ABSTRACT
As a child of the late 1990s, the author remembered watching Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Emmy Award-winning Cinderella debut on the American Broadcasting Company television network. The author's favorite scene immediately became the ball, choreographed by Rob Marshall. It begins with Prince Charming (Filipino-American Paolo Montalban) yawning and going through the motions of looking for a wife. Cinderella, played by African-American singer-songwriter Brandy, gracefully descends the stairs and bows to the prince; he softly lifts her chin. “Algorithmic bias” or racially based automated technologies have created echo chambers for Instagram and Facebook youth, causing a lack of empathy and social skills needed for diverse environments, especially when today’s dancers often need a solid social media presence and strong base of followers to get hired for commercial work. To participate in commercial dance is to participate in supporting the intentional casting of racial categories coded as “diverse”.
