Where Does Dance Live in Our Society?

Dance is everywhere, dance is anywhere, yet, dance is nowhere. I have been musing on the place dance holds in our society and in our cultural landscape. Television is filled with dance images more so than ever — programs such as “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” are popular with dancers and non-dancers; I can't remember the last time I saw a commercial that did not have dance imagery included in a scene. In the Bay Area, the San Francisco Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in America.

Yet, those of us entrenched in dance education know that the joy, hope and beauty that is experienced viewing dances and creating dances is generally limited to the middle and upper classes. Arts education in the California public school system demonstrates a large equity gap — only 16 percent of public school students from low-income households experience quality standards-based arts education, compared to the 84 percent of students from moderate to upper income households who receive rigorous arts instruction. This equity gap widens when you factor in the dance arts — with only .3 percent of children in our state enrolled in a school-based dance course. This means 99.7 percent of children do not receive the benefits a dance education can bring.