Life as a Modern Dancer

Conflict Resolution Within the Context of Dance: Resource Guide (updated November 2025)

—

Purple Orange Gradient Aesthetic Quotes Instagram Post

Conflict Resolution Within the Context of Dance: Resource Guide

By Jill Randall

Throughout the past 4 years, professionally and personally, I have wanted to learn more about conflict resolution. This also relates to the ideas of mediation, transformative justice, and repair. 

What does this look like within an arts organization? A dance company? A project-based dance process? And of course – let’s also consider it personally, in close community, and within our global community.

I also want to acknowledge the idea of exploring conflict resolution within bigger conversations and intersectionality with power, race, gender, and compassion. Let’s have this dialogue and reflection within the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. 

—

Let’s consider the steps, discussions, and documents we can have and make, to offer clarity and care, which might prevent some conflicts. 

During the past few years, I have been honored to work with dancer Emily Hansel to publish four of her pieces about dancer care and contracts on this site. Please check them out here:

In addition, colleague Cookie Harrist’s zine Liberate the Dancer is important within this dialogue. I really appreciate the list of questions to consider as you begin a new dance process/project. 

—
With very few dance-specific or arts-specific resources, I have explored a variety of resources during the past few years in the hopes of making connections and applications.

In Winter 2024, I had the honor to work with dancer/conflict studies teacher Dana Caspersen over the course of a few months. I also have participated in a few webinars with Zen teacher and mediator Diane Musho Hamilton – about navigating conflict and about compassionate conversations. (See links below.) Most recently, I participated in Diane’s 3-day mediation training in February 2025.

As adrienne maree brown noted in a 2011 article, “in most organizations i work with these days, it’s my first order of business – how do we make decisions, and how do we handle conflict?”. brown gets right to the heart of it.

—
I hope that the resources below can help spark your own journey and learning around conflict resolution. My best wish is that every arts org’s employee manual — and every dance company’s LOA/contract — includes language about conflict. Even at the college level, my wish is that student groups and dance companies are building language around dancer care and navigating conflict. What happens when there is a disagreement, tension, misunderstanding, or microaggression? How can we process, reflect, be in dialogue, heal, and repair? If you have resources to share, please add them here as a comment below. Thank you.

Let’s take the time to create meaningful and thorough documents – staff manuals, artist letters of agreement, and MOUs. Let’s make conflict resolution and community care key components in every working situation as dancers, choreographers, and directors.

———

Articles

Books

Workbooks

5 Minute Meditation

Podcasts

Apps

  • Diane Musho Hamilton has a 5-part series on the Waking Up app called “Resolving Conflict.”

Websites and Upcoming Workshop Opportunities (many are online)

Affordable Conflict Mediation (in-person or online)

Embodied Conflict Resolution Certificate

———

Leave a comment

● About Me

I’m Jill, the creator and editor for this site. I am passionate about sharing artists’ journeys and offerings resources and inspiration for the field.

● Recent Articles