Healthy Versus Harmful Dance Environments: Stopping Harm and Supporting Joy Through Effective Challenges
Guest Article: Erin Sanchez How can we ensure as teachers that we create healthy environments for young dancers who want to dance as a professional career? I believe that all of us who are working with dancers have a responsibility to create environments that will not only protect them from harm but will also give […]
DA:NCE Newsletter – May 2023
DA:NCE Newsletter – May 2023 Time is running out! Our deadline for $5,000 Call for Choreography Challenge is June 30Today, we want to introduce you to Marlita Hill, a dance educator who will be selecting the winner of our Choreography Challenge. Click Here to take a look at this video featuring Mary Bawden and Marlita Hill. Want […]
Stage Door Dance Productions
Stage Door Dance Productions is dedicated to age-appropriate dance in Raleigh, North Carolina. They seek to encourage their dancers with instruction in technique, choreography and performance embedded in an environment of community and character. They offer a full schedule of classes in ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop, acrobatics, acting, and musical theatre for children aged […]
How Upholding and Teaching a Comprehensive Understanding of Consent Protects Our Children from Coercion and Exploitation
“It changed; this is what you are wearing now” the assistant said… “It was me, by myself. I had no one to advocate for me… So, I cleaned myself up, wiped away my tears and went out and did a show” (Chand, 2021). Consent. It is a concept that has always been and continues to […]
Beneath the Surface of Hyper-sexualized Dance in Children
Growing up, I learned to split the light and dark sides of life. My conscious self lived in the light, while my unconscious self lived in the dark. Because no one in my conscious life spoke of this darkness, I too learned to never speak of it and ultimately to forget it entirely. I was […]
Healthy vs. Harmful Children’s Dance
At the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation USA (NCOSE) 2021 Conference, Mary Bawden, Founder of DA:NCE, presented a talk called ‘Healthy or Harmful Dance: What Do the Experts Say About Hypersexualization?’ At the 2022 Conference, Mary Bawden spoke on a panel about ‘Wholesome to Hypersexualized: What Happened to Children’s Dance’. Our friends at NCOSE generously […]
DA:NCE Newsletter – January 2023
DA:NCE Newsletter – January 2023 Now Accepting Submissions: $5,000 Call for Choreography ChallengeIn our last newsletter, we announced the launch of our international call for choreography. Today, we want to remind you that submissions are now being accepted! Our goal with this project is simple: Restore the wonder of children’s dance! The art of children’s […]
From “Pretty in Pink” to Provocative Posing: Looking at Sexualization of Young Dancers from Multiple Perspectives
I started dancing at the age of four in the 1970s and I have been a dance educator since 1991. Becoming a parent of young dancers in the early 2000s allowed me to revisit the dance studio environment with new insight and inspired me to conduct research on contemporary trends in dance training for children […]
DANCE 4 JOY MINISTRIES
Dance for Joy Ministries is a thriving non-profit organization that offers dance studio classes for children in ballet, jazz, hip-hop, modern, tap, musical theatre, expression worship and banners, strengthening and conditioning, and choreography. They even offer a tap dance class for adults. Their vision is: Transforming the lives of dancers and all who see them […]
Dance Teams: Scoring for Appearance
Guest Bloger: Heather Harrington “I would have put myself in a better position if I had just worn red lipstick,” explains Kayleen Babel (2021) who gives advice for trying out for college dance teams on her YouTube channel. She later explains that make-up and hair are part of your appearance score, and that you should […]