Thesis
Discovering and discussing the barriers of access for potential dance audiences
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Dec 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00001203
Abstract
Dance has been seeing a steady decrease in audience sizes paired with a disproportionately small audience size compared to other performing art forms. There is a strong history of dance participation for some people and no dance engagement for most people. The major trends in looking at exclusionary issues in dance can be narrowed down to three for the context of this research. These include racial inequalities, missing personal and cultural relatability, and lack of dance education in primary education as the primary sources of where barriers are between a seat in the audience and the everyday person who does not attend a dance show. The goal of this research is to bring clarity and human stories to what is stopping people from seeing dance shows. The research findings can be used to implement new strategic plans to engage a wider audience base and reach out to new demographics. Taking the context of the three hypothesized and later confirmed categories is that most of the interview responses will fall into these categories for why people do not see dance shows. A series of two pilot and seven formal interviews were conducted to ask questions about people's experiences, or lack thereof, in the arts, their arts and cultural tendencies, comfort in certain situations, and even reflections on what could be done to make their experiences better. The results showed that many of the participants did, in fact, fall into these generalized categories with the nuances that come with the human experience. These results suggest that while there is not a singular solution for building arts audiences across various demographics and interest groups, there are generalized lived experiences that can inform an organization's strategic plan to better serve and bring the art to a larger community.
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Details
- Title
- Discovering and discussing the barriers of access for potential dance audiences
- Creators
- Blake Caple
- Contributors
- Laura-Edythe Coleman (Advisor)Julie Goodman (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- viii, 72 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Arts Administration; Arts and Entertainment Enterprise; Drexel University; Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design
- Other Identifier
- 991014833549804721