Dance research explained

Dance research is the study of dance, including dance history, ethnochoreology, dance theory, dance anthropology, and dance science.

Dance research as an academic discipline is relatively new. In 1967, the first volume of the CORD Dance Research Annual wrote: "One of the most serious problems in dance research is found in the fact that the literati in the field are not yet the university people".^[1] Research methodologies in Dance can include descriptive research, qualitative research, survey research, correlational research, case studies, within-subject experiments, between group experiments, systematic reviews, and epidemiology research.^[2] In addition to research concerned with technical or aesthetic aspects of dance, research in the field of dance also often includes connections to scholarly disciplines that place dance in context, including social and literary history, philosophy, anthropology, and medical science.^[3]

Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance, similar to sports science. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury, and the improvement of well-being and health. While the dance sciences span a wide range of domains within which researchers and practitioners have a variety of backgrounds, a unifying interest of those studying and practicing dance science is promoting health, well-being, and optimum performance in dancers.^[4]

Organizations

• Congress on Research in Dance (founded in 1965 as a Committee on Research in Dance)
• Society for Ethnomusicology
• Society of Dance History Scholars
• Cross-Cultural Dance Resources
• Society for Dance Research

Further reading

• Braun, Lesley Nicole. 2014. “Trading Virtue for Virtuosity: The Artistry of Kinshasa's Concert Danseuses.” African Arts 47(4): 48-57.Castaldi, Francesca. 2006. Choreographies of African Identities: Negritude, Dance, and the National Ballet of Senegal. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Cohen, Adrienne. 2016. “Inalienable Performances, Mutable Heirlooms: Dance, Cultural Inheritance, and Political Transformation in the Republic of Guinea.” American Ethnologist 43(4): 650-662.
• Daniel, Yvonne. 1995. Rumba: Dance and Social Change in Contemporary Cuba. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Foster, Susan Leigh. 1996. Corporealities: Dancing Knowledge Culture and Power. Edited by Susan Leigh Foster. London: Routledge.
• Dunham, Katherine. 1969. Island possessed. University of Chicago Press.
• Franko, Mark. "Dance and the political: States of exception." Dance Research Journal (2006): 3-18.
• Ross, Janice. 2015. Like a Bomb Going Off: Leonid Yakobson and Ballet as Resistance in Soviet Russia. Yale University Press.
• Schauert, Paul. 2015. Staging Ghana: Artistry and Nationalism in State Dance Ensembles. Indiana University Press.
• Wilcox, Emily. 2018. . University of California Press.

Notes and References

1. Web site: CORD dance research annual . Committee on Research in Dance . 1967 . 2010-06-27.
2. Book: Welsh, Tom . Research Methods in the Dance Sciences . Ambegaonkar . Jatin P. . Mainwaring . Lynda . University Press of Florida . 2023 . 9780813069548 . Gainesville, FL . 12–13 . en.
3. Editorial Board . Spring 1983 . Editorial Note . Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research . 1 . 1 . 2 . JSTOR.
4. Book: Welsh, Tom . Research Methods in the Dance Sciences . Amebegaonkar . Jatin P. . Mainwaring . Lynda . University Press of Florida . 2023 . 9780813069548 . Gainesville, FL . 3 . en.