Capitalism in Dance

The topic of capitalism’s influence on dance culture is something I researched during my undergraduate studies. I felt it would be a waste to not share what I learned during my research, as I believe it was and still is an important consideration in how we view and perform dance.

There is a plethora of research on the influences of capitalism and individualistic culture on the social order and how individuals operate within such cultures, but I’m interested in how the themes and belief systems inherent to capitalism and individualism have pervaded the dance world and impacts the way in which dancers operate. With emerging conversations about diversity and inclusion there is an ongoing awareness of how systemic problems have and continue to impact these voices and opening spaces for diverse dancers. 

Capitalism refers to an economic system where trade, businesses, and means of production are privately owned and operated for profit. Private ownership of property and business, accumulation of capital, prioritizing how it compares to other objects on the market over its usefulness of a commodity, and competitive markets are key components. It is based on the idea of individual success and prosperity which is one of the main reasons it has been so successful. But what many articles that praise capitalism fail to mention is that through the rise of the individual comes the fall of the collective. As one individual grows in wealth, the more others decline which increases the wealth of the individual and the gap continues to widen. 

You might be asking yourself right now what the heck this has to do with dance and why I'm going on about politics in an article about a type of art. But in fact, there is a false narrative that art is not political. Because while not all art has to be and is not political, art lives in the lives of those who create it and so it cannot ignore the world around it. The two are not mutually exclusive and the ignorance of that is what can perpetuate appropriation and mass-produced fluff. 

Anyone who lives in America and is interested in dance usually goes to learn at a dance studio or club. It is something that is seen as a skill to learn rather than something that everyone can and does do. Parents of these individuals spend money on classes, clothes, shoes, costumes and all other fees that go along with dance in America. And as the money that is invested becomes bigger there often is a temptation to commodify their dancing whether that’s through competitions, commercials, or joining a company as a way to return on that investment. While it can be a good thing to be able to dance as a profession it can be a tricky situation when something that is seen as a hobby is now your job. Both personally and professionally, there can be pressures to prove the legitimacy of the career and for the dancer to prove to themself that they are good enough to dance as a career.

There has been a boom in the dance community that people are starting to look at the systemic racism that is inherent in dance practices. One of these things is that there is a bias in the US that genres such as Hip-Hop, Jazz, Tap, and other Afro-centric dance styles are not held in as high regard as styles such as Ballet or Lyrical. And if they are held it is through the whitewashing of these styles such as Musical Theater style Jazz or Commercial Hip-Hop. But if we dig deeper into this systemic problem we can see the underlying connection of capitalism at work. Styles such as ballet praise individual success and achievement as ballet companies are set up hierarchically and dancers compete to get to the highest spot. Competition dance gives awards to the “best” dancers and has to have a system to rank the dancers in order to give them scores. The goal is to be the best and to compete with each other to gain the limited amount of spots on the board. We even see in breaking and hip-hop, the emergence and explosion of dance battles and freestyle competitions where dancers are judged and pitted against one another to achieve the top award. 

In Japan, dance is a required academic subject for all students and is a part of the physical education program. In an article researching teaching Japanese traditional dancing in Japanese secondary schools, researchers found that the teachers were able to more deeply connect the country’s history and ideology with their lessons through teaching with dance (Sato, T., Suzuki, N., Eckert, K., & Ellison, D. W. (2021). Because the style didn’t position the students against each other, they were willing to help one another and felt welcome in the class. They found that the teachers were also able to understand their students culture more and likewise the students were able to understand the intention and motivations behind the traditional dance which helped them understand their culture more deeply and holistically. 

In an article by Anna Morcom (2015), she analyzes and uncovers the influence of capitalism in India with the history of colonialism through the lens of dance. She takes a look at the Bollywood dance craze and its influence over the dance community in India. With capitalism entering into the landscape, it opened routes for and facilitated globalization for India. The Bollywood dance craze provides opportunities for large numbers of dancers to make good salaries and dances are quick and easy to learn. They get a far better return on investment in training than classical performers because it offers mobility and status. Classical dance forms express traditions and emphasize continuity whereas Bollywood dance flaunts innovation and change. The middle class formed the classical performing arts in the twentieth century and they did not emphasize wealth or ostentatiousness but with the economic growth emerged the Bollywood phenomenon of consumer capitalism. Through capitalist ideologies emerging within India, we see a cleansing of dance forms and styles and a “white-washing” of forms to appeal to the western audience. 

I want to specify that the dance themselves are not the problem here nor do I think the systems built are fully damaging. In fact these competitions, dance battles, commercial dance are a way for dancers to perform and make money through pursuing their art. Even in dance battles, where two dancers are fighting against each other there is often a level of respect and acknowledgement for one another.  The problem comes when a person cannot dance without focusing on how they can monetize it. E.P. Thompson writes in his article “Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism: “In mature capitalist society all time must be consumed, marketed, put to use, it is offensive for the labor force to merely ‘pass the time’”. Dance as a way to lose weight, dance as a type of therapy whether physical or mental, dance as advocacy work. These reasons for dance are not bad within themselves but it is through the larger narrative that dance must have meaning in order to be seen as valid that is the problem. If you are interested in dance you must have a reason for doing so and you have to prove it in order for your learning to have meaning. And the trick of it is that the social construct makes it so that we don’t realize this pressure until the things we love to do become a burden because they need to be monetized. 

In South America, Africa, and many parts of Asia, the culture surrounding dance emphasizes community and social dance. You do not learn these styles in a formal class setting but rather through gatherings and leisure time. These are social dances that are used for enjoyment or for celebration rather than for exercise or money. And while there is meaning behind such dancing, it isn’t for individual success or gains but for community celebration or honoring the culture. When social dance was brought to the US, the integrity of it stayed the same because it was a way for African slaves and immigrant communities to connect with their homelands.