imagery and dance - week 11 Flashcards
imagery perception for sport vs dance
sport: A mental tool to rehearse skills,
situations and feelings
dance: An integral part of
dance training, indirect/metaphorical in nature
- Train for long hours just like athletes, imagery was a way to help with dancers’ alignment
e.g., The leg is the pencil, and they are drawing the semicircle on the ground
imagery in dance - background
Developed as a method to improve dance skills and refine quality of performance
* Affects alignment and performance on the
neurological level, with minimal or no physical action
* Imagery is often used in conjunction with specialized muscle development exercise programs
Dance Imagery Definition
“Dance imagery is the deliberate use of the senses to rehearse or envision a particular outcome mentally, in the absence of, or in combination with, overt physical movement. These images may be constructed of real, or metaphorical movements,objects, events or processes.”
Imagery Use by Elite Ballet Dancers
- Used an applied model of imagery to examine the use of the five different functions of imagery by professional ballet dancers
- Is the use of the imagery functions related to levels of self-confidence and anxiety prior to and during performance?
- Dancers have high performance anxiety it interferes with their choreography (negatively effects on the dancers) maintain the poise and character
- MGM imagery found to be a significant predictor of self-confidence
22-42 years of age dancer use which imagery types
Execution imagery
Metaphorical Imagery
Context Imagery
Body-Related Imagery
Character/Role Imagery
Irrelevant Imagery
executional imagery
skills, planning, strategies, scenarios
metaphorical imagery
colours, objects not actually present, actions not actually performed e.g. pillow under your arms to have the arms in the correct position, arms stretch and hit either side of the walls in the room, pencil at the end of the toe (from above) –> unique to dance, lightness on the feet (balloons lifting you up at the shoulders to keep to tall)
context imagery
places and people (where we are in relation to the other dancers and objects on the stage) its awareness, audience, where is the light hitting, where are the props
body-related imagery
feeling, appearance, healing, and injury (rehabilitation)
character/role imagery
behaviours and emotions of characters
irrelevant imagery
not related to the dance context at all and are deliberate and its implemented due to boredom
cognitive (nordin and cummings)
Learning & improvement
* Memorizing
* Planning
motivational (nordin and cummings)
- Motivational drive
- Changing thoughts and feelings
artistic (nordin and cummings)
- Choreographing
- Enhancing movement quality
- Communicating with audience
nordin and cummings findings
Several dancers reported avoiding imagery
before going on stage
– Imagery of skills can make a move too mechanical
– Imagery leads some dancers to attend to tasks that should be done automatically - just let the movement occur without thinking too much about it
* Metaphorical imagery is often necessary for
dancers because it allows a particular
movement to happen more naturally
– Takes the dancer “out of themselves”
- Some of the functions aren’t relevant in the dance domain doesn’t capture the full spectrum of dancers’ images
Problems with current imagery measures
- Sport Imagery Questionnaire (SIQ):
– Valid/reliable when used with athletes
– Internal reliability issues when used with dancers
– SIQ does not incorporate metaphorical images
– Does not include images related to character role or appearance
– Does not capture the full spectrum of dancers’ images
The Dance Imagery Questionnaire (DIQ) Mastery
technique:
“I imagine specific skills (e.g., a pirouette) being performed perfectly.”
role and mvt quality:
“I imagine the forces required for or associated
with a movement.”
goals:
“I imagine working hard to reach my goals in dance.”
mastery:
“I imagine myself performing with my anxiety
under control.”
DIQ questionnaire
- frequency measure (1-7 likert scale)
- Dancers of all levels and ages use imagery but mostly adults use it
- Technique imagery used the most often while mastery (motivational, anxiety, self-confidence) is used the least
- Need a baseline to be good at imagery before they can use it to enhance they’re performance
- External or internal is up to the dancer we try not to prescribe but we typically recommend third person for form and technique purposes.
Young Dancers’ Use of Imagery
- Qualitatively investigate young dancers’
imagery use - Where, When, Why and What young dancers
are imaging
Female dancers between 7-14 years of age used the following imagery types:
Technique Imagery
Metaphorical Imagery
Environmental Imagery
Goal Imagery
Character/Role Imagery
Feedback Imagery
- Different focus groups for different ages because their experiences are different they indicted these various techniques:
Technique, metaphorical, environmental, goal, character role, feedback (turn your toe a different way… coach and dance teacher and how they verbalize it)
Youth dance: goal and feedback imagery
Feedback imagery is unique to dance
results from the questionnaire
Why:
– Cognitive (learning/improving, memorizing,
fix/avoid mistakes –> in youth dancers)
- Professional ballet adult dancers don’t focus on fixing and avoiding mistakes
– Motivational (increase self confidence, reduce
anxiety, encouragement)
– Artistic (seek inspiration, portray emotion, take on a character)
Artistic aspect is an adult result
– Enjoyment –> youth dancers
purpose of the DIQ- C
To develop and establish the content validity of the DIQ-C in three stages:
1) Definition, item, and scale development
2) Assessment of item clarity and appropriateness via cognitive interviews
3) Assessment of item-content relevance via an expert rating panel
DIQ-C (for children)
- Establish content validity
- Relevant to that task and context specific
- 46 items are a lot but dwindled down
- A clear middle scale
True or False - Unique to dance imagery literature is the use of metaphorical imagery
TRUE
True or false - Dancers use imagery for both cognitive and motivational purposes
TRUE
Content Validity
Content Validity
Content validity procedures should be treated as important
categories of construct validation and should be reported
systematically in the same detail as other components of
construct validation.
(Haynes, 1995, p. 245)
©KChandler 2023
Content Validity
Content validity procedures should be treated as important categories of construct validation and should be reported systematically in the same detail as other components of
construct validation. (haynes)
STAGE ONE OF DIQ-C DEVELOPMENT
- Think-aloud protocol
- Clarity issues, comprehension, the language isn’t proper
- Initial 46-item pool created to represent 7 imagery types
STAGE TWO OF DIQ-C - Particpants
Participants were recruited from 6 dance studios in Ontario
* Dancers were 7-14 years old, attended dance class at least twice per week, and had previously used imagery in dance
- they did different styles of dance
STAGE TWO OF DIQ-C - Procedures
procedures: Cognitive Interviews, Think-Aloud Protocol, Standardized & Concurrent Probes
45-60 Minutes in Length
there was also a practice exercise:
- Visualize the place where you live and think about how many windows there are in that
place. As you count up the windows, tell me what you’re seeing and thinking about.
(Dietrich & Ehrlenspiel, 2010; McCorry et al., 2013)
STAGE TWO OF DIQ-C - Data analysis
coding framework generated based on problems conveyed
by participants
* Responses for each item allocated to one of the following codes:
- Not applicable
- Misinterpreted
- Mispronounced
- Confusion
- Redundant
- Incongruent
- Negative Valence
- No Problems
- E.g., if 12 of 15 people said they were confused then the responses would be coded as confusion then the question would be thrown out or adapted
12 items were retained, 21 items were revised (rewording), 13 items were removed due to either redundancy, wasn’t applicable, hard to comprehend
STAGE THREE OF DIQ-C
33 item pool (still a little too long for children)
- Now 4 researchers and 4 dance instructors need to review the questions
- Indicate if its poor, fair, good, very good, or an excellent match
STAGE THREE RESULTS
18 items retained, 3 revised, 8 removed, 4 merged into other questions
