Dance without touching

Dance news:

I am sitting outside a Starbucks in Ealing, west London, talking about the decline of Britain?s classical dance. 'We have lost a generation of dancers', says Jeffery Taylor, a former dancer and now dance critic for the Sunday Express. 'There has been a huge erosion of standards with political correctness.' ...

One problem is the virtual ban on teachers touching students. Child protection policies now mean that male tutors touching female dancers is 'virtually prohibited'; students need a letter from parents in order to permit limited touching in certain circumstances; and classes must be observed 'to make sure that there?s no indiscretion'. ...

Another of Taylor?s laments is the non-judgemental current creeping into ballet. Just as touching is now banned, so too are the physically punishing regimes that were once the mainstay of ballet training. 'Today it?s almost official: you never tell a child what to do unless they are willing to do it.' This just doesn?t work.