c oum &d 8ud m - peter lovatt dance psychology lecture... · the introductory lecture sets the...

On the Psycho logy o f Dance and Dancer s

LECTURE SERIES

DANCE PSYCHOLOGY

peter lovat t . com LECTURE SERIES IN

(c) Copyright. All rights reserved. Peter Lovatt. 2017

Lectures |

On the psychology of dance and dancers

Dance Psychology is the study of Psychology as it is applied to dance. The breadth of Dance

Psychology follows the breadth of academic Psychology in addressing aspects of cognitive

processing, developmental and social psychology and the biological basis of behaviour. The

scientific basis of Dance Psychology is established in the methods used to test hypotheses and

theories, and in the critical review of published findings in this field. Each lecture addresses a

central question, and academic research is used to provide answers to that question, to identify

aspects of the question that are unresolved, and to point to areas for further study. Lectures

may also point towards aspects of dance training, choreography, performance and practice to

examine applied aspects of Dance Psychology.

a series of lectures written by

Dr Peter Lovatt

DANCE PSYCHOLOGY

Contents Page

Lecture 1: Language and Dance

Lecture 2: Memory and Dance

Lecture 3: Thinking and Dance

Lecture 4: Perception and Dance

Introduction

Section 2: Developmental Psychology and Dance

Lecture 5: Are Humans Born to Dance?

Lecture 6: Dance Confidence across Lifespan

Lecture 7: Dance and Human Mate-Selection

Lecture 8: Older Adults and Community Dance

Lecture 9: Atypical Development

Section 3: Social Psychology and Dance

Lecture 10: Self-esteem & Recreational Dance

Lecture 11: Self-esteem & Vocational Dance Training

Lecture 12: Social Identity, Men and Dance

Lecture 13: Personality and Dance

Section 4: Biological Psychology and Dance

Section 4: Research Methods in Dance Psychology

Section 1: Cognitive Psychology and Dance

Lecture 14: Dance, Vertigo and Balance

Lecture 15: Dance and Heart Disease

Lecture 16: Dance and Neurological Disorder

Lecture 17: Depression and Dance

Lecture 18: Hypothesis Testing

Lecture 19: Quantitative Methods

Lecture 20: Qualitative Methods

Lecture 21: Evaluating Research in Dance Psychology

Lectures |

The introductory lecture sets the scene by providing an

overview of Dance Psychology in terms of its subject matter,

breadth and methods. Dance Psychology is the study of

psychology as it is applied to dance. The breadth of Dance

Psychology follows the breadth of academic psychology in

addressing aspects of cognitive processing, developmental and

social psychology and the biological basis of behaviour. The

scientific basis of Dance Psychology is established in the

methods used to test hypotheses and theories and in the critical

review of published findings in this field. Each lecture addresses

a central question and academic research is used to provide

answers to that question, to identify aspects of the question that

are unresolved, and to point to areas for further study. The

Introduction provides guidance on how this course can be used

for academic purposes through exercises and activities.

Studying Dance Psychology

Introduction

Lectures |

"Dance is the hidden language of the soul."

Martha Graham

The scientific study of dance and the creation and performance

of artistic dance are worlds apart. While the former is

constrained by what has gone before, minimal and theory-

driven the latter is free, expansive and driven by creative ideas

and sometimes by a desire to break away from everything that

has gone before. By combining these two ways of looking at

dance it can tell us something about how we use dance as a

language and as a form of communication. In this lecture I

discuss the scientific literature on how we recognise emotions

through dance and body movement. In this regard I introduce

some lab-based experimental and cognitive neuropsychological

research. I then discuss the issue of how choreographers break

away from the constraints of science and describe the art/science

collaboration and performances of "23 Feelings in Dance".

Lectures |

Cognitive Psychology and Dance

Lecture 1: Language and Dance

How do dancers remember long and

complicated patterns of movement?

