Social Inequality In The Dance Industry

When I was four years old I was introduced to a tall, petite, beautiful ballerina who spun around the room with elegance, and effortlessly captured the crowd with her stunning abilities. As a little girl, I sparkled with admiration and was inspired to be all she was, it was from that point on, that I ventured into an unknown world of art, strength and expression. Now being eighteen years old with about fourteen years of experience in the dance world, I have learned and developed the norms, values and practices of the culture, and the conflicting theory within it.

Social inequality refers to the ways in which socially defined categories of persons. Unequal society has a big impact on individuals. There are different ways in how you can discriminate against someone this includes stereotyping. Stereotyping is were an individual is labelled as a certain person, or put into a certain group. For example a group of teenagers on the streets wearing hoodies, people would presume they were out to cause trouble.

Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist.

By definition social inequality is the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society, and what that means is that if you have ever been interviewing a person and didn’t hire them because of their race, religion, or anything like that then you have been part of the problem. Not hiring someone for their race, religion, or any reason that doesn’t have to do with their ability to do the job is one of the biggest social inequalities that I can think of.

Dancing is a historical tradition. Hip-hop dancing has been alive at social functions for centuries, and Popping and Break dancing are the old school days gone by. In recent years, Hip-hop dance has proved its long lasting presence in our lives. It is in our media, our music and day-to-day social functions. It isn't usually taught parent-to-child so people are seeking schools where they can learn. With Dance sport being considered as a medal sport in the next Olympics, more people will be exposed to Social and Hip-hop dance.

I am an aspiring dancer. I am also African American, thanks to IoT a black ballerina is no longer taboo, slowly sure society is becoming more aware of dancers of various races, cultures, and styles. With the world of dance evolving and technology moving even faster, I want to develop an organization that supports and exposes minorities in dance. The job of Encouraging young dancers of minority race will no longer be limited to just the student’s parent and teachers. This organization will help these dancers connect and find support in standing confidently in who they are. The dance community is already present however not connected a possible. Through social media and a website, this organization will bring together minorities in dance and highlight their accomplishments. In addition everyone can be informed of what going on in dance culture. Individuals apart of this community can get first hand advice from dancing professionals.

In this sense, I noticed how privileged I am because of my sexuality, socioeconomic status, and country of origin. I was raised in a European country where I had the same ethnicity as the majority. Coming from an upper-middle class family, I never suffered from poverty or the stigma associated with it. This means that I grew up in a nice house and in a nice neighborhood where my neighbors were also middle-class families. I could walk alone around my neighborhood without the concern that I could be assaulted or robbed. This means that I was part of a privileged group, but without being aware of it since, as a kid, my parents could afford healthy food, medical bills (such as dentists, dental brackets, or new glasses) but, also toys and clothes. Furthermore, I was able to participate in extracurricular activities or go to college without worrying about the financial cost. Moreover, I have not struggled with stereotypes or stigmas that come with lower socioeconomic statuses such as thinking that they are less educated. Thus, I was never questioned for being intelligent, honest, or hard-working. Overall, I never faced discrimination or racism and that makes me unaware of how it truly feels like. For that reason, I need to acknowledge my identity

Social inequality can practically be made apparent at any moment of someone’s life – whether at work or school amongst peers or simply watching the news in the morning. According to Dalton Conley, social inequality is narrowly defined as “a condition in which a difference in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exist” (2017 p.241). Moreover, social inequality is a process whereby society can determine how a class of people is expected to coexist within predetermined social, political, and economic boundaries. The affected class will live within the predefined constraints, and the affected class will then pass the predefined constraints on to future generations. It is imperative to understand that social inequality is a result of social stratification, which according to

Chapter five of Social Inequality Forms, Causes and Consequences is about political inequality. Gender, race and class all play a told in inequality in the work place. Based on gender, race or class people may be higher in power or lower in power just based off your appearance. People in higher positions can overrule people in a lower position and can abuse the amount of power they have.

There are many types of inequalities throughout the world, but the major ones throughout the United States would most likely involve one's gender, one's background and also one's financial status. According to the Merriam-Webster, inequality is defined as, an unfair situation in which some people have more rights or even better opportunities than others. Many of today's United States citizens came into this country for the many benefits and opportunities one tends to hear about, but the negative situations and outcomes are never discussed. Just like any other topic, inequality has both its positive and negative outcomes, whether it is necessary to give those who want to succeed a bit of a challenge to get to where they deserve to be, to even

Social inequality is a broad term that has a lot of aspects that determine the definition. “Social inequality refers to the ways in which socially-defined categories of persons are differentially positioned with regard to access to a variety of social goods” (Walker). Some of the first factors to take into consideration when talking about social inequality refer to characteristics such as age, gender, social rank, and ethnicity. Based on somebody’s characteristics can determine their access to social goods such as: education, income, and housing.

We are all human, no matter if we are rich or poor, what the pigment of our skin is, or our sexual identification. Inequality has faded out since the 19th and 20th centuries but it is still here in our lives. Today there is more equality, but there is still prejudice. People today learn just because someone is different, it does not make them not equal to everybody else. In the past people grew up believing they should treat others poorly for being different and they followed the public's opinion on these topics.

I knew two people at this studio and I was definitely farther behind than all the dancers my age. It made me feel like I didn’t want to dance. My entire freshman year I felt like I was just trying to fit in and get involved in the studio. At my old studio, people had known me for six-plus years, and at the new studio no one knew me. I rarely got any compliments and only critiques that entire first year. The summer before my sophomore year I took classes and started really focusing on improving my technique as I didn’t have the distractions of the school year. I started getting compliments and started gaining knowledge and skills in my tap classes. I auditioned for the competition team that the studio had my sophomore year and I got cast in a specific role that was made just for me. It was at this point where I started focusing on dance and only tried out for the school musicals instead of every show during the school year because I knew I could still be performing in my acting classes, but my dance needed the most improvement, so in order to help me for my future career I decided that the best thing was to pursue dance in every way I could. I started going to conventions and doing solo routines as well as my group routines with the other dancers in the studio at competitions, and I actually wasn’t doing half-bad. I began receiving compliments and growing closer to the girls I now call family. I danced with this studio for four years, and when I left for college, I know I left a little part of me

A social inequality is the presence of unequal opportunities for members of a society, and is typically linked to gender inequality and race inequality (Rugaber & Boak, 2014). In the United States, social class is often a product of economic class and, sadly, sometimes race. For example, we generally see that wealthy, white males acquire a higher status than most females or people of color. Some argue that these inequalities are detrimental to our society, but according to the functionalist view, social inequalities are necessary to keep our society balanced. Often times these inequalities are reflected in movies and television shows but can be grossly exaggerated, thus contributing to the stereotypes our society has become numb to.

Social inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of social and economical resources. There are unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions and statuses within a group or society. Because there is social inequality, people have less life chances meaning less educational and occupational opportunities, which prevents movement on the social ladder. This gives authority to the rich because the rich own the means of production, giving capitalists the power to exercise it by exploiting the poor working class. An individual interest and not that of a community drive the rich. Such differences degrade and stigmatize the social class with less money and opportunities causing social stratification.