HART associates, Dr Helen Clegg (University of Northampton) and Dr Helen Owton (The Open University), together with HART’s Prof Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, have recently had published an article on ‘Attracting and retaining boys in dance’ published in the Journal of Dance Education. As the research highlights, dance provides both psychological and physical benefits, and yet many boys miss out due to societal perceptions surrounding the feminization of dance, which can lead to the bullying of boys who dance. This article reports the experiences of female dance teachers from the UK, who identified a number of strategies for engaging and retaining boys in ballet, such as privileging boys within the dance studio and improving opportunities to dance in schools. This article posits potential strategies to engage boys in ballet that could potentially empower all genders within the dance world.
For a limited period, free copies of the article can be downloaded from the Taylor & Francis website here.
