Dancers’ bodies are governed by rules, training, and expectations, yet dancers often report dance to be liberating and a source of emotional expression. In this study, a document analysis of the rules associated with 15 Canadian competitions was combined with focus groups conducted with 15 female dancers. These dancers had transitioned from competitive dance studio contexts as girls to training and competing at a postsecondary level. Applying a multidisciplinary theoretical approach that drew from self-determination theory, Foucault, and Bourdieu, we discovered that collectively these theories provide insights into the complex and contradictory world of competitive dance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.