Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education

How to bring consent practices to the classroom.

This book explores consent as a foundational principle to guide practices and policies in university-level performing arts education. It includes descriptions of the structural power dynamics present in educational spaces and provides tools for mitigating them. It adapts the consent protocols that are foundational to theatrical intimacy direction and applies them to classroom and rehearsal spaces across performing arts disciplines.

The book discusses consent, opening lines of communication, personal boundaries, and modeling behaviors that respect those boundaries. Additionally, contributors use experiential reflections to address the real-world challenges that teachers face as they work to reshape their teaching habits and processes to include consent practices.
 

Elaine DiFalco Daugherty is assistant professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Central Michigan University.

Heather Trommer-Beardslee is coordinator of Dance Studies and artistic director of the University Theatre Dance Company at Central Michigan University.