In the past few years, led by global movements such as #metoo and Black Lives Matter, the questions of eurocentrism, sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination have come to the fore in Western societies at large. In different contemporary dance worlds, these movements have led to a variety of initiatives, organizations, and legal proceedings. The questions of inclusion and discriminations have touched not only the professional world but also dance schools, which saw the emergence of a variety of student led initiatives. European contemporary dance and its educational programs, tend to present the knowledge created within it as internationally valid or even universal, bringing up a clash with non-dominant forms of contemporaneity.
While the questions of discrimination, sexism, and racism are global, there are many ways in which such questions find particular expression in the dance world and in dance education:
• dancers work with their bodies with proximity and intimacy,
• artistic creations are often busy with pushing dancers beyond their known aesthetic and physical limits,
• the relations between employers (choreographers) and employees (dancers) are often multiple – including relations of friendship, of love and hierarchical relations are often reversed from project to project,
• dancers often work across cultures,
• the division between self and worker is complex.
These are some of the reasons diversity-related questions have touched the dance field in particular ways.
This research departs from the observation that different dance schools practice diversity in a variety of ways. The location of each institution, the prevailing dance culture, the working language, the teaching body, and the curriculum are all variables that influence the creation of institutionally specific ways of practicing diversity and they all engender different degrees and forms of inclusiveness and exclusion towards the student body. Starting from understanding precisely how such variables articulate to produced specific forms of diversity and exclusion in each institution, the questions Diversity in European Higher Dance Education is asking are:
• What kinds of diversity practices are already in place in these institutions?
• How do different dance institutions recognize and deal with issues of exclusion or discrimination when they arise in the student body?
• How do the students see and articulate their own experiences of exclusion or discrimination when crossing one of these educational programs?
Tackling those issues in a transnational and dance specific environment is crucial in order to avoid blind spots and produce outputs that are specific to the particular art form.
Research results
The project was finished in June 2025 and created three different outputs, described below. By clicking on the link you can download the material.
- 'dancing with, a report on three European Dance Higher Education Institutions'. ‘dancing with’ is a report with policy recommendations including both institution-specific and comparative analysis. The report starts with an overview of the recommendations and presentation of the research and then introduces the question of diversity and social justice and the perspectives used in the research: intersectionality, decoloniality, modernity, extractivism, positionality, and how they resonate within the context of contemporary dance education in general and the experiences of the students, alumni, teachers, staff of the researched institutions. The analysis and recommendations are structured along three main themes: the accessibility of the dance programmes, the hosting of diversity within the schools, and the contribution to the dance field and society.
For each theme, the situation at each of the HEI was described, analysing and comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the practices and systems in place, listing best practices and formulating recommendations for the three dance HE programs.
- 'Dancing across difference. Course design toolkit'. Dancing Across Difference is a course design toolkit aimed at dance Higher Education Institutions whose goal is to address diversity through the lens of studies in dance. The idea was to create a course plan that not only meets the needs of the three partner dance HEIs (P.A.R.T.S., Manufacture and SKH) and their student community, but can also act as a blueprint that can be modified to be implemented in other institutions offering broader applicability across European dance HEIs. The course plan toolkit contains: templates for a course plan for the educational institution, a study guide for students, a bibliography, and a lexicon that defines key concepts used in the research that grounds the formation of this course.
- 'Towards a pluriversal dance education. Teacher and staff training overview'. The course 'Towards a Pluriversal Dance Education' is based on the necessities presented by the findings of the Field Work experiences. Structured around bi-annual sessions of 2 half days, staff and teachers of dance HEI will become acquainted with issues of diversity and social justice, receiving tools to better deal with questions and problems when they appear, and in becoming pro-active in creating increasingly inclusive and diverse HEIs. The course is addressed at all staff members of HEIs, because at any level or department staff members will come across the diversity of the student group.
Team
Gabriel Schenker, dancer, academic director of the Bachelor in Contemporary Dance at La Manufacture
Michael Pomero, dancer and teacher at P.A.R.T.S.
Moya Michael, dancer and teacher at P.A.R.T.S.
Rolando Vázquez, professor of decolonial theories and literature at Amsterdam University
Rosalba Icaza, teacher and researcher at the Utrecht University
Zoë Poluch, Assistant Professor of Dance and Head of the Bachelor Program in Dance Performance at Stockholm University of the Arts
Chrysa Parkinson, Professor of Dance at Stockholm University of the Arts and teacher at La Manufacture
Fabián Barba, artist and teacher at La Manufacture
Selby Jenkins, alumna of PARTS (Gen XIII)
Renan Martins de Oliveira, alumnus of PARTS (Gen IX)
Catol Texeira, alumnus from La Manufacture
Bastien Hippocrate, alumnus of La Manufacture
Marit Shirin Carolasdotter, alumna of Uniarts Stockholm
Paulina Rosa, independent researcher
Further information
Partnerships
Erasmus+
La Manufacture
HES-SO - Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Stockholms konstnärliga högskola (SKH)
This project is co-financed by The European Union through the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships scheme.
The project has a dedicated website where one can follow the proceedings of the research.
