“I wanted to be Darcey Bussell”: Motivations and expectations of female dance teachers

Dance, analogous to professional sport, constitutes an interesting occupation in that there are relatively few vocations in which the athleticism of the body is inextricably linked to the ability to perform and teach. Dance-teachers could pursue teaching as a career as a way to remain involved in the physicality of dance to maintain a sense of self as a dancer. Dance-teachers make up a large proportion of the professional dance world in the United Kingdom and yet little is known about their role, training, continuing professional development and motivations to engage in a dance-teaching career. To address this lacuna, research was undertaken with ten female dance-teachers (24 to 71 years). Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, from which two key themes emerged as salient: (i) staying in dance; (ii) dance teaching as a career: challenges and skills. Pursuing a career in dance-teaching was viewed as a way to maintain a sense of self as a dancer. Participants who had been dance-performers appeared to view teaching as a natural career progression. The complex skills required of a dance-teacher were highlighted and participants positioned dance-teaching as a highly specialist career