Male Dancer Privilege--it really exists

Abstract

MDP: Male Dancer Privilege—it really exists With girls still outnumbering boys in most dance studios and universities, is it inevitable that male dancers are given special treatment to encourage them to stay in the field? by Randolph “Andre” Rivera As dancers we spend countless hours in the studio honing and refining our technique and craft. We rely heavily on the feedback and corrections from our professors and teachers because they give us an outside perspective on what we need to work on. This feedback inspires and motivates us to work harder and ultimately makes us better dancers. Sometimes, however, the bulk of this feedback is geared toward the male dancers in the room. Additionally, male dancers will often not be disciplined when they break the rules, for the sole reason that there are so few of them. This special attention and treatment is sometimes intentional, when teachers try to retain male dancers and help them develop for the good of the field. Whatever the reason, male dancers receive special privileges every day in many aspects of their dance careers. It’s not news to anyone when they hear that the number of female dancers in the dance world is significantly larger than the number of males. This could be partly because the notion of dance as a female art form still plagues society, and it’s still generalized that if a guy dances, he’s gay. Though the number of men who choose to pursue a career in dance has increased significantly in recent years, the sheer lack of men has historically led to a need to attract more males into the field. Teachers and professors have evidently learned that the best way to do that is by giving them special attention and treatment. Dance scholar Doug Risner describes this phenomenon in his book Rehearsing Masculinity: Challenging the “Boy Code” in Dance Education, when he states “because of the seeming legitimacy men bring to dance, although they comprise a definitive minority, males often receive more attention and cultivation in their classes, training, and scholarship awards” (Risner, 141). As a male dancer, I have directly experienced this difference in treatment. When I first began dancing, I immediately felt that I was valued by my dance teachers and peers. I was constantly encouraged in technique classes and given solos in my first year of competitive training, which was unheard of among the girls. I assumed this was because I was a “naturally” good dancer. I was always told that I would have so many opportunities if I pursued dance professionally. It wasn’t until I entered college that I realized that I had not been valued because my technique was amazing, but because I was a male dancer that they could use to their advantage in competitions. I was babied and frequently cast for the sole reason that I was a male. That’s MDP, male dancer privilege. In preparing to write this essay, I interviewed fifteen dancers to get more perspectives, asking if they had seen male privilege in their dance careers. Of these fifteen, twelve were female undergraduate dancers at the University of California, Irvine, and three were male dancers, one an undergraduate dance major at UC Irvine, one a graduate student there, and the last an undergraduate dancer at California State University, Long Beach. This sampling of dance majors echoes the male-to-female ratio of male to female dancers in our dance community.