Disrupting Harm in Dance
This is an online self-directed course put together by Whistle in collaboration with multiple experts – Crip Movement Lab, The Dance Union, J Bouey, and OFEN Co-Arts – in the dance field. They offer information and tools for dancers, performers, and adjacent professionals to work together while feeling safe, connected, and empowered.
Whistle is an international platform founded by Frances Chiaverini and Robyn Doty in 2017 which aims to confront gender-based harm in dance workspaces along with other forms of discrimination and abuse. Their current offerings include resources and referrals that support a holistic support system for change-making in dance culture.
Who is this course for?
The course’s content is first and foremost for dancers.
Dancers, dance teachers, choreographers, directors, rehearsal directors and assistants, and any people working in dance administration and production might all benefit from elements of these resources.
Tags
#dance community
#faire practice
#make change
#empower
#speak up
What does this curriculum consist of?
This curriculum offers a wide range of tools, online courses, videos, talks, worksheets, workshop materials as well as all contacts of international expert contributors.
Crip Movement Lab
- a critical methodology for practicing, teaching, and creating dance accessibly and inclusively
The Dance Union
- Dismantling White Supremacy
J Bouey
- Somatic Astrology for Dancers Guide
OFEN Co-Arts Platform
- Embodying Anti-Capitalist Process
- Levelling Hierarchy in Dance
- Support and Universal Access
- Speaking Up as an Act of Care
Whistle
- Messy Talks: A Discussion Toolkit
- Boundaries and Consent: A Worksheet
- Working with Consent
- When Considering Touch (for Teachers, Choreographers)
- On publicly asking, “Who doesn’t pay?”
- Practical Tips for Talking to a Journalist [About Your Abuse]
- Signs of an Emotionally Abusive Choreographer
- Providing (Self) Care
- Writing an Impact Statement
- When Considering Accountability
- CARA’s Model of Accountability: A Worksheet
Why are these resources needed?
Dance culture is dysfunctional. It’s built on promoting and rewarding dance subordination and submission. It can strip dancers of their autonomy and intuition, and it can displace their own sense of value for narrow ideals of discipline, perfection, and virtuosity. There is a staggering lack of support at an institutional level for dancers experiencing abuse.
Download / Link
All resources are available in English.
What can these resources do?
These resources can be used to help workers in institutions better support dance artists via believability, implementing private complaint processes, and building nutritive environments with wellbeing in mind.
Impressum
Whistle
Note: These resources are free of charge for individual dancers. If this course is being applied at an institutional level, a donation should be considered to Whistle and/or to the individual collaborators involved in the making of the course. Whistle strongly recommends finding the contributors online or in real life, checking out their respective catalogs of works – and booking and hiring them!