Dance and Gender

An Evidence-Based Approach

Wendy Oliver, Doug Risner

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780813064680, 9780813062662
• eBook ISBN: 9780813063454
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Dance

Driven by exacting methods and hard data, this volume reveals gender dynamics within the dance world in the twenty-first century. It provides concrete evidence about how gender impacts the daily lives of dancers, choreographers, directors, educators, and students through surveys, interviews, analyses of data from institutional sources, and action research studies. Dancers, dance artists, and dance scholars from the United States, Australia, and Canada discuss equity in three areas: concert dance, the studio, and higher education. The chapters provide evidence of bias, stereotyping, and other behaviors that are often invisible to those involved, as well as to audiences. The contributors answer incisive questions about the role of gender in various aspects of the field, including physical expression and body image, classroom experiences and pedagogy, and performance and funding opportunities. The findings reveal how inequitable practices combined with societal pressures can create environments that hinder health, happiness, and success. At the same time, they highlight the individuals working to eliminate discrimination and open up new possibilities for expression and achievement in studios, choreography, performance venues, and institutions of higher education. The dance community can strive to eliminate discrimination, but first it must understand the status quo for gender in the dance world. Wendy Oliver, professor of dance at Providence College, is coeditor of Jazz Dance: A History of the Roots and Branches. Doug Risner, professor of dance at Wayne State University, is coeditor of Hybrid Lives of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre Arts: A Critical Reader. Contributors: Gareth Belling | Karen Bond | Carolyn Hebert | Eliza Larson | Pamela S. Musil | Wendy Oliver | Katherine Polasek | Doug Risner | Emily Roper | Karen Schupp | Jan Van Dyke

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Preface
• 1. An Introduction to Dance and Gender
• 2. Dance in America: Gender and Success
• 3. Behind the Curtain: Exploring Gender Equity in Dance among Choreographers and Artistic Directors
• 4. Engendered: An Exploratory Study of Regendering Contemporary Ballet
• 5. Sassy Girls and Hard-Hitting Boys: Dance Competition Culture and Gender
• 6. Boys Only! Gender-Based Pedagogical Practices in a Commercial Dance Studio
• 7. Friendship Formation among Professional Male Dancers
• 8. “Boys are Morons” … “Girls are Gross”: Let’s Dance!
• 9. Leadership and Gender in Postsecondary Dance: An Exploratory Survey of Dance Administrators in the United States
• References
• List of Contributors
• Index