Dance as a discipline in higher education serves to educate students in becoming, “an artist/citizen with a depth of expertise in the physical forms as well as the historical, cultural,political and scientific aspects of dance” (Romita & Romita, 2018). An abstract of systemic racism in dance education begins with acknowledging that most schools in the U.S. require rigorous study of Western forms of dance. This would not be an issue, as most developed countries center their own forms of dance as well; however, as the population of America has shifted over time to incorporate many other racial identities, the curricula remain strictly Western-based, with cultural appropriation of hip hop on the side. The ways in which dance education has been historically systemically racist towards people of color is by invisibility or not prioritizing anything other than Western dances, by appropriating cultural dances overtime, and by not offering financial aid to students of color, thereby creating unequal access. Not to mention the cost of developing skills through classes and coaching at a younger age, which is not accessible to all students at all K-12 schools nationally, thus making those who can pay for lessons a leg up on those who cannot.
Going back further in time, prior to European colonizers arriving in Virginia, Indigenous people used dance education as a meaningful and sacred practice to share culture, medicine,and spirituality. During the 17th and 18th centuries before the Civil War, African American,Asian, and Indigenous enslaved people danced only in secret, perhaps at reported late night hidden social gatherings. They also used food and song to keep each other’s spirits up; and even held dance competitions, all of which could be viewed as applied dance education amongst themselves.
Dance was first introduced into the education system as a form of physical education and in 1926, the first dance major was approved in the Women’s Physical Education Department at the University of Wisconsin/Madison (National Dance Educational Organization,n.d.). At around the same time, legislation such as Title IX in 1972 and Equal Educational Opportunity in 1974 passed, which caused PE to focus on coeducational sports, thus dance artists were encouraged to get degrees in teaching dance (National Dance Educational Organization, n.d.). This is what led dance to become a respected formal collegial program now defined as a fine and performing art.
However, the resurgence for decolonizing has led to Black Indigenous People Of Color(BIPOC) dancers speaking up about their shared experiences in the age of social media and blogging. For BIPOC dancers in the dance education world,interactions with microaggressions can include inability to be casted based on race, not being allowed into class based on skin color due to the teacher’s need for “symmetry,” and refusing to hire teachers of color (Mullikin,2020). For example, refusing to hire a hip-hop teacher at a university because they do not have a master’s in dance when hip hop is not offered broadly at a collegiate level and certainly not ata master’s level-is a systematic set up to keep BIPOC folks and their dance forms out of colleges and to continue to invalidate their contributions to the dance world (Mullikin, 2020).Many contemporary dance educators refer to Western dances as “technique” in a way that assumes every other genre of dance does not require formal training, skill, or technique; and placing white European cis males at the center of expertise (Mullikin, 2020). Many young BIPOC ballerinas join the same classical companies as their white counterparts but are faced with the unfair reality that the path isn't equally set. Frequently, they're pushed to consider non-ballet dance options. Preston Miller, a Master ballet teacher, says, “I regularly have to hold uncomfortable conversations with my students of color...If you are ever in a predicament where you feel resistance in a classical ballet setting due to the color of your skin, speak from your perspective exclusively and express how you feel. You may not change your director's beliefs,but you will change their thought process" (Spears, 2020). Dance departments across universities in the United States can embrace a more inclusive system by devising curricula that do not validate any particular dance form over another. Instead these departments can demonstrate a commitment to exploring and understanding the many forms of dance worldwide, some belonging to their diverse students whose culture has had a hand in shaping the history of dance.
