Negotiating dance academia and parenting: a conversation between colleagues and friends

ABSTRACT

This article aims to reveal the challenges of working mothers in dance academia in respect to balancing of teaching, service, administration, and research demands and parenting of young teens. Through a conversation, the authors aim to find solidarity in our similar situations in different geographic locations by exchanging ideas regrading practicalities and demands of dance academia in relationship to parentings. United by similar experiences, we aim to share our everyday accounts of working in dance academia, the physical challenges of ageing, efforts to stay relevant and question the evaluation and promotion process in order to create more empathic working conditions for parents in academia. Spurred by similar challenges of seeking work/family balance and specific demands of dance academia, the authors seek to analyze and discuss the issues surrounding motherhood and academia and advocate for more emphatic working conditions and promotion processes. This collaborative auto-ethnographic research aims to disturb the rigid structures of academia in relation to parenthood, professional development, and quality of life, which serves as a method to excavate cultural experience of parents, specifically mothers, working in dance academia and question dynamics of faculty evaluation, promotion, and professional progress.

KEYWORDS:

• Dance Academia
• working Mothers
• professional progress

Introduction

As colleagues and friends, Darby Wilde and Dara Milovanović, have been talking about the realities, challenges, and advantages of working mothers in dance academia over the last few years. In this article, the authors seek to reflect on dealing with similar working and family experiences in two different geographical locations through a conversation supported by a theoretical framework and literature review. Darby Wilde, lives and work in the US, and is ranked as an Assistant Professor and Dara Milovanović, lives in Cyprus and has the rank of an Associate Professor. Both authors hold the position of the Head of the Department and have tenure. Additionally, the authors have similar family situations as they are married with one daughter of the same age. This essay is purposefully co-authored to form an alliance and a comradery rooted in similar experiences. Spurred by similar challenges of seeking work/family balance and specific demands of dance academia, the authors seek to analyze and discuss the issues surrounding motherhood and academia and advocate for more emphatic working conditions and promotion processes. The authors met a few years ago, when Wilde approached Milovanović about running a study abroad program for dance students of Illinois State University (ISU) at University of Nicosia (Unic) in Cyprus. Their professional relationship turned to a deep friendship. What followed was a series of successes: a wonderful study abroad for ISU students in Cyprus, that included, workshops, and cultural trips, and a joint performance by Unic and ISU students. Then, Wilde secured a grant and Milovanović travelled to ISU to work as guest artist. During these collaborations, the authors realised that their professional and personal lives were very alike.

Methodology

The structure of this essay oscillates between contextual sections, which present various issues, such as challenges of promotion for women, particularly with caregiving responsibilities, parenting as a dance professional, and the authors’ conversation, which explores these ideas in an experiential manner. This essay employs a qualitative approach and contains what Ali Duffy coins ‘narrative research approach’ (Duffy 2020, 191), that considers particular experiences including the authors’ locations, cultural and social identities and values that inform the way in which the authors interpret and apply the theoretical background to the discussion. The authors began the process with a conversation, an exchange of experiences, ideas, and challenges that they have encountered through their careers as dance educators in tertiary education and parenting of a single child, now in their early teens. The work is auto-ethnographic aiming to disturb the rigid structures of academia in relation to parenthood, professional development, and quality of life, as a method to excavate cultural experiences of mothers working in dance academia. Inspired by Heyang and Martin (2020) and their ideas surrounding the use of auto-narrative, the discussion, which serves to present individual, yet similar experiences, acts as an anchor to reflect on underlying themes and concepts that the authors aim to consider. Using auto-narratives provides an approach to research that connects the personal experience to the larger cultural, political, and social ideas (Heyang and Martin 2020). This methodology relies on self-inquiry as a method to reflect and understand the socio-cultural systems surrounding dance academia, with a specific lens on women and parenting. In this essay, the authors loosely employ the concept of collaborative autoethnography as proposed by Heewon, Faith, and Kathy-Ann C (2013), who define this methodology as ‘a qualitative research method that is simultaneously collaborative, autobiographical, and ethnographic’ (Heewon, Faith, and Kathy-Ann C 2013, 17). This sharing practice provides a platform for community building to move the conversation on the issues of advancing professionally in dance academia while parenting.