Learning and remembering dance routines is a huge part of

being a dancer. From learning sequences of new dance steps in

dance classes to learning a full-length repertoire for a major

performance dancers have to do something quite unique.

Dancers are shown sequences of dance moves a number of

times and then they just have to remember them. But how do

they do that? In this lecture we look at the structure of human

memory to see what it can tell us about how dancers learn,

remember and perform sequences of dance steps and we look at

those things that can help dancers remember more and give

better performances. Three of the important elements for better

memory and performance are how dancers think about the steps

they have to learn, how they rehearse them in the studio and

when they sleep.

Lectures |


Lecture 2: Memory and Dance

The way we use our body can have an impact on the

way we think and learn.

There’s a division in many places of learning between what we

do with our heads and what we do with our bodies. Our heads

hold our thinking and when we are learning and thinking about

serious, clever things we are expected to keep our body still. On

the other hand, when we want to have fun, or play, we use our

body. However, there is a growing body of scientific evidence

which suggests that the way we use our body can have an

impact on the way we think and learn. In this lecture we’ll look at

what it is about physical exercise and dance that leads to changes

in thinking and creativity. We’ll ask whether it is the physiological

arousal of dance that leads to creative facilitation, or whether it is

something to do with the freedom of dance-based movement, or

the positive emotions it elicits. We’ll end the chapter thinking

about standing still.

Lectures |


Lecture 3: Thinking and Dance

What do you see when you watch people dance?

What do you see when you watch dance? Do you search for

meaning in what you are watching or do you let just sort of let

the images, colour and movements wash over you like a warm

breeze? This lecture uses classic studies in the psychology of

perceptual organisation and language processing to explore

why we search for meaning in patterns of movement.

What we see in dance, and the way that we engage with what we

are watching, will also influence how much we like it. The

findings and conclusions of some recent experimental studies

are discussed which shed some light on why standing up and

learning to dance can change our affective evaluation of dance.

Lectures |


Lecture 4: Perception and Dance

Men and women from all around the world get down and

boogie and, according to historians, we have been dancing for

tens of thousands of years. But why do we dance? Is it a

tradition, something we have learnt to do, that has been passed

down from one generation to the next, or is dancing deeply

routed in our genes? Are we born to dance? In this lecture I look

at research evidence from studies of very young babies and

children in search of clues to help us decide whether

dancing is an innate, biologically-driven, activity or whether we

learn to dance because of our environmental influences. I

explore four main questions in this lecture: Are babies born with

the ability to detect a rhythm? Do babies naturally make

rhythmic movements when they hear a rhythmic sound? Can

babies synchronise their movements to a rhythmic beat? And

are babies' preferences for certain sound patterns influenced by

how they have moved their body?

Lectures |

Developmental Psychology and Dance

Lecture 5: Are Humans Born to Dance?

How confortable are you with social dancing? Do you like the

way you move? and what do you think other people think

about as they watch you cut a rug? In this lecture I describe the

findings of a large-scale study I carried out into how people’s

confidence with dancing goes up and down as they get older. I

also describe differences between men and women in terms of

their dance confidence. It’s no surprise that women have higher

dance confidence than men throughout most their life, but why

does female dance confidence go down so dramatically when

women reach their mid- to late-fifties, and why does male dance

confidence go shooting up at around the same time? I look at

these findings in relation to two models of self-esteem: The

Competencies Model and the Reflected Appraisal Model, as each

theoretical model makes suggestions for how to account for the

patterns I observed.

Lectures |


Lecture 6: Dance Confidence across Lifespan

Darwin argued that human dance plays a fundamental role in

the human mate selection process. It seems bizarre that the

way you wiggle your hips at a party could influence who you

spend the rest of your life with. It seems even more bizarre that

the way you wiggle your hips to a disco beat is influenced by

your hormonal and genetic make up and that it seems as

though we are communicating our hormonal and genetic

make up to other people as we move and dance.

