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With a new series of Strictly Come Dancing just getting started on BBC1, much of the media build-up to this year’s show has focused on reports of threatening and abusive rehearsal room behaviour by two professional dancers towards their celebrity partners.
The outcome of a BBC investigation into dancer Giovanni Pernice’s alleged behaviour towards partner Amanda Abbington in last year’s series is due to be published soon. Professional dancer Graziano di Prima was also dropped from the show after admitting he “made a mistake” when he kicked his celebrity partner Zara McDermott during rehearsals for the series last year.
The nature of the activity taking place both on and off screen on Strictly is not always fully detailed or articulated. Dance involves intense engagement with your body and often – but not always – your body in relation to another body. With this comes a need to negotiate, for example, bodily awareness, proximity, intimacy, touch, trust, discipline, weight transference and spatial awareness – traits that have long been part of the experience of training in dance.
However, developing and tackling these elements does not have to be negative; it can be an experience of joy and growth, if cultivated within a culture and environment of support, care and progress.
As dance academics, we have been thinking about what the latest news regarding Strictly means for dance practices and what the programme makers can do to foster safe, happy and positively challenging environments for their celebrity dancers. Three areas need attention if there is to be improvement.
1. Consider dance-specific safeguarding issues
Sadly, issues of welfare and toxicity are not new in the dance world. Only last year BBC1’s Panorama investigated issues of toxic environments at top ballet schools in the UK, and dance researchers have long emphasised the need for more abuse prevention and safeguarding measures for dancers. Most safeguarding and regulations in dance focus on children and young people, but there must also be careful consideration of the welfare of adult learners and dance workers – particularly when there are troubling hierarchies and unbalanced power relations.
There are many organisations, such as One Dance UK, the British Dance Council and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, which deal with issues of welfare and safety for dancers in their day-to-day work.
Strictly could benefit from collaborating with these organisations to ensure their safeguarding measures are dance-specific and informed by real experience. Our work on inclusion and representation on Strictly recommends collaborating with dance organisations that have expertise in working with disabled people to ensure fair representation and teaching that is inclusive.
In terms of instances of alleged abuse and bullying, the BBC has rightly responded with investigations into the two dancers. Amanda Abbington’s experience can be heard in an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4. Strictly will now have supportive chaperones in the rehearsal rooms which should give some reassurance. Judge Craig Revel Horwood has publicly supported the idea.
2. Evaluate teaching practices
The professional dancers on Strictly have a challenging job (although, obviously, this does not excuse any of the alleged abusive behaviour). They perform with their partners, perform with the professionals in group numbers, they choreograph and they teach. This is before any promotional or media activities they must undertake. We actually know very little about the professional dancers’ teaching experience. These complaints should prompt a review into teaching and rehearsal practices across the show to develop skills and examine the impact and influence of past training experiences.
It is good practice to evaluate teaching methods on shows of this kind to ensure the teaching incorporates the latest research findings. This could include professional dancers reflecting on their teaching practice and learning how to teach more challenging choreography, managing differences in the personalities they encounter and attending to preferred learning styles in dance. These are elements we are exploring through a new research network critically examining dance pedagogy and practices. Crucially, this recognises that dance teaching practices are often inherited from dancers’ own experience of professional training.
Dance is an undervalued art form and dancers are notoriously underpaid for their qualifications and experience. These issues point to systemic challenges where investment is required to enhance teaching practices and the calibre of those teaching.
3. Explain the judging criteria to audiences
Audiences know how the judging system works on Strictly. What is not so clear is the criteria couples are being judged on. There is a vague understanding that celebrities should master the specific features of the dance style and employ expressive and artistic performance skills. Without knowing more about what the judges’ criteria is, how can we understand what the couples are training for?
We must consider the distinction between the challenging elements of learning dance at an elite level, where discipline is required, and pushing someone beyond their limits, resulting in abusive behaviour – like that often experienced by athletes. Learning a new skill should be challenging and encourage growth, but this should not be conflated with toxic or manipulative behaviour.
It takes years of hard work, practice, focus and determination to train as a dancer. Strictly asks celebrities to do this within a 12-week timeframe. Some are complete novices while others have a background in dance theatre or film, which may give them an advantage. Most celebrities connect with their bodies in new ways, which needs to be carefully managed, so that newfound confidence can blossom. But more than this, it should foster a love of dance and moving the body that can become a joyous new way to express themselves.
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Kathryn Stamp receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Karen Wood received funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council. (AHRC)