The essay overviews the available literature throughout the article on women in academia, motherhood and academia, and parenting as a dance professional in a thorough, albeit not exhaustive manner. This research aims to reflect on theoretical frameworks for this study, including a feminist critique of the neoliberal structures of universities in the western world as posited by scholars, such as Amsler and Motta (2019). Their work aims to expose ‘gendered workings of neoliberal power more visible, but also enable us to nurture and sustain alternative ways of being and working’ (Amsler and Motta 2019, 82), which supports the aim of this project to question the dynamics of dance academia in relation to parenting and propose a possibility for a different system for evaluation, progress, and promotion. Like Amsler and Motta (2019), who seek to disturb ideas surrounding motherhood and academia by ‘exploring the intersectional experiences of mother-subjects as they appear in, produce and disrupt university space,’ the authors hope to raise concerns regarding the logistics of occupying an administrative position, teaching, and parenting. The article is not simply a critique, but rather a call for a more emphatic system that allows parents working in academia a successful life–work balance and a way to progress professionally.

Challenges for mothers in academia

The authors are particularly concerned with issues that affect the work/life balance in academia for women, and particularly mothers as highlighted by several scholars. Although, this research focuses on issues mothers in academia encounter, the authors refer to challenges faced by women in academia who according to Hardy et al. (2018) are often the primary caregivers. The research does not exclude persons with alternate gender identifications and sexualities who have primary caregiver responsibilities. Hardy et al. (2018) refer to literature that addressed the challenges of balancing an academic career with parenthood and state that ‘for academics who are parents, family commitment may exacerbate the pressure of increasing workloads’ (Hardy et al. 2018, 625). Sarah Crook eloquently asserts that ‘reproduction and the academy have not, historically, been seen to be complementary’ (Crook 2020, 1228). Women who choose to have families face more hurdles as stated by Hardy et al. (2018) who write that academics often begin their careers in their thirties, which coincides with the time most women may choose to start families, thus making family planning and career progression incompatible. Crook provides some chilling statistics stating that ‘just one fifth of professors are female and one third of academics in the highest salary bracket are female,’ which researchers have attributed to ‘women’s tendency to take career breaks to have children … and the childrearing responsibilities’ (Crook 2020, 1229) alluding to the fact that the careers of women who have children are affected in terms professional development and promotion. Amsler and Motta (2019) were moved by public debate regarding the auditing processes for academics in the UK, entitled Research Excellence Network (REF) to ‘permit women who are taking maternity leave to submit one less piece of work for evaluation’ which diminished the value of care and ignored the realities of life. Duffy also alerts that professional women who have children ‘face motherhood penalties such as being overlooked for raises, promotion, and advancement to leadership positions’ (Duffy 2020, 189). Women with parenting duties experience different challenges and demands, professionally and personally, to men in similar situations. According to the Ward and Wolf-Wendel, the idea that ‘spouses helped’ perpetuates a problematic idea that the primary responsibility of parenting is expected of the mother. Women tend to be in charge of the ‘second shift,’ which includes family and house care in addition to their work commitments that has an effect on the time women have available for research (Ward and Wolf-Wendel 2012, 6). The following excerpt from the authors’ conversation illustrates the demands of academic work and parenting, which have been presented so far.

