Professional Dancers Research Articles

How self-awareness is connected to less experience of action crises in personal goal pursuit

In this research, we applied a differential perspective to the study of action crises, i.e., being in an intra-psychic decisional conflict whether to pursue or abandon a goal once difficulties in its pursuit arise. In two studies, we investigated the role of individuals’ levels of self-awareness when experiencing such action crises. Both among professional ballet dancers (daily diary, Study 1) and university undergraduates (preregistered experience sampling, Study 2), individuals with greater levels of (dispositional and situational) self-awareness showed an adaptive, that is, problem-solving oriented way of dealing with difficulties in the pursuit of their (training or study) goals. As a consequence, self-awareness contributed to less experience of action crisis during goal pursuit and, as a result, led to better goal performance.

Influence of Human-Computer Interaction-Based Intelligent Dancing Robot and Psychological Construct on Choreography.

To study the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on dancing robots in choreography, this paper introduces the biped-humanoid robot-imagined choreography model alongside the Psychological Space Construction (Psychological Construct) and Human–Computer Interaction (HCI). The proposed model is based on deep learning and imitating human thinking and is capable of imagining new dance elements. Finally, simulation experiments are designed to verify the model's effectiveness. Dance professionals are invited to evaluate the robot-imagined dance posture. The results show that the proposed model can vividly imitate human dancers and imagine and create new dance movements. The average basic feature retention and innovation scores of 30 new dance elements imagined on the L1 (head) are 7.29 and 7.64, respectively. By comparison, similar scores on 30 new elements in L2 (upper-body) are 7.73 and 7.40, respectively. Therefore, the proposed intelligent robot-imagined choreography model can help the dancing robot choreograph more finely and improve the choreography efficiency. The research results have significant practical value for dance teaching.

Postsurgical Dance Rehabilitation for Tibial Stress Fracture: 2 Case Reports

Background Tibial stress fractures (TSFs) develop in dancers due to a complex interplay of biopsychosocial influences, occasionally resulting in delayed union and surgery. This Case Report illustrates 2 rehabilitation approaches for TSF with differing complexity in 2 professional dancers. Case Presentation The same surgeon performed intramedullary nailing procedures with screw fixation on both dancers' tibias. In Case 1, the postsurgical physiotherapy included orthopaedic postsurgical care and multimodal physiotherapy involving manual and exercise therapies with patient education and dance-specific retraining. In Case 2, the postsurgical physiotherapy included a psychologically informed approach combined with postsurgical rehabilitation to address both psychosocial comorbidities and orthopaedic deficits. Outcome and Follow-up Both dancers returned to full-time dancing within 7 months post-surgery and reported high recovery rates in long-term follow-up. Discussion The study highlights the importance of physiotherapists' role in identifying and managing psychosocial comorbidities for proper case management, optimum outcomes, and reinjury prevention. JOSPT Cases 2022;2(2):93–100. doi:10.2519/josptcases.2022.10738

Biomechanical Risks Associated with Foot and Ankle Injuries in Ballet Dancers: A Systematic Review.

Professional ballet dancers can be classified as dance artists and sports performers. This systematic review aims to consider the biomechanical risk factors for foot and ankle injuries in ballet dancers, as this could potentially reduce the impact that ‘cost of injury’ may have on ballet companies. An additional outcome was to examine the effects of injury on the career of ballet dancers. This study searched articles in four electronic databases for information in peer-reviewed journals. The included articles examined the relationships between biomechanical factors and the relationship between ballet shoes and foot performance. There were 9 articles included in this review. Among these articles, two focused on the peak force of the foot using two types of pointe shoes, three focused on overuse injuries of the ballet dancer’s foot, one article focused on the loading of the foot of a dancer, and three articles focused on the function and biomechanics of the foot in dancers. This review also found that the pointe shoe condition was the most important factor contributing to a foot injury; overuse injury related to high-intensity training and affected both the ankle and the foot; and metatarsophalangeal joint injury related to the function and structure of the foot. Finally, strengthening the lower extremity muscle is also a recommendation to improve muscle coordination and reduce injuries.

