Guest Mary Bawden, DA:NCE (Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited)

Professional Dancer and Educator

Child Grooming Hidden in “Cute” Kids’ Dance Routines

The Slippery Slope to Abuse

Dear Aly,

Parents across America are unknowingly sending their kids to dance classes that look innocent but are breeding grounds for grooming and exploitation. Mary Bawden, founder of DA:NCE, has the explosive firsthand evidence — including a survivor’s raw testimony — proving how hypersexualized costumes, choreography, and music create a “slippery slope” to abuse. This is happening NOW in studios nationwide, and she has the urgent solutions to stop it.

The Shocking Survivor Story Driving Mary’s Mission (Can share Verbatim On-Air):

DA:NCE Story: (Author wishes to remain anonymous)

From the age of 12-16, I danced at a studio where I was hyper sexualised, abused, and groomed. To begin it was things like inappropriate songs (britney spears Slave 4 u at 12, pussy cat dolls Buttons at 13 ect.) and costuming, which creeped into choreography (twerking, dry humping, wide legs dropping to the floor, inappropriate hand placements) and continued into comments such as “dance sexier” “give the boys a thrill” and “you would be a better dancer if you hurried up and lost your virginity” (age 13). This was, to us children, normal, and merely seen as a sign of having a ‘cool dance teacher’. We were often forced to change in large open rooms, with our dance teachers and classmates seeing everything. We were told to only wear G-strings to dance class, and it was encouraged to share with our dance teacher if and when we had lost our virginity. This normalisation of the topic of sex in the studio lead to the grooming of me and my friend, in which we were encouraged to ‘date’, kiss, and have sex. This was at the age of 15. Our dance teacher would tell stories of her sexual relationships and ask us if we thought about things like that, and often made us sleep in the same bed and lock the door when travelling for dance. As someone who made it very clear I was not interested in girls, It made me deeply uncomfortable, but also instilled deep fear in me, and made me question if I should partake in these activities to gain my dance teachers approval. The more scared we became, the more obedient we were, allowing her to conduct physical and emotional abuse on us (not quite sexual thankfully). Dance became a place of fear, manipulation, and abuse. I strongly believe that the normalisation of inappropriate choreography, costuming and music allows for the normalisation of abuse, it is a slippery slope. I hope with all my heart your organisation can help to protect these innocent children, and that more protection is put in place in the performing arts industry.

This isn’t ancient history — it’s the reality fueling Mary’s fight today. As a former professional dancer and educator (BA Modern Dance, UC Riverside), she founded DA:NCE in 2016 to expose how “cute” recitals mask predator pipelines, backed by APA research on the psychological damage.

Why Book Mary?

• Timely Outrage: Viral videos of kids twerking in thongs are exploding online — parents need her red flags TODAY to protect their families.

• Proven Media Voice: Featured in LA Times op-ed on social media’s role in sexualizing kids’ dance; scholarly piece in Dignity Journal on the shift from innocence to exploitation.

Mary’s Latest Op-Eds:

• • “Social media sexualized children’s dance” (LA Times, Oct 2025)​

  • “The Shift in Children’s Dance” (Dignity Journal, May 2025)

• Visual Gold: B-roll ready — healthy vs. harmful dance clips, DA:NCE’s Healthy Dance Directory, and her national initiatives like the Healthy DA:NCE Showcase.​

• Hopeful Close: Mary spotlights safe studios and empowers viewers with tools to demand change — perfect for family segments.

Possible Hooks:

• How innocent-looking classes normalize abuse (with the verbatim story).

• Social media’s role in grooming via viral kid videos.

• 5 red flags parents must spot immediately.

• Bipartisan path to protect kids and preserve dance’s joy.

Headshot/B-roll available.

This story will spark calls, shares, and real impact — want to help make parents aware?

Meet Mary Bawden, Executive Director and Founder of DA:NCE (Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited).

Dance educator and author Mary Bawden earned a BA in modern dance from the University of California, Riverside, and a California secondary teaching credential. In 2003, she founded Soul to Sole Choreography (www.soultosolechoreography.org), focusing on innovative movement techniques.

Several years ago, Mary observed a disturbing shift in children’s dance toward hypersexualization—adult-style costumes, provocative choreography, and explicit music—prompting her to advocate for age-appropriate standards to safeguard kids and preserve dance’s integrity. In 2016, she launched the non-partisan DA:NCE organization, uniting experts to deliver free, evidence-based resources like educational videos, an ebook on healthy vs. harmful dance, the Healthy DA:NCE Directory, and the Healthy DA:NCE Showcase for parents, educators, and studios nationwide.​

A sought-after speaker, Mary has presented at the National Dance Educators Organization (NDEO) conferences and Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation (CESE) summits in Washington, DC. Her media presence includes TV, podcasts, radio, and high-impact articles—one garnering over 250,000 views (counterculturemom.com/the-scary-trend-in-childrens-dance). DA:NCE resources, including expert trailers, PowerPoints, newsletters, and the DA:NCE Coalition, empower communities to spot and stop exploitation while celebrating joyful, creative dance.

Dance Studios & Children: 3 Survivors Speak About Hypersexualization V1

Think sexy, adult dance for kids is cute? It’s not. And the effects can be lifelong. Hear from three survivors as they discuss how adult choreography, costumes and music manipulated their childhood dance experience, and the outcomes this hypersexualized dance had on each of these women as they became adults. Dance studios can do better. When parents and teachers start demanding change, change will come.

Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited (DA:NCE) Stopping the Hypersexualization of Children (On Rumble)

Founder of DA:NCE, Mary Bawden sits down with Jeremy Slayden to explain how children are becoming increasingly sexualized through dance at younger and younger ages. During the last decade, there has been a cultural shift from healthy educational children’s dance to harmful hypersexualized children’s dance by using adult costumes, sexually suggestive choreography, and music with inappropriate sexual themes and/or lyrics. Studios, dance teachers, and even parents often unknowingly model their movement choices on what they see in the media and pop-culture outlets. Our organization is dedicated to raising awareness and providing dance educators, parents, and concerned adults with the resources and education needed to take action and end this kind of exploitation occurring through hypersexualization of children in dance.