Exploring dance accessibility: financial, cultural representation and perception
Dancing can benefit kids by improving their physical and mental health, their social skills, their confidence and even skills like memory and concentration—but not everyone has access.
“When we think about accessibility for dance, we’re really talking about participation,” says Kahina Haynes, executive director of Dance Institute of Washington.
Haynes says this is unique when it comes to dance because typically when we talk about access, we’re only talking about where something is offered. But with dance, accessibility “takes on a second tier” because there are often additional barriers to participating and engaging with dance.
Haynes, who was appointed a member of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition for a two-year term in March 2023, identifies finances as being one of the primary barriers to participating.
Dance can have higher costs based on a combination of factors, such as professional teachers, uniforms or costumes and the venue.
While sports like basketball or soccer can be held at a park, dance often needs a studio, and might need other equipment like mirrors, bars and flooring.
However, Haynes is optimistic that public attitudes toward dance are moving in the right direction.
“I see more momentum and increased support and investment in recent years to subsidizing those costs—whether it’s reducing the tuition or even offering full scholarships,” Haynes says.
But while there have been strides against financial barriers, there is still progress to be made in eliminating barriers related to social stigma.
Edwaard Liang, artistic director of Washington Ballet, is the first Asian artistic director of a major ballet company—a distinction he says he has mixed feelings about.
“[I’m] very proud of it. At the same time as that, I definitely think that our industry needs more representation,” Liang says.
Liang, who was born in Taiwan and was raised in Northern California, started dancing at 5 when his sister introduced him to the art form. Dance, particularly ballet, became Liang’s passion.
At 13, he moved to New York City by himself to attend a school for ballet. Since then, Liang has made headlines dancing across the world and sharing his passion for the arts with his students.
“I still believe there is this stigma of dance—that it is not for everyone or that you need to understand it to enjoy it,” Liang says.
Part of increasing access to dance is intentionally opening the doors to greater representation, Haynes tells us. Advancing representation, and by extension access, creates space for more people to tell their stories.
More than Movement
Sharing these stories through the language of dance not only connects a dancer with themselves, but it allows a dancer to tell a story through movement.
“I want to encourage parents to really open their minds and embrace this concept of dance being really core to the human experience and not something extra,” Haynes says.
When children first dip their toes into dance, they might be cautious. Maddie Rodrigue, the director of dance for Young Artists of America’s summer performing arts intensive, often helps these students take their first step.
“I often run into students that are so very determined to share with me that they are not a dancer at all,” Rodrigue says. “We approach it from a place of ‘Every body is a dancing body, just like every body is a storyteller, every body is a singer. We can all make noise, and we can all communicate stories intentionally.’”
The Bethesda-based summer performing arts intensive with YAA was created to offer a training ground to bring more comfort, mobility and awareness to dance training for students who might otherwise not have access to it in their day-to-day programs.
“Maybe they feel like they’re shut out from it because often dance training comes with the implication that it’s going to be very codified, maybe strict. Maybe you need to already have a certain skillset or awareness of it or a certain body type. And we try to completely remove ourselves from those stereotypes, from that stigma,” Rodrigue says.
The perception of dance is another barrier that can limit the accessibility of the art form.
Representation in dance is important because it allows children to see someone like themselves using their body to tell a story and to realize that they can do the same thing.
Dancing for Connection
There are benefits to just being in the audience and experiencing a performance as a community.
“Dance, it brings us back to ourselves. It reminds us at our core that this is how we communicate with one another,” Rodrigue says. “I love the way that dance…can stand on its own and communicate in a story what we may not be able to say in words or in song. We can always find a way to express in our bodies.”
For Rodrigue, one of the best parts of a live performance is the audience.
She loves seeing the way an audience reacts, from how they root for a performer to how their breathing and heartbeats sync.
According to Haynes, having access to dance helps develop healthy communities by providing opportunities for healing, connection and understanding.
“Dance is the universal language,” Liang says. “You don’t need to understand anything to understand dance and music and art.”
Liang says the role of dance in connecting communities is especially important in a place like Washington D.C.
“It is the perfect and ultimate neutralizer where policy and arts and Washington Ballet are the intersection,” Liang says.
