Thoughts on injured dancers in Schools

Something that I remember from when I was in training was that when a dancer was injured, yes they did get support from the physio and the option to use the gym and remedial facilities within the building however there was no regard to their psychological well being. Injured dancers would be required to watch all dance classes (unless excused with a physio appointment or rehabilitation classes). I understand this can be very educational and can keep them up to date with what their classmates are learning but often long days having to sit and watch daily classes left the injured dancer feeling sidelined, bored and dejected. I think this came about due to a lack of understanding for the psychological well being of injured dancers.

Although it is good for the dancer to watch things and learn from their peers I think that classes like daily technique class is not so vital. Often it can be very repetitive (some teachers may teach the same class for up to a week to help dancers feel an improvement every day they do it) and I think watching all your peers up and doing a full day of dancing will make the injured dancer want to dance or cause them to feel depressed that they are unable to. This can lead to dancers pushing through their injury before it has fully recovered or even if they have experienced it before it can prevent someone reporting an injury because they do not want to be taken off dance be the physiotherapist.

This shows that people do not really know how to support an injured dancer and people seem to not know what to do with them so they just make them watch classes. Personally I think there should be other things set up for injured dancers for example, maybe they could spend some time in the costume department or technical department. This would allow the dancer to learn abouts new things that interest them and are still related to dance, it would also keep their minds off their injury and the fact they are currently unable to dance. In my inquiry I want to study this and find ways that dancers can do this for themselves in order to help themselves feel psychologically better.

6b - Reflections on Inquiry Tools

I attempted two pilot methods that I may use when writing my inquiry. I found them both interesting but they both produced very different qualities of information and piloting the techniques have allowed me to learn from the experiences so I can produce better results when doing them for real. I may try other techniques later, but these are the two I have attempted so far.


Pilot Survey

I created a pilot survey in order to test techniques which I may use as part of my research for my inquiry, it allowed me to survey a wide range of people and the responses were kept anonymous. Firstly, one thing I noticed is that I did have minimal responses to my survey. This makes is harder as the statistics produced may not be accurate to a larger scale but barring that some my findings were interesting. Everyone who I surveyed had suffered a dance related however two thirds of these people did not seek medical attention from the first signs of injury which backs up statistics which I had found in my research. I found this method produced a lot of similar answers and not always were the most detailed responses.

Here are some quotes from my survey which were responses to questions regarding dancing with injury, pushing through pain and coping with injury;

• "It feels a failure to be taken off due to injury"
• "Fear of disappointing others"
• "I thought it wasn't worth being off for such a small injury"
• "I just used to grin and bear it"
• "Technique and overall happiness is going to suffer"

I found some of these responses pretty worrying. Although I hope all these dancers have recovered from their injuries it worries that mentalities like this will make dancers dance through injuries or push them until they are worse and this could lead to the injury becoming too severe to continue dancing. Responses like these make me determined to establish ways to help dancers find the right help and support physically and mentally.

Although this tool did help gather some interesting information I am not sure I will use it in my inquiry or I will devise more specific questions that ensure I gather the information I need. I just found that not many people have the time or patients to complete surveys which resulted in a lack of responses and I think I could get in precise responses in an interview. However, it may be more useful is I created very simple multiple choice questions. This would mean that it wouldn't take very long for people to complete and it would allow me to create statistics with the results. 

Pilot Interview

I found this a very useful technique as I could produce a higher quality of information. My plan for my final interviews is that I am going to interview two dancers that have suffered injuries which has stopped them dancing for a certain period of time, with the information gathered I am going to create case studies based on what they went through and then use these case studies to work with a psychologist and discuss how to go about supporting this person and what would be the best ways to help someone cope during a time of injury. 

