Prevalence of Lateral Bias in the Teaching of Beginning and Advanced Ballet

Abstract

Lateral bias can be defined as “a partiality toward or away from a side.” One cannot ignore the general biological tendency toward a right-sided lateral preference, both in handedness and in foot preference and its effect on the pedagogical approach of the dance teachers. We hypothesized that the structure of a generic ballet class may inadvertently promote right-sided lateral bias. Beginning and advanced Cecchetti and non-Cecchetti classes were observed and the number of repetitions to the right and left in each class combination as directed by the teacher were noted. The gesturing leg defined the side noted. Results support the hypotheses, indicating up to a 26% higher prevalence of repetitions to the right versus the left. This research seeks to lend credence to the handful of previous studies based on the conjecture that most dance combinations are taught to the right side first, resulting in more repetitions to the right than left in both practice and performance.