Darcey Bussel Literature

I was clearing my room out at the weekend and came across some of my old Pilates books. When I was training at school two of these books were my absolute favourites and as I begun to flick through them I thought I could maybe look at them slightly more critically and thought I could perhaps use them for a Literature review. These two books are; Darcey Bussell's Dance Body Workout (2007) and Darcey Bussell Pilates for Life (2005).

Darcey Bussell's Dance Body Workout:

In the introduction of this book Darcey almost immediately mentions how these exercises differ greatly to your standard gym exercises. 'Our aim is different to that of other athletes. We have to keep our bodies both lean and powerful and, to do this, we need to work on building muscle strength without bulking up. The focus is on lengthening and toning above everything else.' This straight away fits with one of the themes that have been emerging from my research about the aesthetic demands of dance. It is interesting hearing a dancer talk about the demands of classical ballet because they are so specific so it's interesting to see how these exercises would differ to this of, say a gymnast, which is what I was looking at i my previous piece of literature.

Darcey says 'Pilates and dance, together with regular stretching' are what keeps her strong enough to be a professional dancer.

'Despite the athletic and vigorous nature of ballet these days, dancers are far from being muscle bound and burly.' Darcey mentions about not looking over-developed like other athletes because ballet naturally calls for us to look light and graceful as we dance, so the way we exercise has to reflect this. I find this interest because do an extent I do agree with her, but how much of your bodies muscle percentage is actually reflected on what types of supplementary training you do and how much of it is just your natural physique. Some people may find that just doing ballet class alone physically bulks up their muscles a lot whereas others may need to do more strengthening. I also of course agree that we need to look light and graceful as we dance, but who is to say you can't be more muscular as well as being light and graceful?

There are three main components in this book that make up Darcey's workout. Pilates, floor barre and stretching.

In the book she starts with a Pilates warm-up beginning with simple exercises. Then moves onto floor barre which is something that I am yet to talk about in my inquiry. She states that the basis of floor barre is 'a strong core' because this supports the rest of your body. She finishes of with some stretching. By all of the exercises/stretches there are photos and instructions as well as telling you how many sets and repetitions to do so it is very simple and easy to follow and understand. She also has 'tips' on every page and tells you what 'works'. Eg, 'the muscles in the feet, the hamstrings and calves.

Darcey Bussell Pilates for Life:

Darcey pretty much begins the book by saying how she is not actually a Pilates teacher but she has been practicing and reaping the benefits of it for her whole career. She gives some background about the history of Pilates and it's origins. The contents of the book is divided into sections:

- Pilates basics

- Warm-up/flexibility

- Main program - which is divided up into exercises targeting different areas of the body. Eg, abdominal, stretching, sitting, balancing.

- Warm down

- Mini-program 

Darcey mentions how Pilates helped her recovery from injury and her rehabilitation post surgery because the exercises are able to target and isolate different areas of the body. This is something that I am very interested in and have been talking to other dancers about this in my interviews. 

'The mind-body connection. Like yoga and other holistic forms of exercise Pilates has a strong mind-body connection. If you focus your mind on individual muscles as you work through the programme you can help length and strengthen them.' This is interesting here that she mentions about the mind-body connection because this is another area that I find very interesting but is not a topic that has arisen from other pieces of literature I have looked at thus far. I think that mid fullness is also very important in body management and in order to have a healthy body it's important to have a healthy body too. 

From looking at these books I have actually been inspired to perhaps create something similar for my artefact. Although I am no expert in this field I think that with more research into Pilates and similar exercise based training I could create some sort of strengthening plan devised to target different areas of weakness. 

Themes arisen from literature:

Mind-body connection 

Ideas for creating an artefact

Floor-bare

Weight based vibration training

I have mentioned before about wanting to do some more research into weight based vibration training so I have done some online research about it and the effects of it on dancers. 


http://www.vibrationexercise.com/vibrationtrainingdancers/

'Not only can it be utilized, but it’s quick and requires no large learning curve. Best of all, there is the potential to increase compliance with vibration exercise, as opposed to a weight training type of program.'

Again it is mentioned here about it being time efficient which is useful as dancers because it could be easy to fit in a training session in the middle of a day of rehearsals or in between performances. 

It also states the vibration is an effective rehabilitation tool, especially for those dancers with weak or unstable ankles. 

Increases flexibility. The vibration group was compared to a control group. The conclusion demonstrates that highly trained dancers saw an increase in flexibility. The study led the researchers to conclude that vibration training would be a beneficial supplemental training intervention.

