ABSTRACT

There is a paucity of research into female-identifying dancers as parents, how the transition from dancer to pregnancy to parent is managed, and whether and how a dancing parent can maintain a career in dance. This paper shares findings from a qualitative interview study with (n = 30), predominantly female professional contemporary dancers that have become parents and are working within the contemporary dance industry in the UK. It uses Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of belief and practice to make greater sense of how the dancers navigate becoming parents and the disruption to their dancer’s habitus and embodied identity, as they attempt to manage work-family conflicts within contemporary dance. Findings reveal that when the dancers became a parent the disrupted taken-for-granted norms and expectations of the dancer’s habitus and identity as a dancer, intensified the fragility of lives and livelihoods and brought new physical, psychological, social and economic vulnerabilities. The dancers in the study shared experiences of barriers, but also enablers for dancers that are parents within the contemporary dance industry in the UK, with examples of managing transition, evolution of identities and capital gain.

摘要

缺乏关于女性识别舞者为父母的研究，如何管理从舞者到怀孕再到父母的过渡，以及舞者父母是否以及如何维持舞蹈事业。本文与 ( n = 30)，主要是女性职业现代舞者，她们已成为父母并在英国的现代舞行业工作。它使用皮埃尔·布迪厄 (Pierre Bourdieu) 的信念和实践概念框架来更好地理解舞者如何在成为父母的过程中导航，以及在他们试图处理当代舞蹈中的工作-家庭冲突时，舞者的习惯和具体身份受到的破坏。调查结果显示，当舞者成为父母时，对舞者习惯和舞者身份的理所当然的规范和期望被打乱，加剧了生活和生计的脆弱性，并带来了新的身体、心理、社会和经济脆弱性。研究中的舞者分享了障碍的经验，