How much can you touch while you teach? Karen van Ulzen investigates.
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, unfortunately accusations of sexual abuse are 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.”
See the full article in the August/September issue of Dance Australia. OUT NOW!