Since its founding in 2015, MoBBallet has applied a 360° approach to transforming not only ballet, but the field of dance in its entirety. Recognized as a change agent and leader in cultural reform, MoBBallet advances diversity, equity, and inclusion across every level of the ecosystem—from the training pipeline to the boardroom. Over the past decade, the dance field has increasingly responded to broader cultural and societal shifts, working to combat, dismantle, or acknowledge systemic power structures and hierarchies—including patriarchy, racism, genderism, and ableism—that perpetuate inequity. Dance writers (journalists, critics, and scholars) and editors serve as key gatekeepers and a vital artery for the industry, as critical writing significantly influences future funding, presenting opportunities, donor support, and audience engagement.

In June 2024, MoBBallet turned its focus to dance writing by hosting the MoBBallet Dance Writers Convening: Role, Responsibilities, and Relevance in the Evolving Ecosystem of the Field. Supported by Critical Minded—a grantmaking and learning initiative dedicated to resourcing and raising the visibility of cultural critics through direct support, research, and convenings—the event took place in conjunction with the debut of the Pathways to Performance Choreographic Initiative at the Kennedy Center. This convening laid the groundwork for investigating a new, more conscious lens for dance writing.

Continuing this momentum, MoBBallet participated in the National Center for Choreography-Akron (NCCAkron) Dancing Lab. From July 13–17, NCCAkron hosted the MoBBallet Dance Writing Workshop, bringing together eight writers and editors for a rigorous process of reflection and analysis. The workshop yielded a foundational set of guidelines and best practices designed to help writers and editors identify implicit bias in their work and editorial processes, offering a proactive tool for ethical engagement in their home communities and across the field.

MoBBallet’s

Standards for Responsible Dance Writing:

A Framework for Ethical Practice and Service to the Field

I. ROLE & PURPOSE

As dance writers, we recognize that our work serves as foundational infrastructure within the dance ecosystem. We affirm that dance writing fulfills these essential roles:

• Ecosystem Impact: Directing public reach and sustaining the cultural relevance and historical memory of the art form.
• Multifunctional Service: Providing rigorous context (cultural, historical, political), nuanced analysis, artistic translation, constructive feedback, and critique.
• Institutional Currency: Functioning as vital field currency—a resource that artists, presenters, funders, scholars, and patrons rely upon to evaluate, validate, and support the work.
• Editorial Gatekeeping & Archival Impact: Determining whose histories are recorded, funded, and remembered, making dance writers active stewards of the field’s historic record.
• Bridging Audiences: Serving as an accessible portal through which both the tyro (novice) and the doyen (seasoned expert) can meaningfully engage with dance.

II. RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS

Guided by the fundamental commitment to first, do no harm—distinguishing between constructive critical interrogation and destruction or dynamic erasure—we hold ourselves accountable through the following practices:

• Positionality & Self-Interrogation: Actively examining and owning the personal, social, and cultural lenses through which we view the world, performance, and the artists we cover.
• Disclosure of Blind Spots & Conflicts: Continuously identifying, acknowledging, and disclosing our personal value systems, implicit biases, conflicts of interest, and areas of stylistic or cultural ignorance that could compromise equitable coverage.
• Continuous Cultural Education: Educating ourselves on cultural competence, historical lineages, and aesthetic frameworks outside our personal experience so that we do not misrepresent, flatten, or misjudge the traditions we cover.
• Interrogating Inherited Value Systems & Reframing Importance: Challenging Eurocentric aesthetic hierarchies that privilege specific genres, institutional pedigrees, or budget sizes over others—shifting away from inherited notions of prestige toward cultural depth, community resonance, and artistic integrity.
• Active Citizenship Within Our Ecosystem: Serving the field as active, invested participants rather than detached observers, practicing critical objectivity without claiming superiority or exemption from the community we cover.

III. THE PRACTICE OF CRITIQUE

In the active practice of critique, we seek to:

• Center Artist Intent: Evaluate the work on its own terms and stated intentions before measuring it against personal expectations.
• Contextualize the Work: Situate artists within their broader historical, cultural, canonical, and aesthetic lineages.
• Decouple Scale from Significance: Assess impact and quality independently of an artist’s budget, marketing apparatus, or venue size—bringing equal critical rigor to independent, grassroots, and large-scale productions alike.
• Critique with Rigor and Respect: Interrogate the work thoroughly while respecting the vulnerability, labor, and risk inherent in the artistic process.
• Maintain Descriptive Integrity: Distinguish clearly between objective observation, subjective reaction, and informed evaluation.
• Practice Intellectual Humility: Transparently acknowledge what we do not know, while accurately presenting and analyzing what was brought to the stage.
• Uphold Basic Accuracy: Practice meticulous attention to detail, ensuring correct nomenclature, accurate credit for all artistic collaborators, and proper use of self-identified pronouns and cultural terminology.