DEEA TERMS & DEFINITIONS
+ Inclusivity
Inclusivity is the practice or policy of including, supporting, and accepting people who might otherwise be underrepresented or marginalized in dance education. For this work organizations and individuals must not only visibly signal that they welcome all people, but develop policies and procedures that support folks of all races, genders, abilities/disabilities, shapes, LGBTQIA2+ identities, immigrant statuses, ages, and economic levels of freedom. Inclusivity is not about hitting a quota to obtain optimal diversity (colorfulness) or tokenizing the marginalized students, parents, faculty, or staff. Instead, inclusivity focuses on building dance education communities that are threaded in continuously growing to be more colorful, compassionate, and accepting.
+ Optimization
To make the most effective use of a situation or resource for all parties.
+ Rhetoric
The intentional use of effective language to ensure dance spaces are safe for all.
+ Standardize
To develop, enact, and reinforce new policies and procedures threaded in safety, equity, and inclusivity.
+ Safety
Safety is the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. All participants, in dance education including students, parents, faculty, and staff, must be protected from any and all harm related to their race, gender, ability/disability, shape, LGBTQIA2+ identity, immigrant status, age, or economic level of freedom. In addition, preventative policies and procedures must be established to impede any sexual abuse, sexual assault, racism, or discrimination (othering) in dance education spaces.
+ Uncomfortable
Causing or feeling slight pain or physical discomfort when expanding understanding and application of anti-training.
+ Unlearning
Discarding, something learned, especially a bad habit or false or outdated information, from one's memory to open up to new concepts and ideas based on colorful perspectives and new information.
+ Accessibility
The quality of being easily reached and/or entered by a universal group of people based on a spectrum of need. Equitable access for all among the continuum of human ability and experience. Providing reasonable accommodation which is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual or group based on a need.
+ Accountability
Is to be answerable, responsible and obligated to provide explanations of actions within ourselves and our community.
+ Anti-Training
The intersectional culmination and implementation of anti-racism practices - the process of identifying and actively combating racist policies, procedures, structures, and acts of any kind, anti-othering practices - the process of identifying and actively combating policies, procedures, structures, and acts of any kind that discriminate a person to indicate that they do not fit the social or societal norms of a group, and anti-abuse practices - preventative and counteracting the intentional and harmful maltreatment of a person in a physical, sexual, or psychological way in a transformative justice framework.
+ Colorfulness
Our replacement for the term diversity. Groups, organizations, settings, and communities beaming with folks of all races, genders, abilities, disabilities, LGBTQIA2+ identities, shapes, and economic levels of freedoms. These groupings function without attempting to hit a quota or tokenize individuals based on their varied identities. Colorfulness is the antonym of monolithic which means a group or community where all are alike or act as one according to characteristics or structure.
+ Empathy
The ability to share and understand the experiences of another. As Brene Brown shares empathy fuels connection.
+ Equity
Equity is the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial and fair. At DEEA we see equity as balancing out inequities by countering any disadvantages and injustices that keep people of all races, genders, abilities/disabilities, shapes, LGBTQIA2+ identities, immigrant statuses, ages, or economic levels of freedom out of dance education. Our approach to equity starts by establishing policies and procedures to end any and all barriers to access.