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Arts & Communication Discrimination and dance students’ well-being

the Black Lives Matter movement has sparked debate about Furthermore, specific practices and biases related
how truly inclusive dance is, particularly at professional to race are unique to the dance world. These include:
levels. Discussions of issues such as cultural appropriation, (i) Attitudes surrounding aesthetics, whereby White and
colorism, microaggressions, and performative inclusivity balletic principles are upheld as the standard for body
have raised awareness about the discrimination and inequity type, hair texture, and phenotypic hue; (ii) assumptions
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that dancers from Global Majority backgrounds often face about racialized bodily abilities (e.g., the notion that White
in training and employment. As Prichard argues, “One may bodies are “better suited” to quick footwork); (iii) the
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participate and succeed in dance as long as one looks, acts, lack of skin-tone-matching dance attire, and (iv) the
talks, dresses, and accepts the norms of dominant White dominance of ballet as the “high art” of dance, which has
society and the institutions that support it”. 3;p.7 led to the stereotyping of artistic roles whereby dancers
The debates in the United Kingdom (UK) dance from Global Majority backgrounds are more likely to be
9,14
sector following the Black Lives Matter protests promised offered “exotic” or character roles. Wilson suggests that
investment and change, yet there has been a lack of tangible Western dance training is likely to have negative effects on
action: media attention and public discussion do not the self-perceptions, agency, motivation, and ambitions
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automatically result in meaningful change. The TIRED of Global Majority students, but to date, no research has
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Movement was borne out of this lack of action, with the been conducted to examine these potential outcomes.
aim to improve both equity and representation in dance As the dominance of Whiteness is readily apparent in
education and beyond. The TIRED Movement recognizes many Western educational environments, dance research
that research evidence is key to driving change and due to must go beyond merely acknowledging the existence of
the paucity of dance-specific research in this area, created the racial inequity to examining its effects. This is critical
Representation and Equity in Dance (RED) project. The aim because, within the general population, the effects of the
of the RED project is to explore the impact of racial inequity racism that pervades institutions, systems, and cultures
and lack of representation in professional dance training can be observed across the lifespan, from low birth weights
through surveys and focus groups and to use this data to and maternal stress to youth incarceration, lower academic
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create, pilot, and evaluate an evidence-based framework and vocational attainment, and unemployment. From a
designed to enhance equity in dance training. This study psychological perspective, the impacts of discrimination
reports on the first phase of data collection for the RED include frustration, anger, self-doubt, low self-esteem, poor
project, investigating the impact of racial discrimination self-perceptions, social isolation and loneliness, chronic
on the well-being of Global Majority students undertaking stress, higher anxiety, depressive symptoms, and an increased
professional dance training in higher education. likelihood of mental illness and institutionalization. 15-17
The study was conducted against the backdrop of recent Young aspiring dancers must devote substantial time
calls for dance training to move away from Eurocentric to training, meaning that the educational environment
practices that position Whiteness as the norm. Western is of critical importance to their development. Racial
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dance is rooted in Eurocentric traditions, many of which discrimination in mainstream educational environments
originate in ballet, and uphold the notion that White has been associated with emotional (e.g., higher levels
dance practices are neutral, universal, and normative. 5,8,9 of depression, lower self-esteem), behavioral (e.g., fewer
Ballet is often cited as being the foundation of all dance social connections, risky behaviors), and academic (e.g.,
techniques, which serves to reinforce its position in lower levels of motivation, autonomy, academic self-
the cultural hierarchy, while marginalizing other non- concept and competence perceptions, engagement, and
Western genres 9-11 —despite the fact that some of ballet’s achievement) consequences among students of the Global
key principles are actually contradictory to those of other Majority. 18-22 These outcomes are often the result of factors
styles. The implication of this stance is that dance from such as teacher bias, 23-26 social exclusion by peers, 27,28
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diverse origins lacks formal foundations or techniques and Eurocentric curriculum content, 5,6,11,12 and Western-biased
is thus excluded from curricula. In this way, Whiteness learning resources. For example, Global Majority dance
6,12
3,29
becomes “the way things are,” rather than a particular students have recounted incidents of discrimination based
racial viewpoint . on body type, 13,30 while dance history textbooks are biased
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toward the achievements of White artists; where Global
2 Given the complexity and misconceptions regarding the
development of different dance genres, these are not further Majority artists are featured, barriers they faced in terms
3
examined within the current study. The participants in this of racism and discrimination are minimized. The lack of
study trained in a range of genres but it is beyond the scope diverse role models in teaching and leadership positions
of this paper to consider them individually. further reinforces existing biases. 5,7,13,31

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 2 doi: 10.36922/ac.3165