Our expectations of dancers
Consent and conduct on the Brown Ballroom Dance Team, and who to tell if something goes wrong.
At Brown and always, fun and competition are secondary to a safe, comfortable environment. This is our contract, and we expect members to uphold it.
Ballroom is danced in a frame, with your hands on someone else. Most of the time that is unremarkable. This is what we do when it is not.
Dancing together
Ask before you change the hold
Closed hold, a lift, a dip, a hand anywhere the figure does not already put it. Asking takes a second and nobody has ever minded being asked.
No is a complete answer
Anyone can turn down a dance, stop partway through one, or ask to swap partners, without giving a reason. If someone does, that is the end of it.
Lead or follow, your choice
Either, both, or a different one each week. Nobody gets put in a role, and nobody comments on the one you picked.
Only correct someone who asked
Being taught mid-dance by a partner is the most common way people end up feeling small here. If you were not asked, dance the figure and let it go.
Tell someone
Any member of the Ballboard, at a practice or by email. They are all on the Ballboard page with an address. If you would rather not speak to someone you dance with, write to brown.ballroom@gmail.com and it reaches the captains only.
You will not be asked to repeat it to a room, and nobody will tell you what you should have done differently. What happens next depends on what happened: sometimes a conversation, sometimes being asked to leave the club. We are not the right people to handle anything that belongs with the University, and we will not try to.
You do not have to come to us first
Some of these are confidential, meaning they will not start a University process unless you ask them to. Others are reporting routes. They are yours to use with or without telling anybody on the team.
- Sexual Assault Response Line
- Confidential, 24 hours, a licensed counselor. 401-863-6000
- BWell SHARE Advocates
- Confidential advocacy, for any student, whether or not you report anything.
- Counseling and Psychological Services
- Confidential. Crisis support around the clock. 401-863-3476
- Title IX and Gender Equity
- Where a formal report goes, and where support measures come from.
- Help after sexual violence
- Brown's own guide to every option, in one place.
- Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy
- The policy this club sits under, in full.
- Code of Student Conduct
- Applies to every student organization, including this one.