Effect of Skilled Dancers' Focus of Attention on Pirouette Performance

Abstract

Extant attentional focus research has largely examined movement tasks that are outcome-focused (e.g., height of jumps, force production, and number of successful turns) with fewer studies of the movement quality or form of an aesthetic discipline (e.g., dance, gymnastics, and ice-skating). In this study, both movement form and outcomebased measures were used to assess the performance of a pirouette. Thirteen skilled dancers performed pirouettes on a force plate under three trial conditions: control (no focus instruction), external focus instruction, and internal focus instruction. Assessment of the dancers' performance was quantified by 1. variability of postural sway, 2. duration of balance sustained, and 3. quality of movement form as rated by four experienced dance teachers. To corroborate the quantitative findings, dancers' perspectives were included in the study. Statistical analysis showed that the quality of a pirouette under the influence of external or internal focus instructions did not differ in any of the measured dependent variables. However, when the results were interpreted in the context of participants' perspective, there was a perceived improvement with either the prescribed external or internal focus over the control condition.

Individual Differences in Sequential Movement Coordination in Hip-Hop Dance: Capturing Joint Articulation in Practicing the Wave

“…Thus, equipment-assisted tasks such as batting, dribbling, and juggling, all enable or in some cases initiate movement. Research in classical ballet has provided mixed results with no discernible ( Denardi and Corrêa, 2013 ; Guss-West and Wulf, 2016 ) or negligible effect on performance when using an external focus ( Chua et al, 2018 ). Secondly, many sports-type movements adopted in experimental protocols, involve familiar, action-based hitting, throwing or balancing, i.e., gross motor coordination movements for which participants presumably have a priori , procedural knowledge.…”

Probing Focus of Attention: Multiple Case-Study Analysis of Pianists’ Pedaling Under Different Foci Conditions in Performance of Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dance Sz. 56, No. 2

“…Several studies indicate that some performers adopt an internal focus when not specifically instructed otherwise (Land et al, 2013;Pascua et al, 2015). Further, research in dance has demonstrated that performers' preferred focus, either external or internal, does not always correlate with success (Chua et al, 2018) and that not all dancers employ optimal focus at all times (Guss-West & Wulf, 2016). These studies highlight an opportunity to reimagine training and performance strategies, leveraging evidence-based research and extending application through systematic inquiry.…”

A Systematic Review of Individual Differences in Perception, Action, and Decision Making: Implications for Dance Education

“…While multiple limitations are always present in a first-evidence cross sectional design, more studies will hopefully uncover the longitudinal effects of dance training on general brain plasticity and specific attentional processes. In applied settings, we find a plethora of research highlighting the importance of attention in dance via external and external dance-based foci of attention 58,59 or more spatially relevant proximal-distal attentional information processing. 4,60…”