A comprehensive guide to conducting empirical research in dance Research Methods in the Dance Sciences introduces concepts and practices that support effective, empirical research in the dance sciences, including medical science. A valuable new resource for this growing field, this book provides foundational knowledge for anyone who wants to understand, apply, and conduct research with dancers and proposes ways to facilitate more collaboration between the many disciplines that often overlap in this area. In this volume, pioneers of dance medicine and science guide readers through the stages of the research process. They address topics such as choosing a research question, writing a literature review, developing a framework and methodology, influencing the field, and progressing in a research career. Offering dance-specific examples as illustrations, this volume provides clear and instructive strategies for developing a solid repertoire of research skills to examine dance and movement-centered activities. It is ideal for practicing and aspiring dancers, teachers, and clinicians in fields including exercise physiology, motor learning, behavioral sciences, food sciences, medicine, psychology, and somatics who are interested in dance science research.

This book is both a handbook for defining and completing a research project, and an astute introduction to the neglected history and changeable philosophy of modern social science.

Dance Research Methodologies: Ethics, Orientations, and Practices captures the breadth of methodological approaches to research in dance in the fine arts, the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences by bringing together researchers from around the world writing about a variety of dance forms and practices. This book makes explicit the implicit skills and experiences at work in the research processes by detailing the ethics, orientations, and practices fundamental to being a researcher across the disciplines of dance. Collating together approaches from key subdisciplines, this book brings together perspectives on dance practice, dance studies, dance education, dance science, as well as dance research in cross-, multi-, and interdisciplinary fields. Practice-based chapters cover methodological approaches that provide rich examples of how research design and implementation are navigated by practicing scholars. Dance Research Methodologies also includes a practical workbook that helps readers to decide upon, refine, and enact their research, as well as develop ways in which to communicate their process and outcomes. This vital textbook is a valuable resource for research faculty interested in interdisciplinary conversation and practice, emerging scholars honing their methodological approaches, graduate students engaged in research-based coursework and projects, and advanced undergraduates.

"This work′s quality, diversity, and breadth of coverage make it a valuable resource for collections concerned with qualitative research in a broad range of disciplines. Highly recommended." —G.R. Walden, CHOICE The Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Inquiry: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues represents an unfolding and expanding orientation to qualitative social science research that draws inspiration, concepts, processes, and representational forms from the arts. In this defining work, J. Gary Knowles and Ardra L. Cole bring together the top scholars in qualitative methods to provide a comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of arts-based research. This Handbook provides an accessible and stimulating collection of theoretical arguments and illustrative examples that delineate the role of the arts in qualitative social science research. Key Features Defines and explores the role of the arts in qualitative social science research: The Handbook presents an analysis of classic and emerging methodologies and approaches that employs the arts in the qualitative research process. Brings together a unique group of scholars: Offering diverse perspectives, contributors to this volume represent a wide range of disciplines including the humanities, media and communication, anthropology, sociology, psychology, women′s studies, education, social work, nursing, and health and medicine. Offers comprehensive coverage of the genres employed by qualitative researchers: Scholars use multiple ways to advance knowledge including literary forms, performance, visual art, various types of media, narrative, folk art, and more. Articulates challenges inherent in alternative methodologies: This volume discusses the issues and challenges faced when employing art in research including ethical issues, academic merit issues, and even funding issues. Intended Audience This is an essential resource for any scholar interested in qualitative research, as well as a critical resource for all academic and public libraries.

Mixed methods research techniques, combining both quantitative and qualitative elements, have become well established throughout the social, behavioural and natural sciences. This is the first book to focus on the application of mixed methods research in the movement sciences, specifically in sport, physical education and dance. Researchers and practitioners in each of these fields are concerned with the study of habitual behaviour in naturalistic contexts, and of the concurrent and sequential nature of events and states, precisely the kind of work that multi-method research design can help illuminate. The book is arranged into four sections. The first provides a thorough overview of mixed methods procedures and research design, and summarizes their applicability to the movement sciences. The remaining sections then offer detailed case studies of mixed methods research in team and individual sports (analyzing hidden patterns of play and optimising technique); kinesics and dance (analyzing motor skills behaviour in childhood, and the complexity of motor responses in dance); and physical education (detecting interaction patterns in group situations, and optimizing non-verbal communication by teachers and sports coaches). Mixed Methods Research in the Movement Sciences offers an important new tool for researchers and helps to close the gap between the analysis of expert performance and our understanding of the general principles of movement science. It is important reading for any student, researcher or professional with an interest in motor control, sport and dance pedagogy, coaching, performance analysis or decision-making in sport.

