Nicole Perry
19:00 - 19:30 (GMT+1) / 14:00 - 14:30 (GMT-4)
Assessments of Care: What being an Intimacy Coordinator taught me about Grading
BIOGRAPHY
Nicole Perry, MFA, CLMA, CID/C is an award-winning intimacy director, as well as intimacy coordinator and dance choreographer. . She is currently the Miami Unit Intimacy Coordinator for two new series filming in South Florida.
Nicole has taught Movement and Dance for NYFA: Miami Beach, Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University, and the University of Miami. She teaches Intimacy and Movement for Intimacy Professionals Education Collective. She is a founding member of Intimacy Direction in Dance and Florida Intimacy Professionals and the founder of Momentum Stage, a professional development company for dance and theatre educators.
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the use of ungrading and contract grading practices in dance education to mitigate harmful power dynamics, foster student agency and intrinsic motivation, and create a trauma-informed, care-full learning environment. Drawing on critical pedagogy theory from scholars like Paulo Freire and psychological research on rewards/punishments in education, I argue that traditional grading systems reinforce hierarchies of power that uphold colonial norms, while stifling creativity, risk-taking, collaboration, and learning. Alternative assessment methods rooted in an ethic of care, like narrative assessments, self-grading guides, and specification-based contract grading are proposed.These approaches unsettle hierarchies as they emphasize student choice, personal growth, embodied knowledge, and create vital opportunities for students to (re)claim autonomy over their learning. Strategies for implementing ungrading in both dance technique and dance studies courses are provided, with a focus on promoting trust, community-building, and validating students' experiences and voices. Ultimately, these practices center care over competition.