I speak with Dance educator and author Mary Bawden, founder of Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited (DA:NCE). Mary received a BA in modern dance from the University of California Riverside, a MA in worship (emphasis in dance) from Hope International University in Fullerton CA, and a California secondary teaching credential. In 2003, she founded Soul to Sole Choreography and released a book, Dance is Prayer in Motion, in 2016. Mary began to notice the culture around children’s dance moving toward an unhealthy trend: sexualizing children in adult-style costumes, sexually provocative choreography, and music with sexual content and/or themes. She began to advocate for healthy, age-appropriate guidelines to protect children and the art of dance. In 2016, she founded DA:NCE (Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited), a non-partisan organization, to create awareness through the collaboration of credible experts with excellent research to provide free evidence-based educational materials for dance educators, parents, and concerned adults, inside and outside the dance studio. She has spoken at numerous conferences from NDEO (National Dance Educator’s Organization) to CESE(Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation).

In our conversation, she shares about the impact unhealthy dance can have developmentally on young children, the negative impact it creates beyond their time in the studio, and is a fierce advocate for protecting children and the art form. She speaks with hope and purpose, offering tools and ways to take action today.

At the time this interview took place, Melissa had no affiliation with DA:NCE but she has now joined their team as an employee.

Learn more about Mary, her work, and ways to engage:

https://www.danceawareness.com/https://www.danceawareness.com/takeaction/

You can learn more about dance education and career planning for dancers at theballerinatist.com