Perceptions and Utilization of Strength Training and Conditioning in Collegiate Contemporary and Ballet Dancers: A Qualitative Approach

AIMS: Research demonstrates that dancers benefit from reduced injury risk and improved health by engaging in strength training and conditioning (STC). Historic bias within the discipline of dance, however, establishes a long-standing stigma that gains in muscle mass and strength lessen a dancer's aesthetic appearance, and thus many dancers rebuff STC as a supplement to dance training. However, there is growing evidence that dancers and dance educators are beginning to understand the importance of additional resistance training and cardiovascular conditioning. This study explored dancers' perceptions and utilization of STC using a general qualitative approach. METHODS: Twenty-three female collegiate dancers (13 contemporary dancers, 10 ballet dancers, mean age 19.95 x 0.97 yrs) volunteered to participate in this study. The principal investigator conducted individual, semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: Inductive analysis revealed three major themes: 1) evolving body image, 2) motivation, and 3) education. Trustworthiness was established using member checks, peer debriefing, and journaling. This study concluded collegiate dancers utilized STC as a means to enhance the individual's body image. This was driven by a continuum of motivating factors. Although collegiate dancers are utilizing STC, education on STC techniques and practices was minimal. CONCLUSIONS: While further research is needed, results from this study suggest STC could be initiated and promoted in the discipline of dance to further enhance physical fitness and general well-being. Dancers and dance instructors should receive education about the importance of STC within dance training as well as how to safely implement STC exercise into training regimens.

Moving in the Cube

Labanotation is one of the most used systems for notating, analysing, and preserving movement and dance, an important part of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Labanotation consists of a powerful expressive symbolic language for documenting movement with a long history in dance research, history, and anthropology since its introduction by Rudolf von Laban in the beginning of the 20th century. A number of valuable scores in this language are curated in both physical and digital archives throughout the world, describing both traditional dances and works of historical choreographers. Nevertheless, while Labanotation is considered the official language of dance scholars, it is not at all popular among dance educators, students, practitioners, and choreographers. In fact, few people of the dance community are familiar with it. One of the reasons is that it is considered a quite difficult symbolic system with a long learning curve, and practitioners are not easily motivated to learn it. Together with dance experts, we co-designed a movement-based experience in Kinect, based on the principles of playful design, to introduce dance and non-dance experts to Labanotation introductory concepts and symbols. We evaluate the experience with both people that have experience in dance or other movement practices, as well as participants with no expertise in movement or dance. The results show promising findings toward changing the attitude of the participants toward Labanotation, and all participants seemed to memorize or start learning the logic of this symbolic language for movement. We discuss the results of the evaluation on the whole experience and the potential of this symbolic language in the digital environment, as well as the potential and challenges that arise from this experiment based on the background of the participants, the limitation of the applied technology and interaction, as well as feedback on the introduced symbolic language.

The Emerging Critical Pedagogies of Dance Educators in an Urban STEAM After-School Program for Black Girls

The preparation of urban educators has gained widespread attention across education policy, research, and practice. As US urban cities have become more diverse, the teacher workforce has not kept up, and the racial/ethnic demographics of students and teachers are disproportionately incongruent. In order to eradicate an education landscape that perpetuates white, middle-class ways of knowing and being, often at the expense of the cultural practices and cultural wealth of historically marginalized students of color, urban teacher education must be centered toward justice and rooted in critical pedagogies. The literature, albeit bleak, reveals that these perspectives must also be applied to urban dance education. Dance education programs have been significantly eliminated from urban schools over time, and although dance has historical roots in African and African diasporic cultures, dance education continues to be Eurocentric. This phenomenological case study examines the emerging critical pedagogies of undergraduate dance majors and minors who served as dance teachers in an urban Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) after-school program for 7-12-year-old Black girls. Findings reveal that (a) navigating race, place, and space; (b) mentorship and practice; and (c) critical reflection and self-efficacy were critical components of the urban dance educators’ emerging critical pedagogies. Implications for urban dance education and the broader field of urban education are provided.