Professzionális táncosok mentális jóllétének és megküzdési módjainak vizsgálata a Covid-19 okozta karantén idején

The paper aims to present how professional dancers (n=163) could cope with the challenges of the lockdown period and how they could be best supported. The study measured mental well-being, resilience, coping strategies of dancers, and specific responses to the lockdown situation. The most influential factor in dancers’ mental well-being is their resilience; yet, they can also rely on their skills of coping with adversity, which, ideally, should improve during professional dancing. Of the situation-specific variables, worries and anxiety related to Covid-19, the level of boredom and the use of self-help techniques have proven to be exceptionally important. The conclusion of the research was that besides general worries related to Covid-19, the dancers are also characterized by specific worries (bodyweight control, decline in movement skills, difficulties in returning to work). It would be beneficial to put special focus on effective intervention methods for dancers, teach them adequate self-help and coping techniques, and increase their resilience. Although the lockdown period was a special and rare occurrence, similar situations, e.g. injuries, changing company, trips, having children, can frequently arise in dancers’ lives.

The Dance Company Film

The Dance Company Film

Between scribbling and imaginal writing: The line that is on its way

In a series of tiny artistic experiments, I explore the relationship between drawing writing and performing in close collaboration with children and professional dancers. I examine the tight relationship between drawing and writing on the one hand, and the process of sensorial (non-linguistic) sense-making on the other hand. Professional dancers and children engage in the act of imaginal writing. The aim is to come to an embodied understanding of drawing and writing as gestural re-enactments of the line (). In this paper, I first describe the scribbling of young children, as the exploration of the line in terms of rhythm, movements and affects. Then, the tight relationship between drawing and writing is discussed. It is argued that both drawing and writing use the line as its medium, since ‘the same sort of line which writes also draws’ (Gray in : 132). This brings me to imaginal writing, i.e. a form of writing that is not concerned with the semantic content of words but instead takes the quality and dynamic of the line as its departure point. Imaginal writing is a form of draw-writing that taps straight into the lived experience. It is an embodied activity that takes movement as the main vehicle for the sense-making process. This process is illustrated by the draw-writings of both children (my own daughter as well as other children) and professional dancers.

초등학생 한국무용 영재들의 이야기보따리 풀기

Objectives This study explores the life of ‘A talented Korean child’ who is educated by the professional Korean dance as ‘The Little Angels’ that is known for Korean traditional culture and art internationally and ordinary elementary students.
 Methods This study adopted a qualitative case study method. The research focused on the issue of ‘the usual life and the life as a The Little Angels members’, an elementary Korean dance genius, and to verify, an ‘a case study’ was conducted by selecting ‘The Little Angels members 6th grade at present’ and ‘dance experts with experience as The Little Angels’. Three participants were elementary students as ‘The Little Angels’ and three former members as ‘The Little Angels’. The main data collected in-depth interview and analysis was conducted through the process of transcription-coding-categorization.
 Results First, elementary students as talented Korean child’s current life was categorized into “Swan s Life” (difficulties for the two roles), “Life of preparing for the art school entrance exam”, and “Professional life”. Second, dance professionals as former ‘The Little Angels’ give encouragement and advice to them such as “Special experience, that s enough”, “You can continue dancing even if you re not a middle school member”, and “There s a wider world outside the stage”.
 Conclusions Through this study processing, it was confirmed possibility reflecting on the value of ‘The Little Angels ’ with the special artistic education, but also understanding the importance of opportunities for the talented elementary students to form a more expanded view of the life of the dancer. For this, ‘The Little Angels’ seem to need a change and the encouragement and support of those with previous experience.

Everybody Can Dance-Except Aging Professional Dancers! A Discussion of the Construction of the Aging Dancing Body in Four Dance Texts.

The subject of the article is a critical investigation of research concerning age and dance. Our objective is to investigate whether and how researchers express their ideas about dance and age in a selection of research papers. We are particularly interested in whether researchers are reproducing an instrumental understanding of age in the context of dance and whether discourses of dance define bodies as older or younger in ways that differ from the definitions used in other social contexts. What kind of assumptions about the abilities of dancers form the baseline expectations of researchers? We wonder if harming the body is an implicit part of dance practice that operates as a tacit premise in the understanding of age and dance. Through a document analysis of several research texts on dance and age, we try to identify what kinds of meanings, expectations, and bodies such documents convey and produce. One of our findings from the analysis of the literature is that young dancers from western European countries and the U.S. are concerned with age throughout their entire career, while in dance practices in Japan, being an older dancer is regarded as a as a value that gives flavor and energy to both to aging and dance in a shared interaffective and mutual space.

