National Research Project Finds Dance Talent Can Be Trained
27 October 2011
National research project finds dance talent can be trained
The question of whether artists are born or made is now closer
to being answered, according to research released today (Thursday
27 October) by dance science researchers from Trinity Laban
Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
The research team studied nearly 800 young dancers in
collaboration with the country's Centres for Advanced Training
(CATs), and found that dancers training at the CAT centres showed
steadily increasing levels of physical fitness, high and stable
levels of psychological wellbeing, low to moderate levels of injury
and dropout, and positive creativity experiences.
Report author and Head of Dance Science at Trinity Laban, Emma
Redding, said the evidence was clear:
"To be successful, a dancer must be technically and artistically
proficient, while also being motivated, committed and able to cope
with a demanding profession.
"Talent is not static or just about particular individual
characteristics; it is dynamic and affected by a wide range of
factors such as relationships, the environment, and cultural and
societal aspects.
"Our research found that the best way to produce such an
environment was through training centres such as the CATs."
Funded for three years by the Leverhulme Trust and the Department
for Education, the research comprised investigations into the
psychology, physiology, anthropometry, injury, adherence, and
creativity of this talented cohort of young dancers.
Emma continued: "While the individual is at the heart of this
process, it is how she or he develops during training that
ultimately matters. Dancers with many different backgrounds,
training histories, and bodies can be successful, and the structure
of the training process, the quality of instruction, and the nature
of interpersonal relationships are crucial to talent
development."
The research project is the largest of its kind anywhere in the
world, unprecedented both in terms of its entirely representative
and large sample, its interdisciplinarity, its longitudinal nature,
and the way in which it addresses unanswered research questions
related to dance talent development.
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