Resources for Dancers

An important part of the IC role is being there to protect performers boundaries and direct them to who or where they should escalate issues to. Spurred by the “Not in our House” movement in the Chicago Theatre community and Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement globally, there have been positive changes in both the theatre and film worlds, but the reality is dance spaces are not always consent-forward. IC Nicole Perry talks about how many pedagogical dance models of the global north are very touch and teacher centric, reinforcing power dynamics that are difficult to rewire for dancers who train their entire lives to be incredibly flexible and pliable to the directors vision. For more specifics on the psychology of performance spaces you can check out this post.

So, how might we proceed as consent-forward dancers?

A good place to start may be assessing where your community falls on the stages of consent culture for dance communities spectrum created by dance artist Megan Emerson in 2018. Through reflexive awareness it is possible to navigate the way to a more consent-forward community, but it is often useful to have an opening “mark”:

Bay area dance artist Cookie Harrist published the zine The Liberated Dancer in 2020 based on her research of consent culture in the area for professional dancers. The results were alarming: 67% of dancers said they had experienced or witnessed some form of ableism, 55.1% said that they had witnessed or experienced some form of racism, 72.4% said they had witnessed or experienced sexism, and 50.6% said they had felt verbally harassed or insulted by a choreographer. Here is a snapshot of a graphic from the zine highlighting the troubling power dynamics sometimes at play in some dance communities.

Please consider the incredible articles, websites, and handles below to further explore consent culture. If you feel you have experienced intersectional abuse in your community and want to “call someone out”, consider the idea of “calling in” and how an empathic approach could lead to greater individual and collective healing. If you are in Ontario and need to report violence please visit this link for Victim Services Ontario. If you are looking for crisis lines and mental health support please visit this link.