m performing, I’m reminded that my physique is my residence. And after I’m performing, I’m essentially the most linked to my physique; I’m essentially the most linked to myself,” she says. Kim says she sees herself and her pores and skin as a mirrored image of her mom, her grandmother, her future 75-year-old self as a dancer, and even her six-year-old self who fell in love with dance to start with.

“As a dancer, my physique is all the time on the gaze of another person,” she says. “We spend our lives in entrance of a mirror making an attempt to good one thing that appears so unattainable — this good physique, this good view — and thru my psoriasis journey, I’ve realized that this good model of myself or [my] physique had already existed.” Self-love journeys don’t all the time have nice catalysts, however Kim’s psoriasis acceptance led to her realization that the right physique is the one she has.