In this lecture I critically review the experimental evidence for this

astonishing claim. I describe the high profile evidence published

in Nature, which suggested that the way we move our body is

linked to the relative size of our ears, and the controversy

associated with accusations of academic fraud and retracted

papers. In the end I look through the fog of fraud and describe the

current state of knowledge as it relates to our understanding of

dance, genes and hormones.

Lectures |


Lecture 7: Dance and Human Mate-selection

There is considerable evidence for the benefits of engagement

with social and community dance for older people. Some of

these benefits derive from the physical activity associated with

dance and some of the benefits come from the high levels of

motivation that older people show for dancing (leading, for

example, to higher levels of adherence to physical activity than

seen in non-dance based activities).

Community dance is inclusive, such that everyone and anyone

can take part. It is can be tailored to people’s physical capabilities

and adapted to be culturally relevant. In this lecture I review the

literature on older adults and community dance and highlight its

impact on physical health, psychological well-being and social

inclusion.

Lectures |


Lecture 8: Older Adults and Community Dance

Children’s developmental trajectory usually follows a

predictable course. Children whose development follows a

known, predicted trajectory are referred to as typically

developing children. The development of everyone else is

known as atypical development. In this lecture I talk about

atypical development and the way in which dance has been

suggested to help people overcome some of the characteristics

associated with atypical development. Developmental disorders

associated with atypical development can be defined in terms of

genetic, behavioural, cognitive and environmental factors. In this

lecture I discuss research on dance which has been applied to

people who have autism and also to people with dyslexia.

Lectures |


Lecture 9: Atypical Development

The Health Education Authority examined the link between

participation in the arts and health. Their report, published

by the Health Development Agency (2000), states inter alia

that engaging in arts-based activities improved participants’

sense of wellbeing and self-esteem. The data they report

seem compelling and conclusive. Across ninety projects 91%

reported a development in people’s self-esteem and 82%

reported increased confidence. From these data it would

seem that participation in community arts-based projects

(including dance activities) has a positive impact on people’s

self-esteem and confidence. These findings are confirmed by

individual’s perception of the personal benefits of dancing. People

often tell me that dancing has helped to increase their sense of

sense and provides a boost to their self-esteem. However, the

evidence of controlled studies in this area fails to provide strong

support for the link between engaging in recreational dance and

the enhancement of self-esteem. In this lecture I critically review

both the quantitative and qualitative evidence in an attempt to

tease apart anecdote, expectation and evidence.

Lectures |

Social Psychology and Dance

Lecture 10: Self-esteem and Recreational Dance

The demands of training to be a professional dancer are

immense. The extreme technical and physical demands can

provide a challenge to both the body and the mind of

dancers in vocational training. Throw into the mix the

prospect of a short career, few jobs as a professional

performing dancer, the risk of career-ending injury and the

need to conform to a particular body-shape for some forms

of dance means that trainee dancers need to develop a thick

skin and a high degree of mental resilience. There is some

evidence to suggest that dancers in vocational training tend to

have a lower sense of self and lower self-esteem than non-

dancers. This is important because low self-esteem is associated

with higher levels of disordered eating and feelings of depression.

In this lecture I review the literature on the relationship between

self-esteem and vocational dance training and examine what it is

about dance training that may contribute to a trainee dancer's lower

sense of self. I look at the contribution of the presence of mirrors in

the dance studio, the type of clothing worn by young dancers,

issues of motivation, perfectionism and at how training in the

techniques of psychological resilience can help young trainee

dancers.

Lectures |


Lecture 11: Self-esteem and Vocational Dance Training

The theory of social identity describes how a person’s sense of

who they are is based, in part, on the characteristics of the

groups they belong to. Group membership carries with it a set of

self, and other, definitions, which concern perceptions,

attributions, expectations, attitudes and values. Therefore,

belonging to a group is thought to influence a person’s self-

concept and it can lead to being judged, either positively or

negatively by people from both inside and outside of the group.

