Participation motives for a holistic dance-movement practice

Abstract

Recent decades have seen the appearance of forms of physical activity where the emphasis goes beyond traditional exercise to include a striving towards holistic well-being. However, not much is known about what attracts people to these holistically orientated practices compared to typical sport and exercise participation motives. The purpose of this study was to explore the participation motives for a holistic dance-movement practice called 5Rhythms, comprising free movement within the structure of five distinct “rhythms”. Ninety eight dancers responded to an e-mail survey consisting of two open-ended questions querying them about what attracted them to 5Rhythms and what kept them dancing. A thematic analysis led to 10 motive themes, with freedom, safety, emotions, personal growth, spirituality, and social motives emerging particularly strongly. It was noteworthy that health and appearance-related motives were virtually absent in the participants’ accounts, while fitness was important for some but not others and tended to be marginal compared to other motives. It was concluded that the inherent holistic features of the practice are reflected in participants’ motives and that 5Rhythms may serve a sub-population with particular values and needs. This underscores the notion that the varied characteristics of different physical activity contexts self-select different subsets of people according to matching values and beliefs.