Editorial

Welcome to this special issue that presents original research in Dance, Health and Wellbeing. I am grateful to my associate editor Doug Risner, all the peer reviewers that have kindly and diligently given their time, and to all the authors that have engaged with this call. The call was very well received and attracted the highest number of articles submitted for consideration for a special issue. Here, you will find the collection of articles that have been selected for the special issue, chosen to reflect variety in content and context.

Theme-based special issues aim to inform, improve and enhance the quality and provision of dance education through lively inquiry and critical debate in order fulfill the journal’s mission to nurture, stimulate and promote research in dance education around the globe. The journal sets out to include contributors from a wide and diverse community of researchers and scholars, extending to all aspects of dance in education and its research. Since the journal’s inception, special issues have examined myriad topical themes including technology and dance (2008), creativity in dance (2009), best practice in dance making (2011), the life and legacy of Linda Rolfe, founding editor (2012), practising research in dance (2015), dance pedagogy in theory and practice (2016), dance futures (2017), dance and work (2019) and intersectionalities and identities (2020). Interested readers may access all special issue content in the journal archives on the Research in Dance Education website. We also have a call for papers for Dance and Parenting out now.

This special issue is timely as over the past two decades, there has been an increase in research, practice and policy in relation to arts and their effect on health and well-being. The call for this special issue followed an in-depth arts and health report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) (Fancourt and Finn 2019) that evidenced positive impact of arts on both mental and physical health, through a scoping review of over 900 publications, including 200 reviews covering over 3000 further studies. Furthermore, this issue has been developed during a time when human health has been impacted by a global pandemic. Dance, Health and Wellbeing offers nine original, evidenced-based research articles that represent work from Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, UK, USA, Norway and Australia. The articles not only examine the importance of the workforce of teachers and practitioners in the provision of dance for health and wellbeing but also the need to promote and support professional dancers and artists through access to information, support and resources. The articles further advocate enabling environments for participation and teaching, the power of performance and practice and support the potential of dance for health, recovery, wellbeing and longevity in the profession.

The issue opens with Dancing after Homelessness by Sylvie Fortin. Dance can be used as a vehicle to improve the quality of life of diverse populations, but there is less work that has explored the potential of dance to contribute to recovery for women that have experienced homelessness. This three-year action research dance project revealed the power of artistic/creative dance that, importantly, placed a group of women that had experienced homelessness at the heart. Multiple dimensions of recovery as social, physical, psychological, cognitive and artistic benefits were identified and evidenced. The action research enabled the project and practice to evolve and challenges were overcome. This article offers convincing evidence of the need for longitudinal projects with participants (the project is ongoing) the benefits of artistic dance and of using an action research approach to the work.

Next, Margaret Jean Westby in her article Keep Movin’ On in Trinidad and Tobago: the complexities of COVID-19 on dance and dance education, reflects upon the impacts of the pandemic that all of us working in dance and dance education can relate to. However, the article examines some sociological, technological, cultural and economic impacts specific to the context of Trinidad and Tobago too. The author, Westby, describes the range of dance practices within the landscape in Trinidad and Tobago from an historical perspective as a multitude of ethnicities and traditions, adopted and subverted. The move to virtual teaching was challenging due to lack of access to equipment and devices, reliable internet, technical proficiency and raised anxieties. The interview study with staff members and students from a University and professional dancers and choreographers revealed the social and cultural importance of the carnival celebrations and movement, bodies, music, embodiment and moving together as social communities, for physical and mental wellbeing and connectivity.

Authors David Outevsky and Tanya Berg in their article, Dancer education beyond the conservatory: the health education benefits of pre-season screens for a professional ballet company discuss the frameworks, structure, detail and importance of for positive psychological and physical benefits. Findings suggest that the dancers in the study were interested in the individualised information and data gained and when they engaged with information they could be supported to recognise and manage challenge and/or injury. Staying with a focus on the wellbeing of professional dance artists, authors Collard-Stokes and Yoon in their article Artist wellbeing: exploring the experiences of dance artists delivering community health and wellbeing initiatives examine the wellbeing of independent dance artists/practitioners delivering dance initiatives as part of the UK’s social prescribing scheme. Social prescribing is viewed as a holistic approach to notions of illness and health management, utilising artists to work with communities. Many independent dance artists/practitioners lead dance programmes that are part of social prescribing initiatives with a focus on health and wellbeing. However, there is little recognition of the importance of this workforce, or access to training, guidelines or resources. The authors collected data via an online survey and through a focus group discussion and findings reveal that independent dance artists experienced isolation, impacting on their own mental health. It is suggested that a more strategic approach for access to training, peer support, professional development and provision for artist wellbeing would be appreciated.

