Partnering in sports refers to when two athletes complete an element of their sport together, requiring safety, trust, and coordination. Many sports utilize partnering elements in a myriad of ways. Multiple aesthetic sports, such as figure skating, cheerleading, and synchronized swimming, perform partnering and “stunts” as part of routines. Endurance sports, such as rowing, feature partnering in the double pair and coxless pair. Extreme sports also often utilize partnering for support, safety, decision-making, and performance. These sports include canoeing, tandem skydiving, sailing, parasailing, backcountry skiing, and climbing. Across sports, partnering requires some level of physical touch or interaction. Partners may be selected by the athletes, or partners may be assigned by athletic staff. Because partnering elements in sports are often complex, high-risk, and/or in dangerous environments, and require close proximity, trust, communication, and expertise of each athlete, proper and nuanced safeguards must be in place. Without athlete protections in partnering, harm can occur.
Case Study: Partnering in Ballet
In ballet, partnering usually takes place during a “pas de deux,” or step of two. A pas de deux is when two dancers—typically a male and female dancer—perform ballet steps together on stage. They often represent two love interests, storytelling their emotional and physical intimacy through dance.
Pas de deux requires close physical contact between dancers to perform the common elements of ballet partnering. These include pirouettes, promenades, and lifts, which can range in difficulty and contact level. Lifts and promenades require a high level of trust between partners. The female has to have a high level of trust in the male to lift her without dropping her and to support her weight while she balances, and the male dancer has to trust the female to hold her body position tightly so he can support her. Many overhead lifts require the female dancer to literally put her life in the hands of the male dancer, as drops from high up could result in serious injury.
Risk is compounded by the fact that dancers do not wear safety equipment when they dance. Additionally, dancers wear minimal clothing and padding to help with grip and for aesthetic reasons in the sport. Thus, physical awareness is critical in making a pas de deux look effortless and for dancers to perform their roles well.
Partnering and Dance’s Gender Gap
Female partnering training begins around ages 13-15 once they have substantial pointe experience, giving them a baseline for the various elements of a pas de deux. However, male dancers may begin partnering training at a younger age than their female counterparts due to the need for male dancers. Therefore, male dancers face a risk of injury associated with overuse and lifting before appropriate strength and muscle development.
This difference in experience puts male and female dancers on unequal footing, creating an imbalance of power between the athletes. By the time males begin training to partner with females the same age as them, they may have already performed a full pas de deux on stage. In the educational setting, female dancers may be taught the fundamental shapes required for different elements – for example, an arabesque and bending the supporting leg for a fish lift – but are not taught the mechanics of a lift the way the males are. When one party is more informed about high-risk dance elements, it places the less knowledgeable party in a vulnerable position. Female dancers may not know what points of contact are appropriate versus inappropriate, especially in intimate lifts that require contact with sensitive areas, and they are required to have a level of blind trust in their male partners. Similar gender gaps and differences in experience levels can be exhibited in other partnership sports, creating an imbalance of power between athletes.
Culture of Silence
Ballet does not allow for much self-advocacy. The typically quiet or silent rehearsal environment – which is taught to dancers at a young age – makes verbal communication difficult, especially more forceful or louder communication that may be necessary to restate a boundary. Therefore, the ability to speak up if touching during partnering feels uncomfortable, inappropriate, or even unsafe is limited. There is also pressure on girls to “be nice to the boys”, as maintaining chemistry on stage is a component sought after by casting directors or other leadership. Female dancers may not feel comfortable confronting a male dancer in the case of inappropriate touch because they do not want to face retaliation or lose potential performance opportunities.
Similarly, in other partnering sports, athletes may feel a culture of silence and be afraid to speak up so as not to lose an opportunity. There may also be no one around in outdoor spaces, such as on the water or in the backcountry, to speak out to if unsafe, uncomfortable, or inappropriate interactions are occurring.
Traditional or Change-Averse?
Ballet is very tradition-oriented. It has existed since the 15th century, and even as the art form itself has evolved, ballet’s culture has remained largely the same. The sport has resisted change regarding various social issues—such as female leadership and discussions around abuse and consent—even as similarly high-contact performance arts and sports have adapted to ensure participant safety.
Ballet leaders leverage the industry’s long and storied history to normalize this lack of evolution. This is normalized in the dance environment through sayings like “this is how we’ve always done it” and “everyone else is okay with it, so why aren’t you?”. This minimizes athlete concerns, prevents the normalization of healthy conversations around consent and potential misconduct, and limits dancers' and leadership’s ability to break the cycle and ensure the safety of future dancers. Traditions and norms surrounding acceptable behavior are seen across all sports, including those with partnering elements, that may instill unhealthy and unsafe cultures that are resistant to change.
Early Sport Specialization and Consent
With the growing popularity of ballet competitions as a way to earn scholarships and entry into pre-professional spaces, dancers may begin competing pas de deux as young as 9 years old.