Article by:
Dr Jaspar Sidhu


Studies that show vibration training increases vertical jump. 


I found an article on the chartered society of physiotherapy:

http://www.csp.org.uk/frontline/article/good-vibrations


I have actually struggled to find any real scientific research about weight based vibration training.

'Even devotees of WBV admit there is a real research deficit. At first glance there is a considerable literature, covering its use in a variety of settings, including rthopaedics, neurology and sports medicine. But most of these studies are small scale and far from conclusive.'

Massage functions are useful for warm-up and cool-down. Good for rehabilitation with bone injuries and micro-fractures.

At the end of a hard day’s rehearsing and before an evening performance, dancers at the Royal Ballet can often be found lying down with their legs on a vibrating plate.

‘Rehearsals can be from 10.30am to 5.30pm, then the performance is at 7.30pm,’ explains Royal Ballet physio Daryl Martin. ‘Ballet is hard on the calves in particular, because they spend so much time en pointe. So that’s a favourite massage.’

The physio department in Covent Garden is far from unusual in utilising whole body vibration therapy. Over the last five years, use of WBV has grown rapidly in gyms, physiotherapy clinics and in the home.

At the Royal Ballet, Daryl Martin introduced WBV after learning about it in his previous role, working at the British Olympic Association with Dr Cardinale. Around a third of the dancers use it as part of their daily warm-up routine, he says, while around a half use it as part of physiotherapy sessions. 

‘Subjectively, I believe it helps prepare dancers for practice and that it helps prevent injury. There is evidence it pre-activates muscles – jump heights improve after WBV because the muscles are “switched on”.’  

It’s used in three main areas: stretching, where the dancers can get a fuller stretch than on the floor (the vibration, Mr Martin suggests, desensitises the muscle that would normally ‘stop’ the stretch); strengthening, particularly after exercise such as stress fractures of the foot, and finally, massage.

Lit review - themes emerging

Found a really useful link about how to carry out a literature review and it has really helped me organise my thoughts. I think I have been getting a bit confused when doing my literature reviews but now I feel I understand how to gain more from them rather than just analysing them.


http://www.screencast.com/t/RdY4lwEW

States current state of research and how my research fits into it.


1) - define the problem and find sub-topics

2) - find the research and read critically

3) - organsie and theme. Find themes for headings

4) - structure. start with broad themes and find overlap

5) - write up. intro, main body(analysis theme by theme and how research builds from previous research, conclusion (summarise and identify gaps in knowledge)

Keep in mind purpose and analyse and theme research keeping structure and organises myself.

When I am reading literature I need to keep in mind how to think critically and also look for themes.


Themes emerging from IADMS articles:

Class and rehearsals don't provide enough overload to increase strength and prepare for performance.

There should be a gap (2 weeks) between end of an intense conditioning period and a performance period.

Aesthetic demands of a dancer and can some forms supplementary training hinder this?

Is the fittest dancer the best dancer?

Lack of facilities can be difficult for us as a touring company. How overcome this?


These are all themes that have emerged from my studies of these IADMS articles and are topics that I will try to focus on in my interviews and further studies.

Start of tour!

So our tour has just begun and got off to a rather dramatic start. Yesterday we were involved in an accident on the M4 in our mini-bus and unfortunately it was quite bad and a few of us ended up taking a trip to A&E. Luckily no one is too badly injured. However, our show yesterday was cancelled  and everyone is feeling largely shaken up. The show must go on and tonight we have an evening performance. Lots of people have minor injuries, bruises and whiplash so in the next few days body maintenance will be very important and we will need to work carefully in order to not cause further damage.

In terms of my inquiry I have been continuing with my literature research and carrying out interviews which have so far been successful. I have a few more to conduct but due to the current circumstances company members are not in the best frame of mind right now. So I will probably have to delay these for a few days. However, I can continue to look at more literature in this time.

IADMS Literature

Last module when I was doing my research for topics of inquiry I came across many interesting articles on the IADMS website so I have decided to revisit a few of these for a more in depth literature review in module 3. The two main articles that have caught my attention are the following:

- Supplementary Muscular Fitness Training for Dancers:

https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iadms.org/resource/resmgr/Public/Bull_4-1_pp15-17_Kozai.pdf

- Fitter Dancers Dance Better

The Effects of Supplementary Fitness Training in Contemporary Dance

Manuela Angioi, M.Sc., Ph.D., Centre for Sports and Exercise Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, UKhttps://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iadms.org/resource/resmgr/Public/IADMS_Bulletin_DT_5-1.pdf

In both of these articles various experiments are carried out by splitting a group of dancers into two. One group is named the intervention group and this group is the one which undertakes some form of supplementary training alongside their usual dance training and the other group is named the control group and they simply carry on with their usual dance training. 

