Starting at the Root: Dance/Movement Therapy Implications for Early Childhood Anti-Bias Education

This thesis explores implications for dance/movement therapy as a tool for early childhood anti-bias education. Bias and prejudice are consistently consumed by children in American society. The presence of racial prejudice and cisnormativity in children’s everyday environments distort understandings of race and gender, and guide the development of conscious and unconscious bias in early childhood. Dance/movement therapy, specializing in body-based practice and non-verbal communication, provides a unique approach to anti-bias work through somatic methods. With a focus on race and gender, this literature review discusses bias in children, bias communicated through the body and behavior, early childhood anti-bias education, and implications for dance/movement therapy. Considerations are outlined for the ways dance/movement therapists can begin to reframe their practice within an anti-bias lens developmentally specific for children