Recognizing Solo Jazz Dance Moves Using a Single Leg-Attached Inertial Wearable Device

We present here a method for recognising dance moves in sequences using 3D accelerometer and gyroscope signals, acquired by a single wearable device, attached to the dancer’s leg. The recognition entails dance tempo estimation, temporal scaling, a wearable device orientation-invariant coordinate system transformation, and, finally, sliding correlation-based template matching. The recognition is independent of the orientation of the wearable device and the tempo of dancing, which promotes the usability of the method in a wide range of everyday application scenarios. For experimental validation, we considered the versatile repertoire of solo jazz dance moves. We created a database of 15 authentic solo jazz template moves using the performances of a professional dancer dancing at 120 bpm. We analysed 36 new dance sequences, performed by the professional and five recreational dancers, following six dance tempos, ranging from 120 bpm to 220 bpm with 20 bpm increment steps. The recognition F1 scores, obtained cumulatively for all moves for different tempos, ranged from 0.87 to 0.98. The results indicate that the presented method can be used to recognise repeated dance moves and to assess the dancer’s consistency in performance. In addition, the results confirm the potential of using the presented method to recognise imitated dance moves, supporting the learning process.

Experiences and motivations of dancers with and without disabilities in inclusive dance

ABSTRACT Research has indicated that understanding experiences, motivations and the social environments of dancers without disabilities is essential for developing effective dance training [Quested, E., & Duda, J. L. (2010). Exploring the social-environmental determinants of well-and ill-being in dancers: A test of basic needs theory. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 32(1), 39–60]. However, research examining these elements in professional inclusive dance settings has been limited. The purposes of this qualitative study were to explore: (1) experiences and motivations of dancers with and without disabilities in an inclusive professional dance company and (2) important program features related to inclusive dance performances. Interviews were completed with dancers with (N = 3) and without (N = 7) disabilities performing with an inclusive dance company. As an inductive qualitative study, thematic analysis was utilized to analyze and clarify data. Three themes developed: fascination with inclusive dance, supportive environment and differences in perspectives. Findings support: (a) use of self-determination theory (SDT) to gain an understanding of the experiences and social environments in inclusive settings and (b) importance of the development of a supportive environment in inclusive dance. Implications for inclusive dance programs include recognition of the motivating power of viewing performances and dancing with professional inclusive dance companies, and recognition of differences of perceptions of dancers with and without disabilities in inclusive dance settings with emphasis on perspectives of dancers with disabilities.

Recovery-Stress States of Professional Ballet Dancers During Different Phases of a Ballet Season.

Ballet dancers are exposed to chronic high training and performance demands that are associated with overtraining syndrome and injury. Balancing high training loads with recovery to reduce the risk of negative training adaptations is critical. Moreover, the recovery-stress states of professional ballet dancers during training phases of a season are largely unknown. Professional dancers (n = 27) from one classical ballet company in South Africa were monitored for two 8-week phases of a ballet season. A recovery-stress questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-76 Sport) was completed weekly during the rehearsal phase (P1) and the performance phase (P2), which took place at the start and the end of the ballet season, respectively. Comparisons were calculated between phases, sexes, and levels of performance with a mixed-model ANOVA and between demographic variables with a one-way ANOVA. The performance phase was signified by lower total recovery (TR, p < 0.01) and higher total stress (TS, p < 0.01) for the group. Female dancers had significantly lower recovery scores than male dancers during P2 (p < 0.01). No differences between levels of performance were found. Subscales previously associated with overreaching and injury were identified in certain groups during P2. In conclusion, P2 was a critical period where dancers, especially females, experienced high stress and low recovery. This could increase the risk for injury and negative training adaptations.

"Attention please!": The dark side of dancers’ personality

The present study aims to investigate the dark side of dancers’ personality. In recent literature, dark personality traits were conceptualized as the Dark Tetrad which includes Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and sadism. The participants in this study were 98 dancers, aged between 18 and 57 (M = 34.71, SD = 11.21; 86.7% women), who practiced different dance types (classical ballet, modern dance, flamenco, oriental dance, hip-hop, salsa, tango, merengue, bachata and Latin dances-samba, rumba) both professionally and non-professionally. They answered 13 questions from the pilot version of the list of Indicators of the meaning of dance for dancers, the Short Dark Triad (SD3) and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP). The results have shown that dancers had higher scores narcissism and lower scores on Machiavellianism and sadism compared to participants from the reference community sample from previous study (Dinić et al., 2018, 2020). Professional dancers had higher scores on narcissism, compared to those who practice dance as recreation meaning that they tend to seek prestige or status and have a need for admiration and attention from other people more than recreationists. Furthermore, a series of regression analyses showed that psychopathy is negatively related to dancers’ evaluation of the dance as an enjoyable and pleasant activity. It is concluded that dark personality traits are a component of dancers’ personality and one of the factors that affect dancers’ evaluation of the meaning of dance. Moreover, practical implications of the obtained results related to the pedagogical dance practice are discussed, as well as the dark traits of creative personality.