Dancing also carries with it a set of perceptions, attributions,

expectations, attitudes and values and these can have an impact on

people who dance, and also on decisions people make about

whether they should dance. This lecture explores issues of social

identity as it relates to dance. It discusses gender issues, stereotypes,

age and the perceived inclusivity and exclusivity of different forms

of dance.

Lectures |


Lecture 12: Social Identity, Men and Dance

Personality is defined as “the combination of characteristics or

qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.” We can

define these characteristics and qualities in many ways. For

example, we might describe a person in terms of how extrovert

or introvert they are, by their openness to try new experiences or

by how creative they are. In this lecture I discuss research in the

personality of dancers and other performing artists and address

questions about whether engaging in dance and the arts has an

impact on the personality of individuals or whether people with

certain personality types are drawn to engage with the

performing arts. For example, there is some published evidence

which appears to show a link between participation in the arts and

incidents of mental illness, and also between increased levels of

creativity in dancers. These findings are discussed with reference

to the relationship between creativity, the arts and the expression

of certain personality traits.

Lectures |


Lecture 13: Personality and Dance

Dancers and trapeze artists perform incredible dizzy-defying

feats. They spin, turn, whip and whirl as they perform amazing

acts of balance. Their tricks often require them to overcome

what might be perceived as the inevitable consequences of

disorientation and dizziness. Spinning in the air, the trapeze

artist needs to count her turns and be ready to be caught by her

swinging partner. She needs to know which way is up.

Likewise, a dancer at the end of 32 fouette turns needs to stop,

usually facing the audience, and then control the visual

perception of the world as it rapidly orbits her visual field.

So how do they do it? To have an understanding of how dancers

achieve mastery of their balance and control of their spinning

spatial orientation we’ll look at the basic mechanisms of the

human balance system, we’ll look at those elements of dancer

training which might help to develop better balance and control,

we’ll look at the scientific evidence which has examined the

hypothesis that dancers have better balance than non-dancers,

and we’ll finish off by looking at some theories of why dancing

might change the way we experience the world.

Lectures |

Biological Psychology and Dance

Lecture 14: Dance and Dizziness

There is a clear link between lifestyle factors, health and well-being.

Lifestyle factors include things like our diet, whether we smoke or

drink, how much sleep we get, how sociable we are and how much

physical exercise we do. In this lecture I look at the relationship

between our health and well-being as it relates to the physical

exercise we get from dance. I ask whether dancing is better than

other forms of physical exercise for our health and well-being,

whether dancing might prevent some forms of ill health and

whether dancing provides a universal benefit. Scientific research

suggests that for some men, dance can have better rehabilitation

outcomes after a heart attack than going to the gym; we'll

critically review the evidence

Lectures |


Lecture 15: Dance and Heart Disease

A growing number of published studies, mainly from the

United States of America, have shown that some forms of

dance are good for people with Parkinson’s disease because it

helps to reduce their physical symptoms. These studies were

inspirational because they provided a new way of looking for a

new treatment for the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Dance

could be a vehicle for treating a neurological condition. In our

own research lab we wanted to understand how dance and

movement could have it’s effect on the brain. We were left

wondering how, in terms of its effect on the brain, dance is

different to other forms of movement. In this lecture I review the

experimental evidence which links dance to the reduction of

some of the symptoms associated with neurodegeneration. I

discuss the physical, cognitive and well-being-based symptoms

of Parkinson’s disease.

Lectures |


Lecture 16: Dance and Neurological Disorder

Research has shown that dancing is a great way to beat the blues

and make you feel happy. In this lecture I use published

research to address a range of questions concerning the

relationship between depression and dance. Such as, what types

of dance can help people to improve their moods? What types

of depression (severe or moderate) can be helped with dance?

How much dance is necessary to change someone’s mood?

And what is the contribution of music? In this lecture I start by

telling you about people who have told me that dancing plays a

central role in beating feelings of depression and helps them to

feel happy. I then provide an overview of the major symptoms

and treatments for depression and then critically describe some of

the academic research which suggests that dancing is good for

people who are feeling down.

