Literature review- 'Promoting health and well-being in young dancers & musicians'

Music and Dance Scheme - Promoting health and well-being in young dancers and musicians

Beyond physical practice

Terry Clark, Sanna M Nordin & Imogen J Walker, Trinity Laban 2009

Psychological skills to boost training and performance

I found this resource thanks to my inquiry gatekeeper who works as Head of Dance and Course Leader at a vocational dance school.

In order to assess the validity of the resource I researched into the provider, South West Music School. Having a recognised level of tuition and support from the Department of Education I decided the resource will provide insight into support systems and applying them to injured dance students.

"South West Music School encourages the copying, reproduction and distribution of this document to promote health and wellbeing, provided that South West Music School is acknowledged."

"South West Music School is part of a national network of Centres of Advanced Training supported by the Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme for exceptionally talented young musicians aged between 8 and 18. Funding provided by the Department for Education ensures that each student has adequate resources to undertake the scheme and that all costs are met according to need."

Below is a summary taken from Music and Dance Scheme- Promoting health and well-being in young dancers and musicians.

"Training and performing in the arts is demanding: physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not only must musicians and dancers execute a series of precise movements in order to convey their expressive ideas to an audience, they must also maintain an appropriate focus while not allowing pressure and expectations to distract them. In order to cope with these demands, performers benefit from having a range of physical and psychological skills at their disposal, developed through years of practice and experience. Psychological skills can speed up learning, boost performance and help you feel better about yourself, too. Remember psychological skills, like other skills, need to be practiced to gain their full benefit. Top performers find ways of incorporating psychological skills practice into their daily training and practice activities. Younger performers need training on how to develop psychological skills, as well as how best to incorporate them into their regular practices. Here we introduce some of the key psychological skills"

When looking into the effects of injury I must consider the physical, mental and emotional demands. I must also research systems of support such as psychological and physical skills which can be incorporated into training, as outlined above.

A limitation of this resource is that it was produced in 2009 and practice will have certainly developed since then with new research being compiled on a daily basis. Secondly, although it relates across 'The Arts', the paper is not specifically aimed at dance students in vocational training neither is the advice given for improving psychological and physical skills directed towards dealing with injury.

Introduction

My inquiry will be looking into the physical and psychological support available for injured dancers in professional dance training. To understand the need for support and why dancers can be affected both physically and mentally by injury provides huge scope for research including opinions from psychologists, professional teachers, dancers themselves, health specialists and therapists. In attempt to inform my own practice as a teacher for dancers in vocational training I will look into how teachers can support their injured students. This paper looks into promoting health and well-being in young dancers and subsequently has informed my research into support techniques.

Analysis of Literature

Defined in this paper is how psychological skills can be used to boost training and performance. It is suggested that  psychological skills, like other skills, need to be practiced to gain their full benefit. "Young performers need training on how to develop psychological skills, as well as how best to incorporate them into their regular practices."

Four  main skills are outlined:

Goal Setting-

• Provides direction and focus
• Allows performer to monitor and chart progress
• Create and maintain motivation
• Develop consistency in practice and performance behaviour
• Foster the patience needed for long term development

1. Process Goals-
How you go about doing something (eg. relaxed technique, positive attitude through injury rehab).
Using process goals helps focus, boost confidence and reduce anxiety by putting the performer in charge and allowing them to feel in control.

2. Performance Goals-
Quality of performance with reference to oneself. Performance goals are self-referenced in order to improve own skill or ability.

3. Outcome Goals-
Win/Loose goals. Outcome goals rely on the behaviours, decisions and actions of others (eg. audition outcome) and therefore are the most unstable out of the 3. Outcome goals however can be highly motivating for example if a student is made head girl or boy, dance captain or given the lead role. These goals have been decided by others and unfortunately performers may not only face failure to meet goals but also high anxiety levels which can be very problematic.

SMART goals -

Specific
Measurable
Actioned
Realistic
Timed

Dance example:

S - "I would like to achieve higher legs, whilst maintaining good technique, in the grand battement exercise at the barre"

M- "I will use my own kinaesthetic awareness of how high my legs feel and the ease of flexibility. I will also ask my teacher and other students to monitor the progression of height in my grand battements"

A- "I will set process goals as steeping stones to achieving my goal of higher grand battements. I will improve my flexibility by stretching my hamstrings and also work on using the pressure of the floor"

R- "I can check my goals are realistic to my ability with my teacher and also refer to my own progression notes to see my personal rate of development"

T- "I will not aim to achieve this overnight. I will set a deadline which may not necessarily be a deadline for which I must achieve my goal by but a deadline for reflection of my progress." 

Goal setting is regularly used in the sporting world and is becoming more significant in the dance sector. Teachers could foster this skill into their classes and assessments in order to encourage focus, motivation and development. This could also work for injured dance students- recovery goals or processes of physiotherapy. If students set such rehabilitation goals and track progress it can give them direction to a positive recovery.

Imagery-

"Cognitive or imaginary rehearsal of a skill or situation without overt muscular movement."

The paper suggests that imagery should be multisensory like we experience in the real world, so although we are only imagining we must use all our senses - visual, touch, audio, emotion.

The imagery process consists of 3 main skills:

1. Creating an image of a desired performance goal
2. Creating an image to reflect current performance
3. Creating an image in terms of it's production aspects - what you need to do physically to achieve.

The goal of practice and preparation is to develop these 3 images to as vivid a state as possible, striving to bring the 1st and 2nd in line with each other, using the 3rd as a means of doing so.

Often there are two kinds of imagery, 'Metaphorical' (Given images and metaphors) and 'Idiosyncratic' (Developing own types of images).

Imagery is used in the dance sector as a form of rehabilitation for injured dancers. A Dancer may be told to imagine their injury on their right foot as thorns and tangled weeds, but the left uninjured foot as a light cloud. Through a process of imagery training soon they will be trained to see their injured foot as the same as the uninjured foot, a light cloud. In some cases, the physical injury is healed but mentally or psychologically the injury is still affecting the dancers performance. Imagery can help alleviate this negative imagery left after injury and allow the dancer to realise that the injury had become in their mind not on their body. Hence, imagery can be seen as a support technique.

Arousal control & Relaxation-

How do you want to feel? What can you do to help yourself feel that way?

• Focused breathing
• Progressive muscle relaxation

Both of these techniques have been incorporated into professional dance training but are they encouraged enough? Are students and teachers aware of the benefit of relaxation?

Self Talk-

Self talk is whereby an individual produces instructions or reinforcements, states convictions and interprets feelings/perceptions.

Sometimes performers may be struggling with unintentional negative self talk which can undermine confidence and induce greater levels of anxiety. It is therefore recommended that performers should design self talk statements for oneself deliberately; this way they are more likely to be positive, constructive and helpful. Positive imagery can enhance feelings of confidence and self worth and also to develop and maintain focus.

Self talk is a technique which could be encouraged by teachers and particularly recommended for students who are experiencing difficulties in their training.

 Conclusion

This literature has influenced my research and knowledge into support techniques and coping strategies. The techniques discussed could be easily incorporated into vocational dance training if the teacher is aware of their impact and benefit. My inquiry seeks to look into the awareness and use of support techniques for injured dancers and how the teacher can encourage and incorporate these into their teaching.