Conversation excerpt I

Darby Wilde (DW)

We lead parallel lives in different cultures. Two working parents in the household and each with a teenage daughter, we are trying to strike a balance. There are very few days when I feel like I have found this balance. I travel on the weekends to do recruitment for the program and during the week to visit student teachers in the field. I coordinate our only dance space (maintenance, scheduling), teach classes, advise students, and serve on a faculty search committee. I also choreograph a work each semester on our students, artistic direct a concert, and supervise rehearsals for a guest artist work. I teach three courses each semester. In addition to that, I also advise all the majors to make sure that they are getting the rotating courses in the dance programme to keep them on track. I oversee recruitment, especially in the fall, which requires travel that usually takes one to two days at an event. Many of the events are in Chicago, however, we have done some out of state as well, just to encourage people to audition. We also do audition days, which usually require a whole Saturday. I am also on the council for teacher education, which keeps things balanced between the Illinois State Board of Education and make sure our programmes are aligned.

Dara Milovanović (DM): I do many of those same things, which I presume does not make us unique, as I am sure many of our colleagues juggle similar loads. I think what is interesting is that you are in Illinois, and I’m in Cyprus, and we’re supposed to have very different experiences in life, but yet the demands are very similar. What do you do at home?

DW: I have a daughter who is fourteen. I am pretty much in charge of all the household chores, dishes, laundry, and cleaning. In addition, I handle all the financial duties including taxes. I do the grocery shopping, the meal preparation, any sort of pick-up, and arranging things that need to happen for my daughter. Right now, my teaching schedule conflicts with her pick-up twice a week.

DM: My workload is similar to yours. In addition to the teaching and administrative responsibilities, I organize the master classes, workshops, invited guest artists, auditions. I communicate with the prospective students and their parents. I organize the performances with a colleague who acts as the production manager. Since finishing my PhD in 2018, I have had a few publications. Before that I had a creative practice but as I was finishing a PhD, I could no longer take on creative opportunities due to time constraints. I also serve on PoP Moves, which is an international research organization for popular dance, and I am on the peer review subcommittee. At home I cook, do all the cleaning and the laundry.

I have a daughter who is fourteen. I help with homework and organization when needed. I support her emotionally. Her father and I do share who takes her to what activities. In fact, I do our work schedule around her schedule because we do not have much help and in Cyprus, it is impossible for a child to go places by themselves; they must be driven to activities due to a lack of infrastructure. My life is divided between work and home and every moment is accounted for.

Professional development, promotion, and motherhood

As seen in the excerpt above, the demands on working mothers in academia are immense. Additionally, women, and particularly academics with caretaking responsibility, experience challenges in their professional development and promotional processes. Hardy et al. (2018) suggest that faculty members with primary caregiving roles often experience reduced promotion opportunities and lower rates of pay rises based on privileging of research performance over teaching and service. Hermann and Neale McFall state that ‘compared to men, women in the academy also do more teaching, mentoring, and service’ (Hermann and Neale-McFall 2021), which are activities that are not considered in the tenure or promotion processes. Unfortunately, Ward and Wolf-Wendel (2012) found that predominantly women in mid-careers with parenting responsibilities were not thinking about promotion, which requires a lengthy process of planning and preparation. This is alarming ‘given the role of women in higher education and their low presentation as senior faculty members on most campuses’ (Ward and Wolf-Wendel 2012, 76). Research and creative work are often performed in non-office working time therefore relying on the ‘willingness to transgress boundaries between working and non-working time by de-prioritising anything or anyone that impinges’ (Amsler and Motta 2019, 90) on these activities. For academics with caretaking responsibilities, this creates an inequality that is difficult to overcome in terms of time, emotional wellbeing of self and child, and focus, thus, adding a challenge in terms of professional advancement.

