After sharing a draft version of our Transform Dance report in June 2020 and wrapping up work on the project in August, we are now releasing our final report, prepared by Project Coordinator Meg Saxby.
Transform Dance was a pilot project about finding ways into healing and transformation—both at the individual and at the collective level—within the dance sector in Toronto. In particular, we were interested in addressing harassment (sexual, gender-based and otherwise) and transforming the culture of the dance sector.
Transform Dance was designed to support three Transformative Justice (TJ) processes for individuals or groups of individuals who had experienced workplace harassment within the Toronto dance community.
In the end, the project supported two processes around past harms, as well as a third process that took the form of a multi-part workshop series, designed to build the capacities of men who are emerging and established leaders within the dance community.
Transformative Justice is a non-punitive approach to justice and healing that grows out of the experience, wisdom and practice of communities of colour who seek to resolve harm without resorting to policing structures and the judicial/legal system.
TJ processes seek to create opportunities for people who have been harmed to heal, for those who do harm to learn, change, and grow, and for repair and transformation of the relationship to occur if/when possible and desired. For an introduction to Transformative Justice, read our 2019 blog post here.
We believe this report shows that the TJ approach has considerable merit as a means of providing healing and transformation for the dance sector as a whole, as well as other parts of our culture.
Our report highlights learnings from the Transform Dance project and makes some recommendations for how this work could grow and serve the arts sector. We are optimistic and hopeful that all participants in the arts sector, including funders, governments, arts organizations, and artists themselves will see the value in this approach and continue to invest in it.
The Transform Dance Podcast
Transform Dance was about learning, experimenting, and trying new things. As Transformative Justice is a community-based framework that centres accessibility, we thought documenting our experiences as a conversation would be a valuable way to reflect the project, and to deliver our insights in an accessible way.
We made a podcast where you can hear different people who were connected with the project talk about their experiences.
You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Stitcher, or Apple Podcasts, or find the transcripts here: Episode 1—Our Advisory Board; Episode 2—Conversation with a Participant; Episode 3—Facilitator Roundtable. The Transform Dance podcast was produced by Katie Jensen of VocalFry.
Report Contents
Introduction
Appropriation and Accountability Statement
The Framework: Transformative Justice
The Problems: What Were We Trying to Address?
The Process: What Steps Did We Take?
The Cases: What Processes Emerged?
The Money: What Did It Cost?
Ideas for the Future: Where Could We Go Next?
Closing the Circle: Thoughts on Accountability for the Future
More Insights: the Transform Dance Podcast
Thank You
Appendices
Acknowledgments
The Transform Dance project came out of a summer 2018 conversation discussing what service organizations could do for harassment in dance in the wake of #MeToo. This project was supported through Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding (Open Door), and was also supported through Generator’s core funding from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.
Resources
We also invite you to visit resources on the Harassment and Mental Health pages on ArtistProducerResource.com.