The primary objectives of DDE were: to develop literacy around diversity and social justice in the three researched dance HEIs to map the current state of diversity practices in the three HEIs to promote dialogue between student cohorts, staff, and direction within each HEIs to promote inter-institutional sharing and learning to develop a comparative analysis of the three dance BA programs to propose recommendations aimed at furthering diversity and social justice within the three HEIs Through this work and its dissemination within the field of dance HE and more broadly art HE, we aim at impacting a large pool of dance HEIs in the European landscape.
The project Diversity in European Higher Dance Education (DDE) was developed to address a rising need in BA level dance education in Europe to address issues of diversity and social justice. Over the past years, following the rise of global social movements addressing issues of gender, race, and geopolitics, students and staff of dance HEIs have raised questions and concerns, as well as pointing out institutional blindspots. DDE was set up to address the need for better tools for dealing with diversity, the desire for inter-institutional sharing of challenges and good practices, as well as the need to take time to hear and address the issues coming from student cohorts and staff regarding diversity and social justice.