Apart from research, often, academics at the mid-stage in their careers consider administrative positions, however in the case of the authors, they did not feel that there was a choice to refuse an administrative position because of their colleagues. Administrative positions present a great strain on academics, especially those that are interested in teaching and scholarly activities. According to Ward and Wolf-Wendel (2012) and supported by the experiences presented in the authors’ conversation, service and administration take up additional faculty time. Ward and Wolf-Wendel (2012) claim that some participants of their study perceived administrative positions as prestigious or potentially more financially rewarding. However, the more realistic view is that it is a challenging job, filled with people managing, that entails a shift from collegial to supervisory roles, loss of day-to-day flexibility, additional pressures in terms of department viability and health, and a longer work calendar. Often moving into administrations means shifting away from teaching. However, both authors still have heavy teaching loads on top of administrative duties, making the role even more challenging. The authors’ experience of working in dance programmes supports Duffy’s claim that ‘the work required of dance faculty often involves excessive time and effort’ (Duffy 2020, 190), such as rehearsing, production and artistic direction of performance, audition days, and teaching workshops and seminars on top of their regular teaching, administration, and service loads.

Academic careers have demands that may be at odds with parenting, while also providing certain advantages. The authors acknowledge that academic careers provide freedom that other more traditional working conditions may not. Summers with no teaching allows academics to spend time with their children and care for them when there is no school routine; academics often do not have fixed working hours apart from their teaching loads and office hours therefore enjoying somewhat flexible working hours; and the idea that research can be done anywhere at any time allows for some flexibility. In addition, the authors acknowledge the privileges of tenure, which contrasts with the realities of artists on precarious part-time contracts. On the other side of this argument is one which estimates that ‘the average faculty member works well over fifty hours a week’ (Ward and Wolf-Wendel 2012, 5). Women with parenting responsibilities aim to balance the demands of the professional world including teaching, research writing and publishing, and in the case of dance faculty members, creative work and outputs, which are often beyond the regular business hours; while on the other, they are dealing with the emotional and physical demands of parenting. Add administrative responsibilities to this and the balance becomes extremely precarious.

Dance academia and parenting

During the conversation, Wilde and Milovanović, identified many of the concerns and challenges discussed in the literature review and theoretical framework of the essay. As mothers in dance academia, the authors experience many similar issues, such as barriers to progress and maintain the professional status, produce scholarly research and creative products required for promotion, negotiate the physical demands on ageing bodies, and continue to provide a safe, loving, and emotionally encouraging environment for the authors’ daughters to thrive and grow as people at such a precarious age.

Duffy points out that dance is a young discipline within tertiary education, therefore ‘the processes of aging and career maintenance and advancement have not been widely explored in scholarship’ (Duffy 2022, 35–36), which affects issues of job security and identity within the field. Duffy eloquently argues for further research into creating measures for supporting physical changes for dance faculty whose teaching requires physical activity, such as pregnancy, new mothers, and ageing and injured dance faculty who must adapt and negotiate ‘bodily changes and challenges throughout these important life stages’ (Duffy 2020, 197). At this stage of the authors’ careers and lives, they are not concerned with the effects of the pregnancy and post-partum but rather with limitations of steadily ageing dancing bodies presented as ‘limited mobility, decreasing strength, and overuse or age-related injuries’ (Duffy 2022, 32). Norman stresses that ‘there is also a tension between the roles of being a dancer and a mother, in which one’s body is a part of their identity and requires huge upkeep but the time for this is infrequent’ (Norman 2020/2021, 97). The authors experience this as the lack of time available to them to pursue somatic practices to ensure their physical well-being. The expectations to perform as dance practice teachers are demanding as ‘dance technique teachers are expected to model precise, advanced technical movement for students, and educators who fail to demonstrate in a highly skilled way may fear harsh critique’ (Duffy 2022, 33) forcing dance technique faculty to exert great efforts of physical labour to stay relevant in their fields. The authors suggest ways to aid faculty with physical changes and challenges in dance, including further education and training in alternate methods of teaching dance techniques that do not include execution of steps, such as using imagery and improvisation skills in the studio. Additionally, dance faculty that teach dance techniques which rely heavily on demonstrating movement, can be supported by demonstrators, which requires financial support by universities. Lastly, faculty would benefit from further professional training and development that would aid in transitioning from teaching dance technique to performing research and teaching other aspects of dance education. The authors touch upon many of the issues mentioned above in the discussion presented below.

