The Science of Dance....
....(Inquiry Task)!!

My passion has always been Dance ever since I can remember. In fact it’s not just a passion it’s an obsession and my dream has always been to perform. Dance is like the air I breathe and it is something I cannot live without. However I am also realistic and realise that any sensible person has to have a plan B.

Bird College (where I did my professional dance training) is one of only a small handful of colleges in Britain that include modules in their professional dance course in dance science and this quickly during my second year became my Plan B.

I am really enthused and fascinated by the way we can explore the mechanics of dance movement and optimal performance by promoting the health care of the dancer. I always found information about the body and its mechanics and functions particularly fascinating and I constantly try to apply this knowledge in my dancing.
It is exiting to  discover the physics of how a dancers body works and why, for example, a female dancer's co-ordination and balance can be affected by her menstrual cycle!

As an academic discipline this is a relatively new phenomenon.
Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury and the improvement of well-being and health. Its specific concerns include the biomechanical, physiological, nutritional and paediatric and psychological aspects of dance.

Increasingly more and more dance companies employ dance scientists to provide support services to their dancers – physiological and psychological.

One such company is New York City Ballet as I remember researching this for an assessment essay in my 2^nd year at Bird. 


Dancers are tremendous athletes who are both artists and athletes performing at the highest levels of human performance and a strong knowledge and appreciation of “dance medicine” will help a dancer understand how to help prevent injury and stay healthy and have optimum performance.

A dancer needs to be constantly aware of the body and focused on the process to achieve their goals by getting there in a healthy way through diet, exercise, well-being and a knowledge  in the prevention of injury. This is the bare bones of dance science.

I am always amazed when talking socially with other dancers that they don’t realize that their lifestyle could be preventing them from achieving their full potential and their goals. This may just involve a change in diet or sleep patterns.

For example;  at college my main frustration was for some reason, although I am extremely flexible, I could not manage to get a very high developpe in second position. The highest I could go was just above waist height. I really wanted to improve it. My developpe devone & derriere was fine. I discussed this with all the ballet staff and they gave me various exercises to do every day which were supposed to help but despite my frantic efforts, with my leg up on the door every night, it did not improve. Then in second year I discussed this with Drew, the dance science tutor, and she asked me to write down everything I ate for a week and go back to see her. Analysing my results Drew suggested the level of fruit in my diet was far too high. How can that be? Fruit is the healthy option is it not? But actually fruit has a very high content of natural sugar, fructose which was affecting the strength of my gut no matter how many abdominal exercises I did. So I reduced the amount of fruit I ate dramatically, replacing it with salad or vegetables which don’t have the fructose and after many weeks of following this diet of less fruit (nothing happens overnight I’m afraid) I can say my devloppe is at shoulder height. I found this fascinating! It’s purely science!

I think this whole concept appeals to me as it is so closely linked to physical fitness and “sports science” and as I have said before in my blogs I am a bit of a sports nut  and health freak too.  I had to make a big decision at 13 years old whether to follow the sports or dance path as I was a championship swimmer as well as a dancer and I couldn’t train and follow both pursuits to the level required as the commitment and dedication needed to both as individual pursuits were too demanding to pursue both but I do still have a love of sports too.

The way dance science differs to sports science is, obviously the focus is on dance and the special considerations that this involves, but also dance science studies somatic techniques including the practices of pilates and yoga, which for any of you who have followed any of my previous blogs are two of my recreational past times. I run and do pilates almost everyday and a full yoga class at least once a week, if possible. Pilates and yoga are fantastic work outs for focusing on the core and particular muscle groups, it also helps elongate the muscles in the body and teaches you how to isolate working one area of the body, although a lot of the exercises do focus on numerous muscle groups at one time!

Dance science broadens the options for dancers, from performance to more academic positions of employment and this is why it became my plan B. The dance world needs healthy, fit dancers and the field of dance science works to help dancers increase performance abilities and bodily awareness while decreasing injuries. I thought that this information would be invaluable to me as a dancer and performer myself but also if my performance career didn’t take off or ended for any reason or I got injured this would be a career path that would still involve me in the subject closest to my heart, dance,  but something else I also feel passionate about, health and fitness.  

I want to have a better understanding of  how people learn complex movement and develop their skills (known as motor learning). I am also really interested in the effects of dance (and the various dance styles) on young people and finding out how it can help their physical, psychological and social well-being and development. Dance can still be deemed as less important than other physical activities  and I think it’s important to show the many ways it can benefit people. I also think I may , after my blog about reflective thinking and my experience, whether having dyslexia would affect your ability to retain movement as a dancer.Dance science is still a newly developing area but I would like to pursue this further in the future.

References:

Establishing Professional Practice - Module Handbook for WBS 3002 - Middlesex University

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_science

Extract from Injury Prevention Essay - Emily Rose Harris, Bird College 2008.

Dance Anatomy and Kinesiology by Karen Clippinger.