One of the basic skills of a dancer is the ability to keep the body balance ("aplomb") while performing various dance figures. These movements are often performed with limited vision control due to dynamic motion or environmental conditions. Our aim was to verify whether the exercises with eyes closed of the ballet school students would…

Professional dancers have described high levels of performance anxiety while also experiencing flow on stage. However, such research tends to capture one period of time in the performance experience and rarely focuses on vocational dance students. The current study samples vocational dance students at a UK performing arts school and captures their…

In many dance competitions in North America, performances of sexualized choreography have become normalized. One result is that bodies of girl dancers are increasingly constructed as sexual objects. Sexual objectification is highly problematic for the development of girls' self-identities, body image, psychological health, and overall wellbeing.…

The Feldenkrais Method® (FM) is a form of somatic education aiming to increase brain-body communication, reportedly via interoceptive mechanisms. Although empirically proven to improve perceived interoceptive ability and psychological well-being in adults, feasibility in adolescents remains unclear. We therefore used a combined randomized…

This article communicates a study on dance for people over 65 in Sweden. Earlier studies on dance for elderly people have primarily focused on treatment and wellbeing. The current study centers on the right to make oneself heard in and through contemporary dance as an artistic form of expression, regardless of age, gender, or geographical context.…

This study investigates the impact of partial versus full mirror use on body image in a beginner-level ballet class. At the end of a seven-week period, researchers distributed an online survey inclusive of qualitative questions to two groups of female collegiate students enrolled in separate beginner-level ballet courses taught by the same…

Dance educators, as the face of dance education, are responsible for teaching and promoting dance equitably regardless of whose body executes the movement. Sizeism and racism have often been the unspoken standards used by dancers and educators to judge the development and proficiency of professional and aspiring dancers. Although seeing these as…

Sexualized dance routines for young girls are becoming more and more common in dance competitions. The appropriateness of these dance routines is being debated by parents, dance instructors, and public audiences as prepubescent children are frequently presented in risqué costumes to perform sensual movements that critics argue are inappropriate…

"Fin de siècle" cancan dancers Jane Avril and Louise Weber ("La Goulue") examined alongside the musical dance and song number "Big Spender" from Sweet Charity serve as examples of how decontextualization of images leads to essentializing the subject of the image that gives precedence to a male gaze focus. In analyzing…

This article utilizes interviews with three teaching artists to interpret their lived experiences of teaching dance classes within New Zealand prisons. Prison environments and prison cultures create a multitude of challenges, such as the physical environment itself, social dynamics and hierarchy, and interaction and relationships with incarcerated…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the designed cultural ecology of a hip-hop and computational science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) camp and the ways in which that ecology contributed to culturally sustaining learning experiences for middle school youth. In using the principles of hip-hop as a CSP for design, the…

The B-baby Program is a hip-hop dance curriculum designed to prepare dance instructors to teach and lead toddlers in the safe and effective practice of "break dancing" (breakin'). In 2011, my twin sister and I founded a hip-hop organization called Child of This Culture. We have over 32 years of combined experience as competitive break…

Physical activity during preschool age promotes sports learning and the acquisition of fundamental and complex movement skills. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of three different four-month physical and/or pre-sport activity programmes on preschool children's motor proficiency. Twenty-five girls, aged between four and six years,…

In the 'Western' world, dance is generally considered a feminised activity and gender traditionally tends to be drawn along binary lines. Traditional notions of idealised gendered bodies in dance are often valorised. Psychologically, girls are expected to be passive, by unquestioningly accepting the instructions of the dance teacher, whereas boys…

In this article the author uses the term "conservative dancers" to describe dancers who live in communities or families that are socially, culturally, or religiously conservative with ideological consistency, adhering to traditional values that they deem to be moral (e.g., modest dress, clear gender roles and separation, purity, family…