Conversation excerpt II

DM: What do you think is different and specific to dance academia to other academic roles?

DW: I don’t believe that dance in academia is quite as well respected as its counterparts, even theatre and music. Usually, as you progress in your career in most fields, much like Kabuki theatre, you’re more well respected because you have this body of knowledge. I feel that in dance, it is the reverse. I am grappling to stay relevant. I just had a fairly serious injury and my schedule probably contributed as I had been working for sixteen hours. I dislocated my elbow, which has affected my ability to teach and do my practice. As I age, I wonder how I can continue to do what I do.

DM: I think the physical aspect is very difficult. I have had a massive change in my body in the last two or three years. I am going through very emotional process of wondering if I am ever going feel the joy and freedom of movement afforded to a young dancer. That is a very difficult issue to reconcile with. As the years have progressed, I have adjusted my teaching and adapted so that I am not doing as much, which I think in some way has made my teaching better. I think that staying relevant is difficult. In Europe, in terms of contemporary dance, it is mostly release. I often wonder whether the techniques I teach are outdated, even though, I think they are incredibly important for the students' technique and sensitising their bodies and their minds . I have the dichotomy that I go through that I have the experience to teach well but, on the other hand, a feeling of the dance world escaping me. I find the pressure to create pieces daunting, inspire students, and give them a learning experience as a part of a choreographic process. I think that is something very specific to working in a dance programme. Additionally, performance production is time consuming, which makes childcare challenging.

In terms of parenting, I feel I have been able to offer a certain education to my daughter because of the work that I do. We go to dance and music performances, art installations. She has very much been exposed to a world that I wish I had been exposed to when I was her age. Knowing the specifics of academia, I feel that I can prepare her for college in a way that I was not. We have time off that coincides with school holidays that is advantageous. She has been able to travel because of our work and been exposed to artistic processes in an intimate way.

DW: I really appreciate the fact that I get to create on my students, I appreciate the collaboration with designers that produce my work even though there is some pressure with that process. The other thing that is challenging is that there is a diversity, equity and inclusion movement that is very late in its processes and academia here. It is being pursued and I am a full supporter of this. But as a white woman, I find myself writing curriculum that I can no longer teach realising what my students need. I am trying to separate myself enough that I can do the work to make the programme strong and grow. I wonder how can I stay engaged in this work in a way that is moving it forward?

DM: With everything that we talked about so far what do you think is the emotional and mental load of what you have to do at work and at home?

DW: I would describe it as constant feelings of inadequacy. There is a constant sense of being behind. When I look at colleagues who do not have spouses and/or children the impression that I get is that they are not behind, that they are able to achieve and succeed. I am not saying that the balance is necessarily there.

DM: I think there is a difference in what a parent and non-parent can produce. That is not to say that all non-parents produce. I think for me the hardest part is the administrative tasks, and not the teaching, research, or creative tasks, and on the home front the managing of household tasks; I also feel a pressure to keep taking on new projects, which I cannot do well because of time constraints. While I do research or make dance combinations I cook. I feel like I am not the parent I should be, especially when I concentrate on the research.

Dance academia may need a new system

In this section of the essay, the aim is to reflect on the issues raised and, possibly, advocate for a more empathic system for mothers working in academia. Working parents require support that may be provided by their employers, colleagues, and other support systems. The authors join forces with academics, such as Amsler and Motta to exude resistance to the ‘marketized patriarchal logic of the neoliberal university’ (Amsler and Motta 2019, 86) by discussing the realities of academia and motherhood. The authors call for a deeper shift in the demands of dance academia, which respects personal choices of all its staff and makes allowances for human needs and interactions, while supporting the professional, teaching, and creative developments of staff and students. A way forward requires solidarity amongst the academics and more equitable distribution of childcare amongst parents. The authors raise some of their concerns regarding professional progress, promotion, and evaluation processes in the conversation excerpt below.

