8 May 2025
Dance Mama is thrilled to continue its link with the ISTD, strong supporters of their mission to help more parents continue careers in dance when they start a family. For the last 10 years, Lucy McCrudden, has made it her priority to champion those considering having children, pregnant, or already with children, to ensure they have better support and awareness on how their careers can be developed and sustained during this life phase. This work developed from Lucy’s own lived experience of becoming a mum, and Dance Mama is now an award-winning non-profit working at local, national, and international levels to keep parents in dance moving their worlds.
Over the years, Dance Mama has ensured that ISTD members have the latest access to research and information. The relationship between Dance Mama and ISTD has deepened through Lucy McCrudden’s position as a Mentor on the Diploma in Dance Pedagogy and Lead Assessor on the New Diploma in Teaching Community Dance.
Here are five top tips for those who are parents or parents-to-be:
It’s possible
Parenting is usually a hidden issue, with many people accepting some challenges as the norm, including the old adage that your career ends when baby arrives. Not so! There are now industry clinical guidelines for perinatal professional dancers (called Dancing Beyond), which is entirely applicable to dance teachers who are dance professionals.
Know your rights
Whether you are self-employed or an employee (commonly referred to as PAYE), be proactive in knowing what your statutory rights are, as well as reading maternity policies. You may well be the first person to be starting a family so the latter may not already exist. In this instance, research other policies at other schools and organisations to help your school build a policy. Dance Mama can signpost you in the right direction for this. Other excellent sources of information (aside from the Government website) are Pregnant Then Screwed and the Parents and Carers in Performing Arts Campaign.
Build your ‘village’
They say it takes a village to raise a child, and these days this village has to be built as often we don’t live near our primary family for childcare and support. Plus, as dance teachers, working ‘unsociable hours’ such as evenings and weekends is expected. Ensuring that you have the right support for you and your baby is imperative. Your village needs to consist of support for you (mental, physical, logistical and creatively) as well as childcare. This village can be built by making connections at ante-natal classes (within the NHS or with the Natural Childbirth Trust) as well as friendships built at postnatal classes and baby groups. We also must not be afraid to ask our friends and family for what we need.
Dance Mama provides much-needed specialist support to its community members’ villages with members across the UK and beyond in countries including USA, Canada and Germany. It is free to join, and here you will find other dance professionals from all sorts of roles across the sector who will have a good understanding of navigating a dance career and parenthood. Dance Mama hosts monthly online webinars with world-class experts so we can learn and discuss topics, as well as in-person sessions from time to time.
See a pelvic health physio during your entire perinatal journey
Which brings me nicely onto advocating for pelvic health support. Most NHS teams are understandably not dance specialists, so having a pelvic health physio in place through pregnancy and postnatally is key for those of us working with high physical loads in dance. You can find a good pelvic health physio via our map and links to directories on our site.
Make a flexible plan for your cover/return to work
View your plans like an improvisation exercise, not a set barre. Dancers are brilliant at being in tune with their bodies which gives us an advantage during birth – whatever the outcome. Go with the flow and give yourself lots of compassion, on the understanding that returning needs to be gradual and is very individualised depending on the type of birth you experience. Thinking through lots of options about how and when you will return will give you the flexibility you will need to make decisions that are right for you and your family. There are now clinical, peer-reviewed guidelines for perinatal professional dancers, Dancing Beyond, which can be accessed via our site: www.dancemama.org/resources.
We understand the financial impact of someone covering your classes, so make time to plan different scenarios to help you during this time. Head to our resources page (as above) which will sign-post you to specific advice on statutory maternity pay.
Parents who dance are a specific population of people who need specialist care and guidance as well as a supportive community of like-minded peers. Dance Mama offers this by providing the latest evidence-based support to help more parents to thrive in their parental and career roles.
To find out more and take advantage of a special rate for ISTD members (£6.99pcm RRP £8.99) by entering SILVER2 when purchasing a subscription visit: www.dancemama.org/membership.
You can also read the chapter ‘Sustaining a dance career as a parent’ in the book, *The ‘Female’ Dancer* (Farmer & Kindred, Routledge, 2024).
This article was written by Lucy McCrudden, Founder/CEO of Dance Mama, PhD Student at Christ Church Canterbury University, Co-Founder of the International Parenting and Dance Network, Active Pregnancy Foundation Advisory Board Member and TEDx Speaker. She began her career learning the ISTD syllabus at the Hadland School of Dance and Drama, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Dance Mama CIC was founded in 2022 following a highly successful journey as a self-employed project, earning McCrudden a One Dance UK Award. Dance Mama is a founding partner of Surrey Dance Network and strategic partner of the Parents and Carers in Performing Arts Campaign, featured in three books and has earned further award nominations for its contribution to improving equity for parents who dance.
Find her on social media:
Twitter: @thedancemama
Instagram: @lucymccrudden
Facebook: @thedancemama
