An interpretative phenomenological analysis of how professional dance teachers implement psychological skills training in practice

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine how dance teachers work with psychological skills with their students in class. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six female professional teachers in jazz, ballet and contemporary dance. The interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith 1996). Results revealed that all teachers used psychological skills training techniques such as goal setting and imagery and worked toward the following outcomes: group cohesion, self-confidence, and anxiety management. They strove to create a task-involving climate in their classes and the students were encouraged to participate in, for instance, the goal setting process and imagery applications. The teachers also placed significant emphasis on performance preparation, evaluation, and feedback, although some found it difficult to give positive feedback. Many of the findings can be associated with contemporary theories in sport psychology. However, the dance teachers had almost no formal training in performance psychology, but had instead developed their teaching methodology through their own experiences. Further skills development and suggestions for future research are discussed.The psychological demands on a dancer are many: for example, performing in front of an audience, focusing on your own performance while simultaneously interacting with other performers on stage and giving the audience an experience to remember. Being an excellent dancer means more than being a great technician: it also means being a great performer and artist (Hanrahan 2005;Hays 2002). Therefore performance psychology plays a central role in dance (Hays 2002).The similarities between professional dance and sports are evident. For both dancers and athletes their bodies are their instruments, and optimized training is required in order to perform well, leading them to face many of the same psychological issues (Hays 2002). Despite this, most of the research in the field of performance psychology is done in sports and only rarely in dance (Hays 2002;Nordin and Cumming 2005).To be able to perform well in sports, not only intense physical training but also psychological skills are required . Setting goals and having regular evaluation of progress towards these, as well as being self-confident, focused and highly motivated are just some examples of what facilitates a peak performance

Psychosocial Predictors of Well-Being in Collegiate Dancers

“…Dancers expressed strong perceptions of a task climate and a more neutral ego climate. This finding parallels research with UK dancers (Nordin-Bates et al, 2012) and supports research on dance teachers who indicate that they strive to create mastery climates (Klockare, Gustafsson, & Nordin-Bates, 2011). Dancers also expressed minimal performance anxiety, strong dance self-concepts, and high levels of well-being.…”

Nurture, nature and some very dubious social skills: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of talent identification practices in elite English youth soccer

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An Intervention Featuring Public Posting and Graphical Feedback to Enhance the Performance of Competitive Dancers

“…Dance instructors report that they give much more criticism than praise in class (Klockare, Gustafsson, & Nordin-Bates, 2011). Displaying graphs of a dance student's improvement could also facilitate positive comments from individuals in the studio other than the dance instructor.…”