Striving to promote, protect and enhance the art of Middle Eastern & Mediterranean dance in Southern Africa through the standardization, ongoing education and alignment of our practices with internationally recognize quality measures.

CODE OF ETHICS

1. Members shall extend professional courtesy to all fellow professionals.
2. Members shall refrain from making false claims to past fame or affiliations.
3. Members shall not, through personal contact or through representatives, attempt to recruit students from another school or institution.
4. Members will not restrict information about seminars or workshop events from their students when the instructor, sponsor, and material presented are ethical, accurate, and appropriate to the level of the student.
5. Members who are instructors shall agree to keep the students first. For example: Members shall never view students as 'competition' but instead should help mentor those students with talent, interest, motivation and ethics into future peers who will be a credit to the field, and in general try to guide, help and address concerns. No one who is concerned about being exceeded by a student should teach. Being exceeded is what we all hope so that the next generation will rise higher.
6. Members should keep MEDASA's "Standard of Excellence" by continuing their dance education, both locally and internationally.
7. Members shall respect the intellectual property of others and not represent it as their own or belonging to anyone other than the originator.
8. Members agree to credit sources for choreography, music, photography, and intellectual property in general when possible.
9. Members shall only offer services for which they are trained and qualified to perform.
10. Members shall guard the individual rights and personal dignity of each student and not engage in discriminatory practices in regard to age, weight, religion, disability, race, gender, or sexual orientation.
11. Members are accountable for their personal behaviour at all times and should be aware that their behaviour reflects on the public perception of the profession. Therefore members must avoid behaviour that is clearly in violation of accepted moral and legal standards.
12. Members shall not, under the auspices of Middle Eastern dance, incorporate the behaviours or practices of erotic dance, stripping, or related fields. They agree to maintain boundaries between these very separate vocations.
13. Members agree to respect the privacy of all students served and responsibly use personal information gained from that relationship.
14. Members shall refrain from charging over-inflated fees ("over-inflated" is defined as substantially more than a comparable teacher in the same geographic area would charge for the same service) to their students for classes or additional products or services as a condition of their remaining in class.
15. Members may not start teaching in geographic area where an accredited teacher already exists, or within 15kms radius from that teacher, without the express written permission of that teacher.
16. Members shall not promise students unrealistic guarantees of work.
17. Members shall make every attempt to be aware of workplace and payment standards and not lower the standards of pay nor engage in workplace practices that degrade the respect for the art form, degrade working conditions, or reward it based on factors other than merit and ability in dance.
18. Members who adhere to the Code of Ethics, are of high moral character, conduct themselves and their practice in a professional and ethical manner shall be considered and recommended as members in good standing of MEDASA.
19. Members are obligated to report violations of the Code of Ethics by fellow members to the Committee. The Committee shall review any reported incidents and shall determine whether the offence rises to the level of a violation.
20. Members shall keep the physical and mental well being of students as a primary consideration.