Sociologist Peter Figueroa's Formive Dance Theory

Mankind tend to look at the male populace and conclude that the significantly poor participation of males is due to individual preferences and the fact that dance is seen as highly feminine or non masculine. What they don’t ask is why participation rates for both the male and female gender is low. It’s rare that society looks beyond what is actually affecting individual choices of the majority of society to not participate in dance. A key point of difference is that dance studios, the common delivery point of most peoples’ formative dance experience, are operating as businesses (with a clear profit motive), rather than the myriad of community based sports clubs, which encourage and cater for participation of a broader range of groups within society. We can study this through the utilisation of sociologist Peter Figueroa’s Framework, which looks at factors, which affect access and equity. The

This excludes the opportunity for dance to play a role within society as an inclusive community activity.

As sport acts as a microcosm of society, many issues found in sport such as gender stereotyping, female discrimination, sexploitation and racism, can also be found outside of sport. The cultural level holds immense power in influencing all levels of the framework, with socialisation of factors regarding race, culture, femininity and masculinity filtering through each level and either directly or indirectly impacting the individual level. Both male and female participation in dance is influenced by gender stereotypes with hegemonic beliefs about masculinity and femininity limiting or enhancing both genders equity and access into dance. Within our media saturated society, females dancers are urged to sexualise themselves in order to serve the