No abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate a selection of psychological variables (help-seeking behaviors, mental imagery, self-esteem) in relation to injury among UK dancers. We recruited 216 participants from eight dance styles and six levels of involvement. It was found that 83.5% of the participants had experienced at least one injury in the past year. The most common response to injury was to inform someone, and most continued to dance when injured, albeit carefully. Physical therapy was the most common treatment sought when an injury occurred (38.1%), and dancers seemed to follow recommendations offered. Injured and non-injured dancers did not differ in their imagery frequencies (facilitative, debilitative, or injury-related) and scored similarly (and relatively high) in self-esteem. Neither facilitative nor debilitative imagery was correlated with self-esteem, but dancers who engaged in more facilitative imagery in general also reported doing so when injured. Altogether, it appears that injury is not related to dancers’ self-esteem or imagery, at least not when injuries are mild or moderate. Even so, such conclusions should be made with caution, given that most dancers do sustain at least one injury each year.

Dance with the older body is often viewed as a means to slow the physiological and cognitive decline associated with ageing or chronic health conditions. However, little research has investigated the aesthetic qualities and performance potential of mature dancers and how this might influence health outcomes. During a choreographic project bringing together a renowned contemporary dance company with one of mature dancers, a co-designed, mixed-methods approach was taken to explore the impact of a somatically informed approach to choreography on the dancers’ movement quality, efficiency and performance aesthetics. Quality-of-life measurements showed no significant differences between pre- and post-choreographic project, although high scores suggested good overall health amongst participants. Subjective changes in movement quality were observed alongside improvements in balance ability ascribed to the inward focus of the somatically informed creative process. Participants commented that they were able to achieve more, physically and aesthetically, than they had previously believed possible.