Leading and Following: Exploring the Impact of Mentorship on Collegiate Dancers

Mentorship plays a pivotal role in student development across various disciplines, yet its specific impact on dancers within collegiate programs remains underexplored. This literature review and small pilot study investigates the hypothesis that mentorship in university dance programs positively influences students’ artistic identity, academic achievement, and career readiness. Drawing from six empirical studies, including research in arts education, peer mentorship, and emotional development, the paper analyzes how mentorship structures shape dancers’ holistic growth. While mentorship is generally associated with beneficial outcomes, findings also reveal critical nuances regarding mentorship quality, accessibility, and the risks of informal or biased systems. Through a critical synthesis of prior research and analysis of a sample pool of dance major survey responses from Chapman University, this paper concludes that while mentorship can be highly effective in supporting dancers’ artistic and professional trajectories, its effectiveness depends heavily on intentional implementation and equitable access.