Abstract
For young men without access to dance experiences in early education, the community college can fill the gap of high-quality dance training, education, and guidance for a career in dance. This chapter focuses on men from underrepresented communities and the intersections of gender, race, ethnic identity, cultural experiences, and socioeconomic status as influencing factors in determining their decisions to dance in college and beyond. The data suggests that men suffer disadvantages in navigating the transfer process from two-year to four-year college dance programs. Overall, it becomes clear that men are looking for more role models, mentors, guidance and support within the larger educational systems to help them achieve their academic dance goals.
Simply put, how can we address the central components of our programs—teaching, training, pedagogy, performance, and curriculum design, if we have little or no systematic understanding of our students’ experience or the meaning dance study brings to their lives?
—Risner (2009a, p. 165)
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Alpert, V. (2022). Understanding the Community College Male Dance Experience. In: Risner, D., Watson, B. (eds) Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90000-7_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90000-7_2
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