What Non-Corporate, Non-Commercial, Non-Competitive Dance means for Children and the Adult Dancers they will Become
By Kristin Kusanovich, Senior Lecturer, Santa Clara University, Artistic Director, k2dance, San Jose, Past President CDEA, California Dance Education Association When I was volunteering at a carnival at my daughter’s school a couple of years ago, I found myself with time and space to think. I was stationed at the dessert booth with a great […]
Army of Survivors: From Healthy to Harmful Dance
by Grace French As a survivor of child sexual abuse, a dancer, an advocate, and the founder of a national non-profit focusing on preventing and responding to sexual violence in sport, DA:NCE’s mission immediately stood out to me. I started dance at 5, fascinated by the twirling ballerinas, tutus, and scarves I had seen on […]
DANCE101
One of the goals of the DA:NCE is to highlight organizations we feel embody healthy dance. We are pleased to present: DANCE 101, located in Tempe, Arizona. DANCE 101 takes great pride in offering quality dance classes at affordable prices to Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and surrounding communities. Our highly trained instructors are dedicated to fostering […]
‘Cuties’ is not Cute: DA:NCE Says Children Are Not Mini-Adults
‘Cuties’, a new film on Netflix, features hypersexualized 10 & 11year old girls with dance themes that groom youngsters for objectification in childification porn. It also emphasizes racial stereotypes that connect people of color to sexual exploitation. In 2019, Netflix developed the original teen series Sex Education that featured nudity and numerous explicit sex scenes. And its original animated comedy series Big Mouth followed […]
Dr. Brook Parker-Bello Is Happy to DA:NCE
Dr. Brook Parker-Bello was happy to be interviewed for the 2020 DA:NCE film: ‘Healthy and Harmful Dance: What Do the Experts Say?’ Although she did not dance as a child, she was abused and exploited in her early years. As a national expert on child abuse with a PhD, Dr. Bello knows that all forms […]
Language of Dance® – A Conceptual and Pedagogical Framework to develop whole-child learning in and through dance
by Susan Gingrasso, MA, CMA, LOD Teacher Trainer Associate Director of the LODC What if children had an “alphabet” of movement concepts to explore, experience, and build their understanding of themselves as movers, as creators? What if this “alphabet” guided children to think, do, and feel their own movement fully – to develop their ownership […]
Hypersexualization, Hegemony and Me
by Susan P. Lloyd Last October, I was on a flight from SFO to Miami, FL to present at the National Dance Educators’ Conference. I happened to sit next to Nancy Ng from the Luna Institute in Berkeley, California. She too, was on her way to the conference. Ms. Ng asked the title of my […]
Is Your Child Being Groomed for Sexual Exploitation?
by Kristen A. Jenson, M.A. “The girls come to the set ‘porn-ready’” remarked one pornographer, as he commented on the changes he saw in the performers. Thanks to so much sexual objectification in the media and in dance, his new female “porn stars” needed little coaching. How tragic. But how understandable. Especially when you acknowledge […]
Center Stage Dance Academy
One of the goals of the DA:NCE is to highlight dance organizations we feel embody healthy dance. We are pleased to present: Center Stage Dance Academy, Plymouth, MA. Mission Statement Here at Center Stage we believe that every child is an individual. Our focus is to bring that individualism out with freedom of expression and […]
DA:NCE Newsletter – January 2020
We have captured national experts on film with solid information as to why hypersexualized children’s dance is harmful.