3-Part Blog - Anti-Racist Practices within Dance Programs

NDEO’s Guest Blog Series features posts written by our members about their experiences in the fields of dance and dance education. We continue this series with a post by Jan Erkert, who was Head and Professor in the Department of Dance at University of Illinois from 2006-2022. This blog series explores how dance artists can utilize embodied knowledge and choreographic process to interrogate systemic racism in dance programs. Dance departments and their curricula entered academia in the mid-20th century primarily reflecting the values of the dominant white culture in the United States. Ballet and modern often became the pillars of these curricula and other dance forms were othered as electives, not as fundamental sources for learning.