Learning to Pivot: Implicit Bias in Dance Education

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Crystal U. Davis

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Crystal U. Davis

Monday January 15th

10am-1pm

$45

This professional development is partially supported by the National Endowment for the Arts

This workshop is an introduction to what implicit bias is, how it relates to and manifests in the dance studio, and how we might combat its effects in our work in dance. It is the result of research conducted on the question, “How do our implicit biases affect how we perceive and embody human movement?” Included in the workshop I provide information for dance teachers to be able to articulate the phenomena that implicit biases create in dance classes, examples of how our brain-bodies manifest this bias, and methods and mechanisms to combat implicit bias.

Specific connections are made to the effects of implicit bias on observation, assessment, and somatic patterning in the body as these elements relate to the field of dance. While the focus of this workshop is racial bias, I also provide resources to support student and faculty examination of other ways in which we may carry biases in our work. The delivery methods of this workshop include both embodied movement exercises, discussion, and a sharing of resource materials to continue the conversation beyond the workshop

Crystal U. Davis, MFA, CLMA is a dancer, movement analyst, and critical race theorist with twelve years of experience teaching in P-12 education and seven years supervising dance educators. Her research explores implicit bias in dance and how privilege manifests in the body. Her work has been published in the Journal of Dance Education and in her book, Dance and Belonging: Implicit Bias and Inclusion in Dance Education. As an artist, her performances include Rajasthani folk dances, Classical Indian dance forms, West African dance forms, to Modern and Contemporary dances with choreography examining incongruities between what we say, what we believe, and what we do. She is an Associate Professor of Dance Performance and Scholarship at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches dance and theatre teaching courses, modern technique, somatics, and movement analysis.