Conversation excerpt III

DM: One of the things that I think that needs a reassessment is what is being valued in terms of promotion and professional progress. The research presented in the beginning of this article is that far fewer women are full professors. Especially during the pandemic fewer women have submitted manuscripts to journals. The gender pay gap is often justified by the idea that women take time off to have babies – people need parental leave. The evaluation process needs to be reassessed so that people should not be penalised for being parents. We need to reconsider what needs to be valued, because I am experiencing an enormous pressure to do research now because of where I am in my career. We need to consider and include the service and administration in evaluation. How do you see yourself progressing? How do we evaluate people?

DW: It’s difficult to have a family, teach my classes, and coordinate a programme and still be out in the world doing international things, not only connection wise, but also, I don’t really want to miss my daughter’s daily life. I have been hearing about the pay gap since I was an undergraduate student and I will be honest I really did not know that it was a thing until I was promoted and tenured. And they hired a male who is basically not even quite in the same position. He came in as an assistant professor, no college experience in teaching and that person started making close to $30,000 more than I did after tenure and promotion. When I inquired about the pay gap, I was given the response that I was welcome to apply for other jobs. In terms of me progressing, I would eventually like to be full professor. I think it will take many more years than it took to get tenured.

DM: I feel quite lucky that I completed my PhD and have had a few publications. It is hard to keep producing and keep up with the new research. There is a problem in the evaluation process for promotion to a full professor because we should be looking at teaching and service and not just research and student feedback. I find that engaging in activities to make oneself valuable to the university, students, their colleagues, to be appreciated, to not be replaceable, and dispensable creates anxiety for me, and hence why I keep doing more in the hopes of getting promoted.

DW: I would agree. Ward and Wolf-Wendel (2012) state that women are more likely to serve. I feel like we should be evaluating the same way we evaluate our students on an individual basis. What I do is different and what I bring to the table is different. I am working to be able to arrange and create opportunities for our students that another person might not be able to do.

DM: I aim to enrich the student experience. It goes back to nature of dance academia, which includes masterclasses, guest artists, and workshops to try to give the students the best experience that they can have. Any dance programme cannot offer everything that they need to function as a dance artist, which is getting more and more difficult. I think the social contribution to the programme and the opportunities one creates needs to be considered. We need an overhaul of the evaluation system especially for dance academia.

This brings me to the question to what are your expectation as an academic and then as a parent? I still have unrealistic expectations of myself on both fronts. I think that leads to that sense of not being good enough, not doing enough. We need to reconsider what we can really expect of somebody to do as a human, as a parent. But I think this goes back to the more representation we have of parents, and I’m saying parents, because I think the only way, we get to achieve equality is if we treat the mothers and the fathers in the same way. But as long as we are perpetuating this idea that we should be working the way we have been working, and this is the only way to evaluate people, we will continue to have discrepancies. We need to create support systems at universities with seminars and mentoring.

DW: I have a relatively new colleague and one of the things I have been trying to mentor her in is the work/life balance because, which is not something I was mentored in. I was mentored to believe that if I did not maintain a commitment to the programme and work that I was somehow failing. I have failed enough to know that is not sustainable or healthy. I have had to revise that mentoring self-talk, but I have really tried for her to mentor her in a way that allows space for and value big moments in her life. She is very enthusiastic and very driven, and I think that, perhaps, in a few years, if there is a baby involved, some of this will resonate more clearly.

DM: I think it is interesting that you mention a baby, which brings me to our initial purpose to do this article, which was to discuss the particularities of parenting a young teen while in academia. I think that when my daughter was little, and the parenting demands were more hands on, I was forced to turn my attention to her more. As she has gotten older, I feel that I have started to work more in the last couple of years that she is more independent. I feel that she needs me less, but she needs me differently. I had more of a life work balance when she was younger as a young child demands it. I think my work/life balance has slipped more. She needs emotional support, and she doesn’t always come to me because she does not want to interrupt me.

