Risk and protective factors for safeguarding and abuse prevention in dance: a scoping review

High profile media stories highlight that humiliation, harsh criticism, ridicule and non-accidental physical trauma have a chronic, lingering impact on dancers’ mental health. While sport research has shown that a systems thinking approach can inform understanding of different roles and strategies crucial to addressing abuse prevention, it has not yet been applied in dance. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to: (a) review existing literature on abuse and harm in dance; (b) identify risk and protective factors embedded across different systems; and (c) inform recommendations to practitioners and researchers. Twenty-three dance professionals (e.g., performers, researchers, advocates, and clinicians) attending a knowledge sharing event informed the reviews’ research question and objectives. Using the SPIDER acronym, Psycinfo (Ovid), Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid) and Google Scholar were searched and 15 articles were included in the review. Findings from the 15 identified studies suggest that dance cultural norms, harmful perceptions, and the lack of regulatory oversight, certification, and safeguarding guidelines are considerable risk factors contributing to normalising and excusing abusive and harmful practices. In contrast, clear safeguarding guidelines, teacher certification, and the establishment of regulatory bodies overseeing and supporting institutions are protective factors alleviating the risk for abuse and harm in dance. We conclude that safeguarding and abuse prevention in dance can be improved by adopting strategies such as involving a range of expert collaborators to formulate guidelines, reporting mechanisms, and policies.