I thought we were struggling to gain ground, but no, we’re slipping. Dance in the public schools can ill afford to lose positions, and yet we are. Yesterday a colleague — a fellow member of the DEAW Board and an award-winning teacher– received the shock of a RIF notice (reduction in force) upon arriving at school. Cut from the model arts program she helped build! Vulnerable because she’s #217 on the seniority list, and the district cut 220 positions. Perhaps she’ll find a new position, but she was needed where she was, doing what she was doing!
It isn’t just dance, of course. The theatre specialist at the same school — an award-winning choreographer — was also RIFed. And some districts are cutting instrumental music…
Neither arts education nor dance education can afford this kind of loss — and I’d go as far as to say neither can society! Our priorities are out of whack.
The risk is lots of cogs and no creativity.
On the positive side, I just heard that both the theatre and the dance specialists at this school were hired back. In fact, of 220 that were RIFed, all but 33 have been hired back. If you puzzle on this phenomenon as a strategy for building the public school system, you’ll get nowhere. But it’s a small compensation, midst general disfunction — that these two teachers will still spread art.