"It Can Be Magic:" Creating Age Awareness Through Contemporary Dance.

Professional dancers typically retire before age 40. Although the physical requirements for dance performance are often considered the reason for retirement, there is an increasing number dance researchers who demonstrate that the idealization of youthfulness on the stage is also a result of complex cultural, social, and economic realities and as such, in need of critique. As a group of mature women dancers who continue to perform, we aim to critique the idealization of youthfulness as a form of ageism in professional dance. In this paper, we present findings from our feminist memory-work study in which we critically reflected the rehearsals and performance of a choreography titled “Initiation.” We detail three main themes—”It Will Only Get Worse;” “It Can Be Magic;” “Once a Dancer Always a Dancer”—that emerged from our study. We conclude that we gained critical awareness of the gendered and ageist construction of dance as a performing art. As a result, we now feel empowered to continue our work as mature dance artists.

Interoceptive Sensibility in Professional Dancers Living With or Without Pain: A Cross-Sectional Study.

There is a growing body of literature investigating the use of manual therapy to modulate pain through interoceptive pathways, but studies amongst the dancer population are lacking. To investigate self-reported measures of interoceptive sensibility (IAs) in professional dancers living with or without pain, and to explore associations between IAs and confounding variables (e.g., psychopathologies). 128 UK-based adult professional dancers, from any dance style, living with or without pain, completed a cross-sectional online survey. Pain status was self-reported and participants were assigned in three study groups for analyses (pain-free n=26, acute n=30, and chronic pain n=72). The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, ver. 2 (MAIA-2) was used to measure IAs. An additional questionnaire was used to collect demographic and putative confounding data (i.e., age, sex, BMI, dance style, employment status, level of experience, mindfulness experience, pain history and management such as manual therapy use, eating disorders, depression, and anxiety). No overall significant difference was found in IAs between groups (pain-free-control, acute, and chronic pain). A one-way ANOVA showed significantly lower scores for the MAIA-2 Non-Distracting subscale in dancers living with pain (acute or chronic) compared to the pain-free-control group. Moreover, an association between manual therapy use and some subscales of the MAIA-2 was found in the population. Results should be interpreted with caution, as major confounding variables (i.e., psychopathologies) could not be excluded from the analysis due to their high prevalence in the sample. Positive associations between adaptive subscales of the MAIA-2 and the use of manual therapy support a need for further research investigating potential clinical applications using interoceptive pathways in the specialised management of pain in dancers.

Differences in Foot Characteristics Between Bharatanatyam Dancers and Age-Matched Non-Dancers.

The ankle-foot complex is the third most common site of pain in Indian dancers. In Bharatanatyam dance, rhythmic stamping performed barefoot at varying speeds may influence the height of the medial longitudinal arch, causing structural alteration of the ankle-foot complex. As little information is available on the ankle-foot complex of Bharatanatyam dancers, the present study was conducted to test the hypothesis that foot characteristics of Bharatanatyam dancers differ from those of non-dancers. Female professional Bharatanatyam dancers (n=21), aged 18-30 years, with a minimum of 8 years of performance experience after completing formal dance training, and 21 control non-dancers participated in this study. Physical foot examination included navicular drop test and Feiss line. Foot geometry and pedobarography were recorded as participants walked barefoot at self-selected walking pace over a pressure-platform. An average of five gait cycles was computed to analyse maximum peak pressure (MPP), pressure time integral, contact time, and foot geometry of the midfoot, forefoot, great toe, and second to fifth toes. Analysis of covariance was performed for intergroup comparison of all variables with gait speed as a covariate. During walking, dancers presented a higher medial-longitudinal-arch, wider midfoot, and wider forefoot (cm) (p<0.001), indicating an over-pronated foot due to lower medial longitudinal arch height. Total plantar peak pressure (kPa) was 37% higher among dancers, whereas MPP was 24% higher on midfoot and 13% higher on forefoot, indicating greater plantar loading during walking. Greater plantar loading and an over-pronated foot during the most commonly performed weight-bearing activity of daily living (e.g., walking) explain the common prevalence of ankle and foot pain among dancers. These findings will inform clinicians and Bharatanatyam dancers on dancer's foot function and guide strategies for prevention and management of foot pain.

