Friday, January 17, 2014

[afgprbon] Institutional corruption in dance instruction

The institution of dance instruction (e.g., Lindy Hop, blues) has as its mission to share the joy of dance so that it may be enjoyed by lots of people.

The typical path toward becoming a dance instructor is to participate and win competitions.  Judges select winners based on them showcasing skills which take a tremendous amount of practice to do well.

The instructors who win more competitions can command a higher instructor's fee so are economically more likely to remain an instructor and perpetuate their style of dance.  They are also often selected to be judges in competitions, perpetuating the cycle.

Instructors then teach those skills that take a tremendous amount of practice to master: both because they "teach what they know", and because the students want to dance as seen in competitions, under the impression that that is the right way to do it.

In this way, the dance evolves a tremendous barrier to entry: people spend a long time thinking "they are not good enough; they need to take more lessons" because the dance itself, that is, that done by its community of dancers, has evolved to something that cannot be enjoyed without a tremendous amount of practice.  The structure of the institution of dance instruction has caused it to subvert its original mission: this is Institutional Corruption.

This effect is most starkly seen in ballroom dance with its instructors commanding the highest salaries, and I see it in Lindy Hop and Blues as well.  The tremendous irony of the latter two is these dances were historically "club" dances within the African-American community.  Then, they were learned and enjoyed with zero formal instruction.

A common feature of institutional corruption: No one has bad intentions; no one is evil; in fact, everyone has good intentions.

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