DDP ANNOUNCES COLLEGIATE DANCE PROGRAMS FACULTY & ADMINISTRATION REPORT

Northfield, IL | February 15, 2022 | Dance Data Project® today announces the release of its Collegiate Dance Programs Faculty & Administration Report. This Report expands DDP’s widely-cited body of research on the dance economy into the realm of academia. This research analyzes the faculty and administrators of 173 degree-granting collegiate dance programs at public and private institutions in the United States.

DDP Research Lead Michayla Kelly notes, “This Report, our 16th since February 2019, analyzes over 1,600 dance faculty positions at institutions of higher education. Academia hosts a significant number of jobs and opportunities for dance professionals – it is an important aspect of the field, and an avenue which can provide dance professionals with long-term job stability and benefits.”

DDP finds that women outnumber men approximately 2:1 in dance faculty positions, including full-time and part-time jobs at both public and private institutions. However, DDP also found that the position of dean – the highest ranking, most secure job in a school – is held primarily by men (66%). Further, DDP discovered that only 12% of deans with jurisdiction over dance departments have a background in dance.

“This is a critical finding, particularly as dance instructors at the university level, unique among the performing arts, often must physically instruct their students, heavily taxing their bodies and creating opportunities for injury, long-term disability, and inability to teach,” comments DDP Communications Lead Isabelle Ramey. “Deans, 2/3rds of whom are male and the majority of which have no dance background, are setting policy for dance departments and may not be aware of the physical and unique demands on their dance faculty – which in turn is 2/3rds female.”

“This Report opens the door for further investigation,” remarks DDP Founder & President Liza Yntema. She adds, “More research is needed to analyze how dance faculty, particularly women, are affected by policies, or lack thereof, regarding parental and elder care leave, the amount of unpaid labor expected for the hope of eventual tenure, and policies for when a dance professor, particularly a part-time or adjunct professor, is injured or otherwise temporarily unable to physically instruct. Advocacy is needed to standardize these policies, which sometimes differ greatly between departments in the same institution, and to support these dance educators.”

The Collegiate Dance Programs Faculty & Administration Report can be found on DDP’s can be downloaded below.