Advocating for support in dance academia

Dance professionals in academia with parenting responsibilities need support in forms of flexible working conditions, mentorship, evaluation systems for tenure and promotion that include various aspects of dance academia, and accommodations for physical challenges in teaching dance. Musil, Schupp, Risner call to ‘choreographers, employers, and administrators to promote, support, and facilitate opportunities and flexibility for parenting dance professionals’ (Musil, Schupp, and Risner 2022, 145), which must extend to dance professionals in tertiary education as well. Duffy proposes that “flexibility in job requirements, commitment to financial and staffing support for injured faculty members, and career-spanning mentorship models could be useful in extending dance educators’ careers” (Duffy 2022, 39) and advocates for changes to support dance faculty including a policy that accommodates age-related physical changes for practice-based staff.

The authors advocate for more support for dance faculty in the form of mentorship, release time from teaching, administrative duties and service, and more administrative staff. Duffy (2020) optimistically alludes to a great need for systematic changes in academia that would recognize ‘biases and inequalities, professional overwork and burnout, and power dynamics and hierarchies that lead to inequalities in tenure-track progression’ (Duffy 2020, 203). Both authors work in small dance programmes and thus concur with Duffy’s suggestion that the small number of faculty ‘creates an environment in which faculty members working in them are overworked and face burnout’ (Duffy 2020, 199) as there are fewer faculty members to share the load. She calls for a systematic change through advocacy and mentorship at the individual level that are ‘critical for improved experiences for tenure-track dance faculty members’ (Duffy 2020, 204). At this stage in the authors’ careers, they often mentor junior faculty in formal and informal ways, however faculty in mid-stage and advanced careers would also greatly benefit from mentorship that would be specific to challenges and opportunities in dance academia. Following Duffy’s suggestion to provide support that ‘might alleviate some of the service and administrative overload’ (Duffy 2019, 81) would be key in supporting dance faculty. The support needed for dance faculty is two-fold: first, inclusion of more staff to aid with administrative duties, and second, mentorship specific to dance academia for faculty in all stages of their careers.

In order to progress professionally and gain promotion, dance faculty relies on an evaluation system. Requirements for tenure in tertiary education in the US are demanding. As Duffy writes ‘tenure-track dance faculty may be expected to participate in varying amounts of studio and/or lecture-based teaching, creative and/or scholarly research, university and/or professional service, community engagement, and administrative assignments’ (Duffy 2019, 75). According to Duffy, dance as a discipline in academia has been perceived as ‘anti-intellectual fluff’ (Duffy 2020, 189), however, she argues that dance faculty develop research rooted in traditional and artistic scholarship, therefore faculty needs to be evaluated through this given prism. Discrepancies exist in what constitutes research for dance faculty, whereby some institutions recognize creative and artistic achievements for tenure while others may not. This leaves practice-based faculty in a difficult predicament as they may struggle to produce and publish traditional scholarly papers due to lack of training. Duffy (2019) names a few examples that various universities employ in their tenure process in order to illustrate an individual evaluation procedure that follows the National Association of Schools in Dance (NASD) recommendation that professional creative production (presumably in the fields of choreography and performance) need be included in the evaluation process as equivalent to scholarly publication and research.

Apart from the need for an individualized evaluation system, which recognizes various modes of research, including artistic and creative research, teaching, student satisfaction and relationships, administrative commitments, and service, the authors call for an evaluation system which does not penalize parents while pursuing realistic careers. Hardy et al. support the notion that ‘tenure track policies need to be modified and made more flexible to enable women to have children during their prime childbearing years’ (Hardy et al. 2018, 630). Dance academics must advocate for alternate, more flexible tenure and promotion tracks that would allow academics with various expertise and parenting responsibilities to advance in similar ways to academics with traditional scholarly trajectories, as well as, academics of all genders and family situations. This proposition requires establishing clear, inclusive, and yet flexible, guidelines for tenure and promotion that would include individuals with varied experiences and professional development trajectories.

