‘Care’-fully Negotiating Change; Moving Towards a More Humane Dance Culture

Abstract

Dance and Ethics concludes by examining large-scale institutional and cultural changes and looking towards the future. It considers the challenges of navigating the moral dimension of major paradigm shifts, offering examples of how to preserve empathy and continue to treat people with dignity through the process. It draws inspiration from literature in ethical change management and leadership, as well as long-term collaborative studies addressing change in the dance field. The author advocates a model of transforming servant leadership, sensitive facilitation and ethics institutionalization that includes ethics training and co-created principles and/or codes of ethics. Virtue ethics, an embodied ethics of care and deontological ethics are invoked to stress the importance of shared values and procedural fairness in addressing change in a humane manner.