Keeping children who dance safe.

Post date: Sep 2, 2016 7:16:57 PM

Before I start this post I must share that I absolutely do NOT mean this post to be accusatory of anyone. I know that this is a very sensitive and controversial topic for people and may anger or upset people. Often when things are difficult to think about, people just don't think about them at all. What I hope to do in this post is to open discussion, encourage teachers and/or parents to reflect and perhaps raise awareness of some things. It is certainly not my intention to comment on situations that I know very little about. This is merely thoughts that I have had on the topic, coupled with what I have heard from direct accounts.

There are two aspects to this issue, as I see it. The first is ensuring that children who attend dance classes are safe at their dance schools and when dancing. The second is ensuring that dance teachers or other adults know what the warning signs might be that a young person is being abused, and what to do if they suspect a young person is not safe.

Just to put things into context.... Over the last few weeks I've been working with some parents of young dancers who have had some bad experiences with their dance training to raise awareness of this issue, and to put in place support for parents affected, and avenues for whistleblowing if needs be. As I teach in the state sector I am also legally required to participate in yearly safeguarding training. I attended one session in July, regarding protective behaviours in young people, and what sort of behaviour from adults in a child's life can be harmful or cause a young person to feel unsafe (and therefore start to use protective behaviours). This morning I attended a second session which was more general and covered different aspects of abuse, some of which are absolutely horrific, and what our duty of care is as adults working with young people. Now I know that there are differences between the population of young people who attend a state school and the population of young people who attend a dance school but we would be very naive to assume that children who attend dance classes are not at risk of abuse of any nature. I believe that dance teachers need to be able to spot warning signs of abuse, and know the correct way of informing the relevant authorities if they have a concern, or dealing with a disclosure should a young person make a disclosure. Part of the 'Safer Children's Dance' campaign includes discussing with teacher registration bodies, overseen by CDET, the legal obligation for all teachers to complete safeguarding training every year. This may help dance teachers to feel more confident in their requirements but also might mean that more cases of abuse are spotted and dealt with.

It is not my intention to use this blog post to educate about abuse. If you are interested in further reading please go to www.nspcc.org.uk or if you are concerned about a child you can get advice there. However there are a couple of situations where children in dance might be at risk - and I'm sure it's not intentional.

The first is emotional abuse. This is tricky because dance training 'traditionally' has a culture of students being 'submissive' and teachers being 'dominant' - the traditional dance class or rehearsal environment is one of a teacher shouting a stream of demands or corrections, while a student or dancer is compliant to the point of fear, and doesn't dare ask questions or mention that they are in pain. I will always remember being angered many years ago when I saw a video clip of a documentary (I can't remember where) of a ballet student, who sits down at the end of a rehearsal and talks about how much pain she's in but that as a dancer it would be disrespectful to the teacher to mention it. I'd like to think that the professional dance world has changed but I don't know... and portrayals of dance classes/rehearsals on television or films do nothing to perpetuate the idea that "this is what the industry is like". The official definition of emotional abuse (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf) is

".... conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond a child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (including cyber bullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children."

So a dance class where children are not allowed to speak, where children are being pushed to perform movements that are inappropriate for their age or development, where children are seeing or hearing a teacher shout/yell or upset another student, or where children are taught in a culture of fear is an abusive environment.

Another area of concern for me is less obvious but is still a huge risk area for some children involved in dance training. The official definition of sexual abuse from the government document referenced above is

"... forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact [....]. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children."

The parts of this definition that rang alarm bells for me during my training this morning was to do with children behaving in sexually inappropriate ways, (that have become normalised in the dance world, and therefore not considered by children/teachers as risky) and involving children in the production of sexual images. My worry is the number of young dancers who wear very revealing clothing and then appear in photographs or videos on social media doing poses or dance routines that to the non-dancer would be deemed as inappropriate for the age. There are instances where anyone can copy a photograph from social media, repost it and allow all sorts of comments (http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/04/27/pop-this-how-the-dance-industry-caters-to-paedophilic-fantasies-with-underage-girls/) and while this might seem extreme, it happens.