Beyond the equity statement
A mini-series on creating core values and living by them.
In 2020, when COVID-19 threatened our health and livelihood, and civil unrest forced us to reevaluate our privilege, we could no longer ignore the "brokenness" of our field and the art form we love. Developing equity statements was important, but for ASI, it was time to become outward-facing about our values and to live by them.
Like many nonprofits, we didn't have the resources to spend hours digging into these topics all at once. So, with grace (and privilege), we permitted ourselves to do this over time. Not to keep pushing this back on the to-do list, but by eating the elephant one bite at a time and making sure this work could go beyond a nicely designed piece of paper.
We hope this mini-series sharing our process will inspire others to create a culture of care within their organizations and put actions behind their equity statements.
Part I: Looking Inward, Crafting Our Vision Statement & Core Values
Hearing Dance: The Power of Audio Description
Merce Cunningham is famously attributed with this evocative quip: “Speaking about dance is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.” As a dancer and writer whose dual creative practices are intimately intertwined, I am perhaps attempting most of all to prove Merce wrong. Words have a powerful capacity to express ideas and feelings, while movement is visceral, multisensory, and yes, sometimes indescribable. For me, the real magic happens when those two worlds meet. In this piece, I’d like to explore the nuances of describing dance in the context of accessibility for people with visual disabilities.
Cultivating Care: Why Dancer Mental Health Matters
As dancers we’re often trained with a “mind over matter” approach that simultaneously values our mental strength over our physical limitations while also denying the existence of psychological factors or mental illness. “Mind over matter” tells us that when we are sick, angry, sad, or just plain exhausted, that we “use it” to dance better. I’ve experienced this very dynamic and can say that, yes, I’ve done some extraordinary dancing under acute or ongoing mental strain, but the aftermath still leaves a bitter taste, no matter how outstanding the performance.
The Aesthetics of Oppression: Ballet’s Body Image Problem
In ballet, what you look like matters as much as—sometimes more than—what you can do. Ideals and expectations run almost absurdly high, and ballet is known to attract perfectionists who thrive on rigor, dedication, and discipline as much as creativity, expression, and joy. We are made to feel that we are never enough, that we will always fall short in some aspect of ourselves that we cannot change.
Toeing the Line: The Gender Politics of Pointe Shoes
So, the tricky thing about pointe shoes is that you’re either “on the box” (perched atop the scant square inch or two of the shoe’s flat tip) or “off the box” (doing quite literally anything else). There’s no middle ground, no wiggle room, no “almost.” In fact, the edge of the box is a notoriously dangerous place. Just ask any of the tragically floor-bound pointe shoe-wearers in @biscuitballerina’s #fallingfriday compilations! The box quite often eludes us.
Of Girls and Men: Ballet's Gender Binary Problem
In ballet school, girls do one set of things and boys do another set of things.
In ballet companies, “girls” do one set of things and men do another set of things.
It should come as no surprise that these disparities remain--and in fact become even more stark--when it comes to positions of leadership in the ballet world. At Imagery, our fearless female leader has confronted gender bias and inequity head on from the very start in order to craft awareness and shape change for women as leaders in ballet.