The next article: The teacher’s body: injury and evolution of teaching, by Hannah Seidel focuses on taken for granted expectations of demonstration as a teaching method when teaching dance and that demonstration is usually teacher-led. However, if a teacher has an injury, or significant physical change they must adapt and modify their teaching methods accordingly, to manage both their injury and their teaching. Data were collected via a nation-wide survey of dance teachers working in a variety of settings and findings revealed that teachers found the change in their ability and physicality brought about by injury challenging physically and psychologically as this was particularly connected to identity. There were examples of adaptability and evolution of new methods and ways of working. It is suggested that further community building, sharing, resources and support are needed to support the workforce further.

In their article, Stepping into Salsa culture: an experiential account of engaging with a university non-credit dance programme, authors Pablo Domene and Sheriden Morley present the findings of a qualitative study that sought to better understand the ways in which university students experience partnered Salsa dancing in the UK in a social dance, non-formal learning environment. Employing semi-structured interviews within a reflexive methodology, the authors found three emergent themes from participants’ narrative data: Salsa dance relieved stress while allowing moments of escapism, that Salsa initially presented challenges that students overcame, and that Salsa provided the ability to meet and socialise through the changing of dance partners throughout the Salsa dance learning. The authors conclude that campus-based social dance within higher education dance instruction promotes subjective well-being and mental health, acquisition of skills and social connectedness.

Given the body of work that has built from dance, medicine and science, on one hand, it is surprising to learn that dancers still lack knowledge of the importance of nutrition as fuel for dance. However, as the next article, Mental health, eating behaviour and injuries in professional dance students by Fostervold Mathisen, Sundgot-Borgen, Anstensrud and Sundgot-Borgen shows, there is still a high frequency of mental health challenges and injuries in professional dancers, and the need to understand the complexities that surround them is ever more importance. The study reveals that 50% of participants reported that they could identify with mental health challenges and this was often related to their perceptions of their body. It is suggested that the dancers had a lack of knowledge and understanding of body appreciation, nutrition, injury and of mental health support and that more frequent knowledge-building, screening and support is needed to build mental health literacy.

Community dance, as an arts-based approach in healthcare and potential conduit of expression for persons living with dementia, forms the grounding of Louisa Petts and Elsa Urmston article, An exploration into the experience of family caregivers for people living with dementia in a community dance class. Using a qualitative research design and methodology, the authors engaged three family caregivers for people living with dementia diagnoses as participant-informants. From a gerontological and sociological framework within an empirical inquiry of family caregivers, semi-structured interviews addressed perceived psychosocial wellbeing through regular participation in community dance classes. The authors findings offer important insight into the appropriateness of dance as a method for alleviating potential psychological and social stressors experienced by family caregivers and serve to advocate for greater availability of and access to community dance classes for those experiencing dementia.

This issue concludes with Mindfulness, recovery-stress balance, and well-being among university dance students by Peta Blevins, Gene Moyle, Shona Erskine and Luke Hopper. The article reminds us of the need to enable, support and challenge vocational dance students to build strategies to manage stress for performance enhancement and wellbeing for longevity in the profession. Seventy-two dance students at two Australian universities completed online self-report measures of mindfulness, recovery-stress states and affect. Correlation coefficients indicated a significant positive relationship between mindfulness and positive affect, and significant negative relationships between mindfulness and stress, and mindfulness and negative affect. The findings suggest that building awareness and mindfulness, through for example, psychoeducational and movement-based mindfulness within dance training with pre-professional dancers, may support students in building greater resilience, building recovery and managing stress.

I am sure that you will enjoy the research-informed work here that advocates dance for health and wellbeing. I hope that the special issue yields deep thought, response and enhanced practice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).