Women make up half of executive positions in dance companies worldwide, but only 30 per cent of artistic directorship roles, a new report reveals.

The non-profit organisation Dance Data Project (DDP) has released two papers examining gender distribution and representation within the dance sector  – the 2025 Global Leadership Report (now in its fourth year), and the inaugural 2024 Global Festival Report.

Eight Australian dance companies and one Australian festival were among the organisations surveyed in the report, which also found that female artistic directors of dance festivals are more likely to achieve equity in their programming.

2025 Global Leadership Report

The 2025 Global Leadership Report analyses 213 classically-based companies in 61 countries. In 2025, across 217 artistic director roles, 65 are occupied by women (30 per cent) and 152 (70 per cent) by men. It’s a meagre change since DDP’s 2024 report; this year, the representation of women in artistic directorship roles has increased by one percent.

Frances Rings, Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo © Daniel Boud

The report also tracks the number of women as heads of schools (61.5 per cent), executive directors (49.2 per cent), assistant/associate artistic directors...