This is reflective of a broader shift towards early sports specialization, which is being seen across all sports. When we examine ballet and other sports that heavily use partnering, do young athletes fully understand the potential risks of lifts and partnering? If we rush athletes before they are physically and emotionally prepared to engage in high-contact and high-risk activity, we put them in harm’s way and neglect their well-being. This can be seen in other high-risk sports, in which young athletes whose brains aren’t fully developed may not understand the risks they are involved in.
We see many of these issues present themselves in other sports that utilize partnering. High-impact lifts and stunts are critical sport elements in partner figure skating and cheerleading, and have additional elements of danger – such as tumbling, skate blades, and the ice. These elements require a high level of trust between athletes to be executed successfully, which can blur boundaries between athletes and could create power imbalances that leverage life and death to ensure compliance with problematic behavior. This extends to other sports, such as climbing and skiing, where partnering is used to minimize risk in highly dangerous (and often isolated) physical environments.
Athletes who begin training in partnering elements understand that physical contact and intimacy are required. However, it is still important that organizations, staff, and other athletes actively obtain consent from athletes. Normalizing and encouraging self-advocacy, healthy communication, and informed consent help athletes develop critical skills, especially as they move into pre-professional and professional spaces.
Safeguarding Recommendations with Partnering
- Establish a framework for consent.
Verbal Consent in an Educational Setting
Athletes and educators can ask the athletes they work with, “Can I touch you?” or “Can I demonstrate with you?” to obtain verbal consent. This could also be done when using physical corrections. It establishes a culture of consent and helps lower the stigma around advocating for boundaries surrounding close physical contact.
Consent Waivers
Consent waivers can be provided at the beginning of the year or at multiple points throughout the year, alongside a code of conduct. These waivers should list out potential points of physical contact per the sport, along with the potential risks of injury. Athletes would be properly educated on what they are learning, and could sign off (or choose not to), saying they understand the risks associated with partnering. This could be implemented similarly in other aesthetic partnering sports by outlining stunt and lift points of contact, and even in extreme sports through defining all possible risks and how partners may use physical contact to ensure safety. Establishing a baseline of expected behavior and points of contact helps standardize positive behavior and helps athletes easily discern appropriate versus inappropriate contact.
Remember, consent should exist beyond a one-time signed form. Athletes need the freedom to withdraw consent at any time, and comprehensive education should be provided for athletes regarding consent and abuse prevention.
Intimacy Coordinators
Intimacy coordinators serve as advocates between two partners during physically and emotionally intimate situations. Athletes can discuss gut-check sensitive points of contact with them. Intimacy coordinators can then step in and make changes if needed. In ballet, where choreography frequently combines emotionally charged romantic storytelling with complicated and potentially dangerous technical skills, intimacy coordinators are frequently utilized to provide dancers with a third party to voice concerns to and help them make any necessary changes to promote safety. Intimacy coordinators could be a useful tool in other partnering sports to help facilitate healthy communication surrounding boundaries. For example, figure skating is another partnering-heavy sport where athletes perform physically and emotionally intimate skills that could benefit from having an intimacy coordinator to promote athlete safety . Working with an intimacy coordinator requires a high level of communication between intimacy coordinators and coaches, which can result in clashing and division between staff. Smaller organizations may not have the means to hire an intimacy coordinator, and having a third person isn’t often feasible in some partnering sports. Additionally, organizations must be mindful that having intimacy coordinators would be ineffective if the fear of retaliation is present.
- Encourage verbal communication and active listening in sports environments. Coaches can encourage verbal communication to ensure safety. Communication does not have to be loud to maintain a distraction-free rehearsal environment, but it is necessary for exercising boundaries and self-advocacy. We can also encourage partners to listen to each other. Having a mutual understanding regarding needs and preferences is more effective at establishing chemistry and ensuring safety than relying on blind trust.
- Teach athletes to listen to intuition. Intuition functions as a unique messaging system that alerts us to pay attention to potentially unsafe situations and environments. Self-awareness and connection with one’s body are skills emphasized throughout athletics, so encouraging athletes to listen to – and make choices aligning with – their intuition is a natural extension. This is especially important in extreme environments, where not listening to intuition could result in serious injury to one or both partners.
- Ensure athletes have identified and have access to a safe adult to turn to in case of inappropriate behavior and for emotional support. This needs to be someone who is not responsible for team selection or competition decisions – someone who is impartial and cannot interfere with opportunities. This could be an intimacy coordinator or a safeguarding officer.
- Codes of conduct (and accompanying anti-retaliation policies) should be implemented. These policies standardize positive and appropriate behavior and promote safety. They also allow for athletes to self-advocate.
- Equally educate all athletes on the mechanics and points of contact required for partnering in the particular sport. This lowers the power imbalance between athletes of different genders, ages, and experience levels in partnering, aligns with best educational practices, and helps with both injury prevention and abuse prevention.
- Ensure athletes participate in sport at a level and in environments appropriate for their skill level and emotional maturity. There is always an incentive to maintain a competitive advantage and push limits, but we can emphasize an athlete’s strengths without putting them in sensitive and potentially inappropriate situations.
Annelise Ware, MHS
Program Manager at #WeRideTogether
aware@weridetogether.today