전문무용인들의 라인댄스 강사 활동경험에 대한 자문화기술지

This study is a qualitative study borrows the auto-ethnography of exploring the experiences and meanings of dance professionals after job conversion to line dance instructor. Interviews and observational data with five research participants’ responses who share the same life trajectory with the researcher, were collected. The results were categorized into ‘the passion for dancing is revived’, ‘effort and pleasure for me’, ‘learning and lessons through human relationships’, ‘importance of digital information technology’, and ‘happiness of living in a busy life’. Through these careers, dance professionals who couldn’t give up working in dance succeeded in challenging themselves into the unfamiliar field of the same dance field. The meanings obtained from the professional dancers'' carrier as line dance instructors were derived from ''the second life of a dancer'', ''a life of change and growth'', and ''a life looking forward to the future''. In other words, They referred “I regained confidence as I grew and changed through line dance instructor, which gave the expectation that I would live with dancing without stopping dancing work.” In conclusion, it was derived that dance professionals not only enabled their activities in the field but also experienced learning, challenges, and hope in their entire lives through the carrier of line dance instructors.

Generalized Joint Hypermobility and Anxiety Are Serious Risk Factors for Dysfunctioning in Dance Students: A One-Year Follow-Up Study.

Young professional dancers find themselves in a demanding environment. GJH within dancers is often seen as aesthetically beneficial and a sign of talent but was found to be potentially disabling. Moreover, high-performing adolescents and young adults (HPAA), in this specific lifespan, might be even more vulnerable to anxiety-related disability. Therefore, we examined the development of the association between the presence of Generalized Joint Hypermobility (GJH) and anxiety within HPAA with a one-year follow-up. In 52.3% of the HPAA, anxiety did not change significantly over time, whereas GJH was present in 28.7%. Fatigue increased significantly in all HPAA at one year follow-up (respectively, females MD (SD) 18(19), p < 0.001 and males MD (SD) 9(19), p < 0.05). A significantly lower odds ratio (ß (95% CI) 0.4 (0.2–0.9); p-value 0.039) for participating in the second assessment was present in HPAA with GJH and anxiety with a 55% dropout rate after one year. This confirms the segregation between GJH combined with anxiety and GJH alone. The fatigue levels of all HPAA increased significantly over time to a serious risk for sick leave and work disability. This study confirms the association between GJH and anxiety but especially emphasizes the disabling role of anxiety. Screening for anxiety is relevant in HPAA with GJH and might influence tailored interventions.

Music2Dance: DanceNet for Music-Driven Dance Generation

Synthesize human motions from music (i.e., music to dance) is appealing and has attracted lots of research interests in recent years. It is challenging because of the requirement for realistic and complex human motions for dance, but more importantly, the synthesized motions should be consistent with the style, rhythm, and melody of the music. In this article, we propose a novel autoregressive generative model, DanceNet, to take the style, rhythm, and melody of music as the control signals to generate 3D dance motions with high realism and diversity. Due to the high long-term spatio-temporal complexity of dance, we propose the dilated convolution to improve the receptive field, and adopt the gated activation unit as well as separable convolution to enhance the fusion of motion features and control signals. To boost the performance of our proposed model, we capture several synchronized music-dance pairs by professional dancers and build a high-quality music-dance pair dataset. Experiments have demonstrated that the proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art results.

Choreographic Encounters in XR: Reflections on Dancing in/Dancing with the Digital

This article presents findings from first-person accounts of shifting choreographic practice into mixed-reality environments. Dancing in/Dancing with the Digital, a transdisciplinary practice-based project exploring embodiment and movement in XR. In the research and design phases of the project, all authors kept reflective practice journals, which form the data for this auto-ethnographic and phenomenologically-driven reflexive practice analysis. We further support these perspectives by user-testing with professional dancers and the engineering students who developed the XR configurations. Through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, including dance, psychology, somatic practices, digital technologies, and design approaches, we explore embodied awareness and practice in existing and novel XR design. Themes discussed include elements of disorientation in digital environments and touch as a grounding point, the prospect of multimodal creative stimuli, complications of representation in digital spaces, and the digital-as-site for choreography.