In Researching Dance, an introduction to research methods in dance addressed primarily to graduate students, the editors explore dance as evolutional, defining it in view of its intrinsic participatory values, its developmental aspects, and its purposes from art to ritual, and they examine the role of theory in research. The editors have also included essays by nine dancer-scholars who examine qualitative and quantitative inquiry and delineate the most common approaches for investigating dance, raising concerns about philosophy and aesthetics, historical scholarship, movement analysis, sexual and gender identification, cultural diversity, and the resources available to students. The writers have included study questions, research exercises, and suggested readings to facilitate the book's use as a classroom text.

In the last few years, concerns about dancers’ health and the consequences of physical training have increased considerably. The physical requirements and type of training dancers need to achieve to reach their highest level of performance while decreasing the rate of severe injuries has awakened the necessity of more scientific knowledge concerning the area of dance, in part considering its several particularities. Scientific Perspectives and Emerging Developments in Dance and the Performing Arts is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research designed to reduce the gap between the scientific theory and the practice of dance. While highlighting topics such as burnout, mental health, and sport psychology, this publication explores areas such as nutrition, psychology, and education, as well as methods of maintaining the general wellbeing and quality of the health, training, and performance of dancers. This book is ideally designed for dance experts, instructors, sports psychologists, researchers, academicians, and students.

Undergraduate Research in Dance: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills alongside examples of undergraduate research in dance scholarship. Dance can be studied as an expressive embodied art form with physical, cognitive, and affective domains, and as an integral part of society, history, and vast areas of interdisciplinary content. To this end, the guidance provided by this book will equip future dance professionals with the means to move the field of dance forward. Chapters 1–9 guide students through the fundamentals of research methods, providing a foundation to help students get started in understanding research protocols and processes. Students will learn skills such as how to choose a research topic, refine research questions, conduct literature reviews, cite sources, synthesize and analyze data, develop conclusions and results, and present their findings. Chapters 10–19 detail forms of undergraduate research in a rich diversity of fields within dance that are taught in many collegiate dance programs including dance therapy, history, science, psychology, education, and technology, in addition to public scholarship, choreography, and interdisciplinary topics. The book also includes a final chapter which provides annotated online resources, and many of its chapters are supported by examples of abstracts of capstone projects, senior theses, and conference presentations by undergraduate researchers across the United States. Suitable for both professors and students, Undergraduate Research in Dance is an ideal reference book for any course that has a significant opportunity for the creation of new knowledge, or as an essential interdisciplinary connection between dance and other disciplines.

Dance and Organisation is the first comprehensive work to integrate dance theory and methods into the study of management, which have developed an interest in the arts and the humanities. Dance represents dynamics and change and puts the moving body at the centre, which has been ignored and oppressed by traditional management theory. ‘Being’ a leader however also means to ‘move’ like one, and critical lessons can be learned from ballerinas and modern dancers. Leadership is a dialogue, as in the work of musicians, conductors and DJs who manage groups without words. Movement in organisational space, in a museum or a techno club can be understood as a choreography and site-specific performance. Movement also is practically used for leadership and employee development workshops and can be deployed as an organisational research method. By taking a firm interdisciplinary stance in dance studies and organisational research to explore management topics, reflecting on practitioner accounts and research projects, the book seeks to make an innovative contribution to our understanding of the moving body, generating new insights on teamwork, leadership, gender in management, organisational space, training and research methods. It comprises an important contribution to the organizational behaviour and critical management studies disciplines, and looks to push the boundaries of the academic literature.

Research Methods in the Health Sciences provides clinical and non-clinical health science students with a comprehensive review of the designs and methods most frequently used in the discipline. Rather than preparing them to conduct original research, this text helps students develop a broad working knowledge of research processes across methodologies. Over the course of 10 chapters, students gain a strong understanding of the scientific method, evidence-based practice, deductive and inductive reasoning, ethical issues when conducting research, and the role of literature in the research process. They read about developing research problem statements and purpose statements, and asking sound research questions. Dedicated chapters illuminate how to select the right methodologies to ensure a study is valid, reliable, and trustworthy, how to understand qualitative and quantitative studies, and how to understand mixed methods research. Each chapter features field-tested tips for studying the material according to individual learning styles, as well as activities to help students develop high-order thinking skills. Written to help students develop foundational knowledge in the discipline, Research Methods in Health Sciences is an ideal resource for introductory courses in health science research methods.