Authors Interview: 'Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education'

By Mia Shapiro, Jerome Robbins Dance Division Librarian
January 3, 2025
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
A book cover

Dancers: What emotional boundaries do you honor as you audition for performances? If you’re comfortable doing something with your body during a rehearsal, does that mean you will feel good about having that action be witnessed by an audience? These and similar questions are characteristic of creating consent-forward learning and practice spaces that have become more popular in the last 15 years around the world.

To explore what that means for today’s dancers and teachers, we spoke with Professor Elaine DiFalco Daugherty and Professor Heather Trommer-Beardslee of Central Michigan University’s Theatre and Dance Department about their new book Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education.

What is your book about and how did you get interested in doing the research for it?

Daugherty and Trommer-Beardslee: Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education 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.

The book is an offering of consent-forward practices that can be incorporated into any existing pedagogical system as a means to place consent and student autonomy at the top of the priority list for performing arts educators. 

This book started as a research project into how we could take the foundational consent principles of intimacy direction, a practice used in theatrical productions, and apply them in the dance classroom. That project was shut down by COVID-19, but we continued talking and thinking about it. We wanted to figure out how to create productive learning environments for our students that valued bodily autonomy and eventually realized we had a whole book’s worth of material to share.

You shared in your book that incoming first year students seem surprised when told that only they can decide what they do with their bodies as a performance major. What kind of responses have you seen from students when teachers and systems encourage them to respect their boundaries?

Daugherty: I give my acting students material to work on and then tell them that they have 48 hours to let me know if the material is outside of their boundaries and we need to find alternate material. There are usually some sideways glances at peers to see who believes this and I have to repeat myself and assure them that I mean what I’ve said. If they are unable to engage with the material for whatever reason (that they do not have to disclose to me) we find something else. Learning to explore and create freely is already hard enough, we don’t need to complicate that further with material or subject matter that puts a student on alert. In the past few years, I’ve only had two or three pairs of actors ask for new material, but the fact that they have the option to tap out of it allows them to read with a more discerning eye and assess the material with less pressure. 

Trommer-Beardslee: I have noticed that when I talk with my dance students on the first day of class about the option for touch as a method for corrections, they listen and acknowledge that they have a choice when it comes to this pedagogical tool. They acknowledge that they understand that they have full autonomy when it comes to their body. Yet, each day when I ask students at the beginning of the semester if I may use touch as a dance technique correction tool they all say “yes” every time. I think this is because of the power dynamic in the classroom; the teacher asks and so the answer must be “yes.” Also, many of these students likely grew up in dance education environments where it is the perception that being in the studio is permission to have their bodies touched for technique corrections. As the semester progresses, students get to know me and are seemingly more comfortable truly choosing each day what type of correction method works best for them—touch or no touch—with each option being equitable.

Your book includes a quote from Nicole Perry, Intimacy Choreographer & Movement Specialist that says: "We don't empower students. Students already have power. We simply create opportunities for them to step into it, to practice it. Or not."  With that in mind, for teachers and directors, you speak of needing to be able to accept that when students are respecting their boundaries—they might not take the risks you want them to, or explore the facets of a part you think they have the potential to perform. How do you teach teachers to embrace that?

Daugherty and Trommer-Beardslee: This is hard for us too. It is hard to watch a student do something and know that there is more in them. However, if they are not yet ready to embrace or explore that potential, then it does not seem responsible to push and potentially cause harm because that is when we could impede future growth. Our advice to teachers is the same advice we silently give ourselves every time we encounter this situation: breathe. Be patient. Prioritize the student’s journey and remember that everyone learns and grows at a different rate which demands varying support and approaches to education.

How do you teach students to know the difference between a boundary and the discomfort of trying new things? 

Daugherty and Trommer-Beardslee: Teaching this distinction isn’t the hard part. Intellectually, students understand that discomfort is necessary for growth. However, in practice, fully engaging in this concept, proves to be difficult. Comfort can fluctuate moment to moment, and our immediate instinct is to avoid discomfort rather than confront it. This requires us as educators to be fully present with our students and observe when the discomfort comes up through students’ nonverbal cues. This tells us when they need guidance and encouragement to sit in the discomfort in order to assess it.

You have a chapter that includes questions that performers can ask themselves to better get to know their boundaries and whether those boundaries will allow them to succeed in a part. What are some of the most effective questions you would recommend for dancers to ask themselves?

Daugherty and Trommer-Beardslee: In many ways the advice is the same. Dancers need to ask themselves if they are ok with the thematic content of the piece being choreographed. Can they fully engage with this material during each rehearsal and performance? If there is weight share, lifts or other moments of physical contact involved, are they able to execute the material in a way that is aligned with their physical boundaries? Are there boundaries that relate to physical appearance and clothing restrictions? This all comes down to whether or not the people in charge are disclosing all of the information that they have and providing the opportunity for dancers to participate in a more informed way.

If performing arts professionals could come away with one mantra about consent after reading your book, what would you like it to be?

Daugherty and Trommer-Beardslee: For teachers, start somewhere. Choose one way to infuse consent into your current practices and move forward with that step. This singular step will inspire future changes in your teaching practice that will in turn change your students’ learning experience for the better. Consent forward pedagogical teaching practices don’t just miraculously get better overnight. It is hard work and must be approached one little step at a time. 

For students, trust that when your teacher takes action that prioritizes your autonomy, that it is a genuine offer. Then, give yourself time to consider your options and engage in a manner that reflects what you need in that moment. 


Check out Elaine DiFalco Daugherty and Heather Trommer-Beardslee’s new book, Consent Practices in Performing Arts Education at The New York Public Library!