Dancing Motherhood explores how unique factors about the dance profession impact pregnant women and mothers working in it.
Ali Duffy introduces the book by laying a foundation of social and cultural histories and systemic structures and power that shape the issues mothers in dance negotiate today. This book then reveals perspectives from mothers in dance working in areas such as performance, choreography, dance education, administration, and advocacy though survey and interview data. Based on participant responses, recommendations for changes in policy, hiring, evaluation, workplace environment, and other professional and personal practices to better support working mothers in dance are highlighted. Finally, essays from eight working mothers in dance offer intimate, personal stories and guidance geared to mothers, future mothers, policymakers, and colleagues and supervisors of mothers in the dance field.
By describing lived experiences and offering suggestions for improved working conditions and advocacy, this book initiates expanded discussion about women in dance and promotes change to positively impact dancing mothers, their employers, and the dance field.
Contributors
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Preface
1 Research Design, Methodologies, and Processes
2 Theoretical Frameworks and Dominant Narratives of Women at Work and Women in Dance
3 Bodies
4 Identities, Values, and Relationships
5 Unmet Needs, Conflicts, and Challenges
6 ‘For the Tribe’: Essays to Mothers, Future Mothers, and Non-Mothers
7 Organizational and Cultural Transformations to Benefit Pregnant People and Mothers in Dance
Epilogue: In Closing:
A Dancing Letter to My Child
Index
Biography
Ali Duffy (PhD, MFA) is a Professor, Graduate Director, and Associate Head of Dance in the School of Theatre and Dance at Texas Tech University, USA. She is also the Artistic Director of Flatlands Dance Theatre and a co-founder of the International Parenting and Dance Network.
''Ali Duffy’s book, Dancing Motherhood, is an invaluable resource for expecting dance mothers and dance fathers interested in gaining better understanding of the challenges and joys of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood. Few volumes, if any, successfully address living lives in dance while pregnant and their attendant responsibilities with such currency and rigorous research-based findings. A work of high quality, integrity, and exceptional inquiry, Duffy’s book is exceptionally thorough in its conception and composition, impeccable in its research design, and far reaching in its holistic and humanizing approach. This reviewer’s only regret is that Duffy’s outstanding book was not available when I was an expecting father 40 years ago when I would soon be a dancing father. With the season of national book award nominations for dance education coming soon, I can’t imagine that Dancing Motherhood would not be at the top of nomination lists.''
Doug Risner, PhD., MFA | Wayne State University