Lectures |


Lecture 17: Depression and Dance

Hypothesis testing sits at the heart of the scientific study of

psychology and also provides the backbone for research in

Dance Psychology. A hypothesis is a statement that can be

tested using appropriate scientific methods. For example, we

can test the hypotheses that “Recreational dance improves the

self-esteem of young people” and “it is possible to accurately

and reliably communicate a range of emotional states through

dance”. The advantage of hypothesis testing is that it becomes

possible to test and falsify theories, and this allows us to sort fact

from fiction; at least it enables us to do this within a scientific

framework. This lecture introduces you to the process of scientific

research methods and covers the development of theories,

hypothesis generation and methods for testing hypotheses. The

tutorial aspect of this lecture is based on examples from the

literature that have been described in earlier lectures. Therefore this

section will be peppered with examples from Dance Psychology,

making it more engaging than a generic lecture on Research

Methods.

Lectures |

Research Methods in Dance Psychology

Lecture 18: Hypothesis Testing

Quantitative research methods are used when the focus of

study or investigation can be expressed numerically, counted or

otherwise quantified. Such quantification allows for hypotheses

to be tested using statistical methods.

In this lecture I describe the elements and the processes of

quantitative research methods, whilst all the time drawing on

examples from the literature in Dance Psychology.

Lectures |


Lecture 19: Quantitative Methods

In the most basic terms qualitative methods are used when the

focus of study or investigation does not use numbers, or

quantities. For example, people might talk freely about how

they feel after dancing, or they might describe what they see

when they watch a piece of dance.

Qualitative methods allow us to generate theory and form

hypotheses. In this lecture I describe the major elements and

methods used in qualitative methods whilst drawing on

examples from the literature from Dance Psychology.

Lectures |


Lecture 20: Qualitative Methods

In this lecture I provide a template for evaluating research in

Dance Psychology. It starts with the premise that the purpose

of a good theory is to provide a conceptual framework for

viewing and understanding phenomena. It then examines

issues of parsimony, operationality, generativity, power,

falsifiability, importance, internal consistency, scope,

organisation, empirical support and measurement. For

research within Dance Psychology to stand with the most

rigorous of the sciences Dance Psychologists need to have an

understanding of how to evaluate theories in dance

psychology, and the aim of this lecture is to provide a

framework for such evaluation.

Lectures |


Lecture 21: Evaluating Research in Dance Psychology

About the Lecturer

Dr Peter Lovatt is a Dance Psychologist. He holds the academic post of Reader and Principal Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire where he runs the Dance Psychology Lab. His academic research addresses questions such as: what’s the link between dancing and neurodegeneration? How does dancing change the way people think and solve problems? And, why is the way we move linked to our hormonal and genetic make up? Peter has a BSc in Psychology and English, a MSc in Neural Computation and a PhD in Experimental Cognitive Psychology. He carried out his post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge.

Before studying the psychology of dance Peter was a professional dancer. He trained in dance and musical theatre at the Guildford School of Acting. Peter combined the study of dance and psychology in 2008 and since then his work has been reported on TV, radio and in the national and international press, where he has become known as Doctor Dance. He has been invited to give many keynote talks around the world, he has given five TEDx talks. As a TV Dance Psychologist he’s appeared on many popular TV and radio shows, including Strictly Come Dancing: It takes two, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Woman’s Hour, Big Brother's Bit on the Side and the Graham Norton Show.

Dr Peter Lovatt gives talks and lectures on Dance Psychology at universities, schools and at science festivals around the world.

For more on the author, including access to some of his academic publications, press cuttings, lecture outlines and TV appearances go to www.PeterLovatt.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES Cromer, Norfolk, United Kingdom

PUBLISHER Dance Psychology is written and published by Peter Lovatt

Copyright Peter Lovatt. All rights reserved. 2017

PeterLovatt.com

DANCE PSYCHOLOGY

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