The scandal at RG Dance in Sydney, where the owner, Grant Davies, has been accused of sexually molesting his young pupils, is casting a poisonous shadow over the entire dance teaching profession. This ghastly incident raises a number of issues, and mostly not for the first time. Here are a few of my thoughts:
1. Child protection. There is talk about having to put surveillance cameras in studios, of regulating the profession, etc. Without undermining the seriousness of the RG Dance situation, I feel we all need to take a step back. Most teachers are highly responsible and caring people. While this is not the first time dance teachers have been involved in child-sex accusations, nonetheless the RG Dance case is a rarity. And given the small percentage of men in the profession, any response to this case needs to be measured carefully. We don't want to exclude the small corner school from teaching dance through draconian legislation. Nor do we want our male teachers to feel constantly under suspicion.
2. Teaching and touching. Many schools have policies in place dealing with this sort of thing (if they don't, they should), and most teachers are now aware that they can't just grab a pupil's body to demonstrate a point. It's a shame - demonstrating through touch is surely the most efficient and telling tool for any teacher and it must be very frustrating to have to work with such a restriction.
3. Parents in the classroom. The sight of a row of mothers sitting out at the front of the class used to be common. It is no longer, partly because teachers banned them, partly because mums no longer have the time to wait. Perhaps the parents should be invited back into the room, and perhaps they should take the time to watch. The responsibility of care is not just on the teachers' side - as one teacher said to me recently, "some parents just use us as babysitters".
4. Sexually suggestive choreography. One of the matters raised in internet chatter about the RG Dance scandal was the inappropriately adult nature of some of the choreography. I have never seen an RG Dance concert or the supposedly sexy poses of the children on the school's facebook site, but I would have to say that RG Dance is by no means the only dance school guilty of this sort of thing. I have long campaigned against the inappropriately sexual nature of much choreography for school kids. I can't believe the number of (mostly female) teachers who put their pupils on stage in skimpy outfits and have them strutting and posturing like mini adults. It's as if these teachers - and the parents - have become so inured to the sexual nature of the dancing that they can't see how suggestive it is.
5. Our poor men and fathers. I feel sad for the children and their parents in this case, of course. But I also feel sad for the countless men and girls and boys who, because of the ramifications of cases like this, are denied the physical demonstrations of simple affection that come naturally between human beings. Men and children should be able to enjoy a pat and a cuddle without suspicion. I worry about the type of society we create when men are not allowed to touch children, and children are taught that the male touch is suspect.
- KAREN VAN ULZEN