Conclusion

The conversation in this essay serves to highlight the practicalities and demands of dance academia and parenting from personal points of view. Similar experiences of the authors reflect on their concerns regarding work/life balance for mothers in dance academia. This essay aims to bring attention to additional challenges on dance academics, including the loss of physical prowess, productions of performances, and pressures to create new choreographic works. Although, the authors live far away and in vastly different cultural settings, many of the demands of academia are similar and guided by the capitalist systems, which drive higher education and therefore place demands on its faculty. For Milovanović, transition to teaching more theoretical courses and engaging in research may be smoother given her education, however working in a small country with little emphasis on the arts creates a precarity with job security that is stressful. Wilde faces different challenges, as a dance faculty member with vast practical and pedagogical experience learning to create scholarly research. In terms of family dynamics, the authors seem to share many similar experiences with two working parents and little additional family help. Most of the emotional labour falls onto the female parent which aligns with Ward and Wolf-Wendel argument that women experience the emotional labour of the parenting and anticipating children’s needs more acutely, which is accentuated when raising young teenagers, a process that may be demanding intellectually and emotionally' (Ward and Wolf-Wendel 2012, 70), therefore posing another challenge to balancing professional progress and family life. Hardy et al. (2018) address the challenges of parenting teenagers and academia stating that parents’ productivity efficiency is lowest during the child’s adolescence' (Hardy et al. 2018, 629) as older children are often not eligible for after-school or holiday care, creating additional challenges for working parents. This is acutely experienced by the authors who are mid-career and juggling personal and professional issues of progression and development with emotionally demanding task of parenting young teens and domestic management. The sharing of the authors’ personal narratives, supported by the theoretical contexts surrounding women and mothers in academia highlights the high wire act of balancing academic work and parenting that Adriene Rich described in the 1970s as

endless improvising, and creative and intellectual holding back that for most women accompany the attempt to combine the emotional and physical demands of parenthood and the challenges of work

(Rich quoted in Crook 2020, 1236)

The conversation aims to present an honest overview of demands of dance academia and parenting, which illustrates the demanding schedule and multi-faceted responsibilities, including teaching, administration and coordination, mentoring of faculty and students, service in university and international associations, and the pressure and privilege of creativity, which may be difficult to juggle. The theoretical framework presents a bleak picture in terms of professional development and progress for women, which is augmented by the practicalities and demands of parenting. Parents experience inequalities as they have less time available for activities outside of the regular working and school hours than their colleagues with no child caring responsibilities. These activities may include professional artistic engagements, such as choreography and performance, and international or other engagements that involve travel and time away from children. Given the suggestions that the authors propose in the discussion section of this essay and the dance professionals’ skills and ability to improvise and adapt, the authors remain optimistic that women and parents in academia can have more fruitful professional experiences while enjoying raising of their children.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dara Milovanović

Dara Milovanovic is a performer, scholar, and educator. Currently, she holds rank of Associate Professor of Dance and Head of the Department of Music and Dance at University of Nicosia. She holds a PhD in Dance Studies, an MA in American Dance Studies and BS in History and Politics. Her scholarship appears in Perspectives on American Dance: The Twentieth Century, Peephole Journal, Dance Research, International Screendance Journal, and Dance Education in Practice. Her research interests include popular dance, gender studies, screendance, and film phenomenology. Dara teaches contextual dance studies, dance research, contemporary dance technique and jazz dance.

Darby Wilde

Darby Wilde is an Associate Professor in the School of Theatre and Dance at Illinois State University and the Head of the Dance Program. Wilde earned her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Michigan and immediately following began her performance career with Eisenhower Dance Ensemble (now Eisenhower Dance Detroit). Ms. Wilde has premiered works in Nicosia, Cyprus, Michigan, Texas and New Jersey. Wilde is currently serving her second term as an ACDA Board member for the Central Region.