Imagery in Dance: A Literature Review.

Abstract

Dance imagery is a consciously created mental representation of an experience, either real or imaginary, that may affect the dancer and her or his movement. In this study, imagery research in dance was reviewed in order to: 1. describe the themes and ideas that the current literature has attempted to illuminate and 2. discover the extent to which this literature fits the Revised Applied Model of Deliberate Imagery Use. A systematic search was performed, and 43 articles from 24 journals were found to fit the inclusion criteria. The articles were reviewed, analyzed, and categorized. The findings from the articles were then reported using the Revised Applied Model as a framework. Detailed descriptions of Who, What, When and Where, Why, How, and Imagery Ability were provided, along with comparisons to the field of sports imagery. Limitations within the field, such as the use of non-dance-specific and study-specific measurements, make comparisons and clear conclusions difficult to formulate. Future research can address these problems through the creation of dance-specific measurements, higher participant rates, and consistent methodologies between studies.