Due to the nature of my inquiry I am asking a lot of personal questions about the persons emotions and feeling during the times of their injury so firstly I wanted to create a consent form to ensure they were comfortable with me studying their situation and I decided to keep them anonymous when sharing my information. I also decided that I would try to create a comfortable atmosphere where the person was in an environment they knew and felt relaxed. I also created key questions that I wanted to ask during the interview but as the person answered I tried to keep it relaxed so it was like a conversation, so that all the questions are covered but the person is comfortable to reveal their emotions. I also used a voice recorder as I wanted the person to remain anonymous and I also felt that some people might feel a bit uncomfortable in front of a camera. I found this technique very informative and I am definitely going to use it as a tool in my inquiry.

6c - Award Title Rationale

I have written this as my rationale. I have tried to cover all the points I thought were necessary but I am not sure if I have done it quite right. One thing I was slightly concerned about was that my inquiry is more focused on the psychology of dancers specifically with injuries but I thought that would be too much to put in the title so I thought I'd broaden it. Anyway, have a read and see what you think and please comment feedback and any improvements I can make. Thanks you.


I have chosen, BA (hons) Professional Practice (Psychology in Dance) as my Award Title for this course. Having already gained a Level 6 National Diploma in Professional Dance I have established a profound knowledge in dance and performance, especially in classical ballet. Since beginning this course I have focused my research and learning on the psychological aspect of dance as it is something that has always interested me however never had the opportunity or resources to research it in depth. My understanding of the physical and performance side of dance gives me first hand experience into what a dancer goes through psychologically and how that affects them which has aided my learning and inspired me to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subject. I knew that my title would definitely be based around dance as that is where my knowledge lies but I also decided to add the psychological aspect as that is what I am studying and what I have based my inquiry on. 


The biggest factor in choosing my Award Title was ensuring that it would be beneficial to me in the future. Although currently I am a performer I want to able to have the option to have a smooth transition into other aspects of dance and I think this award title will aid that. Having a knowledge in Psychology is something that can be valuable in a variety of different jobs within the dance world and I am interested in one day in transitioning to dance therapy. Therefore having a good understanding of a dancers psychology will establish a good base to allow me to progress smoothly into a career in dance therapy. Subsequently, the combination of all these aspects resulted in me naming my Award Title Psychology in Dance. 

6a - Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QBC5KYP

Hello, I have done a survey for my topic which is based on the Psychological effects of injury in dancers. I think the majority of people in the dance world have suffered some kind of injury during their training or career whether big or small so I would appreciate if you could fill out my survey. I have posted it to my SIG groups but I think this can apply to any dancer so feel free to go through it even if we are doing very different topics.

Please comment any advice, ways to make it better or bits that don't make sense.

Thank you!!

Click here to take survey

5c - Reader 5

"Religion and law are both closely associated with morals and ethics."

It is interesting going into more detail about ethics and the above quote from reader 5 somes up something that reader 5 has really opened my eyes to. Having thought about personal ethics and my own understanding of ethics, I found it interesting learning more about the theories of ethics and how that can affect moral and ethical decisions. There are two main types of ethics which I understand.

Personal Ethics - Family Values, Conscience, Religions. These ethics help define you as a person. They can be affected by your upbringing and experiences throughout life.
Professional Ethics - Theres are the guidelines which are set in a professional environment which allow you to work in a comfortable and efficient manner.

The word ethics comes from the greek word ethos which means character. This links in a lot with personal ethics and it made me think about how your personal ethics really do affect your character and how come come across to another person. I think having good ethics makes you come across as a nicer person and people are more comfortable to be around you and friends with you.

One thing that really stood out to me in the reader were that there are a variety of overlapping opinions when it comes to ethics. A good way of showing this was shown the the table provided in the reader showing the approaches to lying. 

Action - Lying

Consequentialist:	Deontologist:	Virtue Ethicist:
could be acceptable for a greater good	always wrong	moral behaviour & character as important as action

This table shows 3 opinions on the act of lying and how they differ from one another and I think that they can all apply to certain situations. I think that having these overlaps are good as it allows some variety in ethical codes as long as they are applied in the right situation. For example the reader uses the quote, 'To kill one person in order to save 9' when describing consequentialism, and for me in that this is understandable. But I feel that this is only appropriate in certain situations.