WHISTLE
Whistle is an international platform which aims to confront gender-based harm in dance workspaces along with other forms of discrimination and abuse. Our current offerings include resources and referrals that support a wholistic support system for change-making in dance culture.
Our priority is advocating for dancers first.
Click HERE to take our Survey!
Read about ACTIONS we make and support
Tools we’ve developed HERE
Helpful Resources here. Instagram: @whistle_whileyouwork
We serve the community through:
Public/Private Register for survivors
Resources for students
Creative Projects with artists
Some Press
On Publicly asking “Who Doesn’t Pay?” - Blog
{ DIYdancer } - podcast
Movement Talks - video
Arte - Documentary film
Dance Magazine - Article
Stance on Dance - Interview
Tanz im August - Article/interview
Dance Gazette UK - feature
Contact us to to find out more about social equality in the arts.
Why Target Discrimination in Dance?
Short answer: so many dancers aren’t thriving.
One type of Long answer: The initiative focuses on stories related to the arts, particularly dance and performance. The training most dancers are exposed to has many built-in patriarchal white supremacist mechanisms that promote subordination and submission. Among other undesirable outcomes, this system poises FLINTA and QTBIPOC to accept unfair treatment, exploitation, and discrimination brought on by an authority figure or a colleague when entering the professional world. This structure can diminish feelings of confidence and impose self-doubt and offers very little opportunity to recognize such behavior as disenfranchising. All togteher this system severely limits opportunities for advancement in a field that is currently statistically dominated by white cis men holding the highest positions.
Aside from the many types of abuse dancers face in their workplace, that dance and performance focuses on the body seems to invite inflated levels of harassment and exploitation from colleagues and audience alike. Whistle wants to openly highlight dancers’ experiences around abuse and catalogue incidents to help dancers to recognize when they are being targeted. Because a body is performing, because a body is being presented, because a dancer’s body is often a tool of interpretation does not mean that body and the person who bears it should be subjected to unintended objectification, uninvited advances, or any sort of systematic devaluation.
How can we serve the community?
Whistle advocates for dancers.
We provide workshops, forums, institutional consultation, resources, tools, coping strategies, and plans for action for artists seeking information and support.
Why Publicize Stories Online?
The register is meant to call to attention the smallest of offenses that may otherwise have been swept under the rug or forced to be shrugged off or gone unmentioned due to the potentiality of jeopardizing one's job, one’s career, one's right to earn a living, and one's chance for advancement in their field. These seemingly tiny infractions are believed to, when collected, make up a mountain of discrimination that when looked at as a whole directly point to the systems of inequity many dancers work and live within all day, every day.
The Larger Impact of Remaining Silent
Because historically institutions tend to protect abusers and ridicule and outcast the abused, dancers are afraid to talk about their experiences openly. Until those in power admit their part in this flawed cycle, dancers will continue to experience situations such as:
trauma and subsequent ongoing mental health issues, identity exploitation, ableism, casting abuse, limited access to opportunities for advancement within the field, pay exploitation, coercion of all sorts, and many more.
Challenges We’re Facing
White Supremacy
Patriarchy
Silence in the face of abuse
Fear: loss of economic stability, loss of community, retaliation, etc.
Disbelief
Limited and conflicting understanding about early-stage sexuality and gender education (misconstrued ideas of sexuality stemming from porn and social media)
Ignorance of what actually constitutes harassment and abuse
The normalization of harmful behavior within the dance community /art form
Abusive figures remaining in power and continually wielding intimidation tactics to keep victims silent