The RG Dance scandal has cast a poisonous shadow over the dance teaching profession.
This is a great shame, as most teachers are honourable people with nothing but their pupils’ welfare at heart.
However, accusations of sexual abuse are rare, but not unknown in the dance world. Whether false or otherwise, the fact that dance is a physical occupation, with the body as its main object of focus, makes teachers vulnerable to such charges. What are teachers doing to ensure that such an incident never occurs in their studio?
While the RG Dance case has raised a number of issues, perhaps the most pertinent is the delicate matter of teaching and touching.
Using touch to correct and guide a pupil’s technique seems so essential that it is almost impossible to imagine teaching without it.
Indeed, the history of dance is full of colourful stories of teachers pinching bottoms and poking thighs. As Christian Tatchev, the director of training at the Queensland Ballet, says: “When I was growing up, teachers weren’t so careful, they would push you around, they would pull you, they would touch you, that was fine.” But he goes on: “I don’t think it was necessary.”
Today, however, the attitude to physical contact with pupils has changed. While some of this has been brought about because of awareness of potential child abuse, it is also the result of a more enlightened attitude to children and children’s welfare.
Pupils are now accorded the right to a safe learning environment, where the teacher has an obligation to treat the child with dignity and respect.
This modern attitude is reflected in the policies of dance syllabus organisations. Most now have a “code of ethics” that broadly covers the safety of pupils and their right to respectful treatment. But more specific guidelines on how to touch pupils are harder to come by. It is obviously a matter that is hard to address through regulations and rules.
So is touching always necessary? Not so, according to most. While it is obviously a useful tool, other ways can be used to demonstrate.
“If it’s a correction of the foot or the arm or just the head, for instance, I would do it,” says Tatchev. “But if it’s anything else, say higher on the leg, I will show it on myself. I will touch my ribs and say pull up or I will touch my leg and say this is what I want you to feel. In general I think you can avoid touching. If you take the time to explain what you want.”
Jayson Smart, an examiner for the Commonwealth Society of Teachers of Dancing (Comdance) and the director of his own Unlimited Feet Dance Studios in Woodcroft, SA, agrees.
“As a teacher in secondary schools, I very rarely use physical correction, especially in the middle school, and only extremities, never the torso.”
Senior school can be a little different, he says, especially when teaching partner work, but needs to be approached professionally and appropriately. “Teaching in the private dance studio I tend to use imagery rather than physical corrections so the student can gain their own understanding of the concept.
Yes, it can take longer for them to understand but then if you are physically rotating the leg in 2nd, for example, every lesson, then they’re not applying the correction anyway. Pelvic alignment I have found most effective if they do it themselves.
“But on some occasions some physical correction needs to happen, especially to avoid injury. The CSTD has an acrobatic syllabus and as with gymnastics and tumbling this has to be taught with some degree of physical contact – spotting – otherwise it is not safe dance practice.”
Carole Hall, the National Council Chairperson for Cecchetti, is another who will demonstrate on her own body first before resorting to touching students. She also makes “use of stickers for correction of turnout” and asks the students “to place the sticker on the upper thigh themselves, but I will place the stickers on the inside of the knee and ankle”.
But of course there are times when touching is unavoidable, such as in partner work, but also to help the student feel what the teacher means through their own senses.
In such cases, the general agreement is that the child should be asked permission first. But this also requires careful judgement. Says Jayson Smart: “I usually ask a student if it is okay to physically correct them, but then this is not always a guarantee due to the teacher/student power relationship.
You also have to be extremely careful as you do not know all aspects of a student’s life and how this changes at any particular time.”
In an excellent article by Rachel Rist and Jeanette Siddall, which is used as educational material in the Royal Academy of Dance’s Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies, the authors point out the many complex factors to be aware of, including the wide variety in each individual’s sense of personal space.
“A young girl experiencing her first menstrual cycles could feel very threatened and embarrassed by totally innocent touching. Similarly, young boys just getting used to wearing jock straps and tights may be acutely aware of how vulnerable they are if aroused,” they write.
They advise that the intention behind the physical contact should be “professional and unambiguous”. “In an almost clinical fashion, the teacher should touch in a manner that is firm, direct and necessary. There is nothing worse than trying to correct by prodding with the fingertips or lightly brushing a part of the hand. Both these methods are likely to be misinterpreted.”
Jayson Smart points out that with young children it is often the child who will initiate the physical contact, coming up and hugging the teacher. “One of the reasons the Wiggles started the finger shake at each other was to avoid children running up to them and made them keep at a distance,” he says.
It seems teachers can’t win. But Roslyn Dundas, CEO of Ausdance National, is keen to make the point that if a child feels safe and protected, misunderstandings are far less likely to occur.
“We are getting caught up in discussing individual cases, such as ‘can I put my hand on a shoulder’, as opposed to the bigger picture, such as whether the child is in a safe environment.”
A dance studio that is an open, friendly and supportive place will give little reason for a child to feel suspicious or frightened.
This article was first published in the August-September 2013 issue of Dance Australia magazine.