Diversity Statement

My scholarship is focused on questioning Eurocentric renderings of the body through Western dance forms and how this impacts the body's cultural, religious, and political associations. From working in higher education and the independent sector, I have real-world experience with diverse populations, e. g. different gender identities, neurodivergent individuals, and various ethnic backgrounds. This experience has resulted in a move towards inclusive practices. I am concerned with excluding individuals from dance, specifically those whose identities do not fit within the realms of privilege associated with whiteness, neurotypicality, Christianity, and upper-class socioeconomic status. Thus, my pedagogy and research reflect an inclusive approach and focus on understanding how the socio-political undertones surrounding movement and the body are essential to address. 

As a neurodivergent who has experienced discrimination due to social and learning difficulties, I base my pedagogy on neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is the concept that the brain has natural variances which create different cognitive functions which may impede learning outcomes. To help students process information, I incorporate the theory of multiple intelligences in my language and teaching methodologies to support students' comprehension and retention of information, whether it be the theory or practice of the dance discipline. For instance, I will break down a combination with cueing in various intelligences or encourage students to speak up when they have found things that support their learning styles.

My training and performance background has been inclusive of non-Western (African and Indian) and American vernacular dance forms (hip hop, waacking, and vogue). This embodied knowledge makes me understand that a dance form's technique is based on aesthetics that are culturally specific and historically rooted. Based on these experiences, I have enacted an initiative in my current teaching practices that uses critical pedagogy to guide students to be more curious about their dance assumptions. This initiative is accomplished through reflexive assignments and discussions that give students a deeper understanding of their aesthetic and personal values toward dance. For example, I regularly have students express jazz dance as "fun" while ballet is "serious." I encourage the student to describe why they believe this to be true. The prodding of cultural and aesthetic assumptions provokes students to question cultural narratives of dance. Also, this helps to understand the socio-political underpinnings and connotations tied to different dance forms. 

I avoid universal concepts such as "all dance matters" in class and focus on the differences and similarities in styles. I do this since master narratives, or universal narratives on dance, are crafted by those in power. Decolonizing the gaze cast on techniques outside of modern and ballet is necessary so that a dance form can be taken at face value instead of exoticized. By leading an educational experience centered on individuating the self through a praxis-based approach to movement, my classes help craft new discourses surrounding the body while also analyzing the class's experience as a collective.