DA:NCE Newsletter – MAY 2021
What Do the Experts Say: DA:NCE releases 25 Short Media Spots
by Mary BawdenCaring adults are the protective factors for children. There are choices to be made when you decide on a particular dance studio for your child. That is why DA:NCE created 25 short ‘expert’ spots for intentional dance education on the internet; the spots were filmed with National Experts at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation in June 2019. Would you consider sharing them on social media so that we educate our culture?
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Guest Blogger:
Charlene Doak-GebauerInternet Sense First: Online Protection for Dance Students: It’s a privilege to introduce you to Internet Sense First, an organization designed to educate and certify parents with online protection for children. Watch the new DA:NCE resource with Internet Sense First that we just posted on our website with Canadian Author and Founder/CEO Charlene Doak-Gebauer.
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State CAHPERD Conference features ‘Healthy or Harmful Dance’ + Hip-Hop + Grammys
I’ve had a month of going back to school. It was exciting to speak on ‘Healthy or Harmful Dance: What Do the Experts Say?’ at the online California Health Physical Education Recreation and Dance State  Conference. CAHPERD is a state affiliate of SHAPE (Society of Health and Physical Educators) which is a national educator organization. Large numbers of physical and dance educators attended this conference to learn and grow.
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Healthy Dance Studio

One of the goals of the DA:NCE is to highlight organizations we feel embody healthy dance. We are pleased to present: We are pleased to present: k2 dance, located in San Jose.
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Guest Blogger:
Mikhaela Gray-BeermanThe 2021 Grammy Awards Performance and the Sexualization of Children – This is a post-truth era. We are living in a time where the idea of absolute morality is no longer in question. We are living in a time where individual autonomy reigns – whatever the viewpoint, whatever the circumstance. We live in a culture where what is right is defined by doing what feels right. But what if what feels right is fuelling injustice?
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Guest Blogger:
Heather HarringtonGender Construction in Competition Dance – As a mother, dancer, choreographer, and educator I want my daughters to go to dance class to learn about their bodies, explore connections between their mind and body, and find ways to express themselves. I do not want them to learn from dance how to worry about their appearance; are they thin enough, feminine enough, sexually enticing, wearing the right make-up? Currently with a confluence of social media, televised dance shows, and the competition dance circuit (which I will define as consumer dance), dance has been reduced to a product.
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DA:NCE Happenings…

Here’s a list of a few of the things we’ve got going on:

  1. Join the movement to protect children from hypersexualized children’s dance by sharing your dance experience with us. Share your DA:NCE Story
  2. Mary Bawden interviewed by Mikhaela Gray-Beerman
  3. New resource with Charlene Doak-Gebauer
  4. Mary Bawden will be speaking at the Free 2021 National Center on Sexual Exploitation Conference Summit (NCOSE), July 20-24.

~ Mary
Click the button below to Donate to S2S Choreography to help end child exploitation through dance. DA:NCE is a program of Soul to Sole Choreography, a Section 501(c)(3) organization, EIN 20-0370145. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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You can make a difference by starting a petition in your own community. Your signature, and those of other concerned adults, can raise awareness and give a voice to end the sexualization of young girls through choreography and costumes in your own community!

Our Step by Step Guide to Educate Dance Studios provides helpful tips you can use when collecting signatures, and also outlines best practices for presenting the signatures collected to your local dance studio owner or teacher.
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