Firstly I will talk about the article titled 'Supplemenatry Muscular Fitness Training for Dancers'. The main topics in this article are about how dancers can support their work and improvement in the studio through the use of supplementary training. 'Research has found that class is generally conducted at a lower intensity than rehearsal, and neither class nor rehearsals reach the physiological intensity of performance.1 This means that class and rehearsal don’t provide enough overload (stressing the body beyond that to which it is accustomed) to prepare the dancer for performance.' 

Although this is a very interesting point here I think it is difficult to generalise the intensity of a class because there are so many variables. A ballet class with one teacher could be completely different to another. Or even on a day to day basis the intensity of a class could change. I've read that the author of the article made a reference here and put a link to Wyon's research. Wyon MA, Abt G, Redding E, Head A, Sharp NC. Oxygen uptake during modern dance class, rehearsal, and perfor- mance. J Strength Cond Res. 2004;18(3):646-9. He measured dancer's heat rate and oxygen intake in class, rehearsal and performance and found out they were both much higher in dance performance than in either class of rehearsal. However this was in a modern dance environment which could differ to ballet. Also the intensity of the performance will have an impact of these results. It would be interesting to compare these results to a similar study with dancers in a ballet company and see if they are the same. 

The results in the article say that supplementary training should occur at an intensity higher than the traditional technique class. If working at a 6 or 7 in class then your supplementary training should take place at an 8. It will be interesting to bring this up in my interviews with people to see the opinions of this from a dancer's point of view.

One area of this article that jumps out at me every time I read is point number 5 in the 'section for teachers'. 'Supplemental conditioning should take place well before any scheduled performances. The higher intensities can temporarily cause fatigue, and the body requires time and rest to adapt. Roughly two weeks should separate the end of a conditioning program and the beginning of a performance period.' This study was carried out on students so this may be quite plausible for them to not do supplementary conditioning close to a performance. However, for professionals performing all the time this is impossible and would mean that we could never do any supplementary conditioning other than in our time off in between seasons. This makes me think that perhaps professional dancers should participate in a less strenuous form of supplementary training during performance periods. 

Another point of interest I have picked up from this article is about the aesthetic demands of a dancer and if certain forms of supplementary could have a hindering affect on a dancer's physical appearance. It mentions that lots of dancers fear weight training may lead to bulky muscles and loss of flexibility so this is a subject I will bring up in my interviews. I will also be interested to see if whether different types of dancers, for example contemporary, jazz and ballet dancers all have different views on this subject. 

In the second article I've looked at 'Fitter dancers dance better' an experiment is carried out on a group of contemporary dancers to try and see how their muscular and endurance and aerobic fitness could be improved. Again in this article contemporary dancers are used in the experiment rather than ballet dancers so I feel like this is a gap in their research that would be interesting for me to research further because ballet is my professional practice. 

Experiment:
Intervention group - 
Circuit training, whole body vibration training and 10 mins rest - Two 1 hour sessions a week for 6 weeks
CT - dance based e.g.,grand plie in second position
WBV - holding static positions on a vibrating platform. Eg, pile and releve.

The results from this experiment show that only the intervention group showed improvements in their muscular power, endurance and aerobic capacity. 'The observed increased aerobic levels were attributed to the circuit training, while the increases in muscular power and endurance were considered to be a result of the combined CT and WBV training. The latter in particular has been proven to elicit both concentric and eccentric contractions.' This shows that the dancers who are only participating in dance classes are not making improvements in their fitness which shows us that dance training alone is not sufficient enough to cause physical adaptations to enhance dancer's fitness. 

Another important point raised here by this experiment is the link between physical fitness and the artistic elements of the dancers. Just because you are a fitter dancer does that make you better? So much of dance is subjective and it can be difficult for people to agree on what is the idea of 'better'. Things like height of jumps and extension of legs can be measured but quality of movement cannot. 

 'As previously suggested this is because dancers use their bodies as instruments of expression and most common technical skills/movements (jumps, transitory movements, etc.) used in contemporary dance require enhanced fitness levels as well as artistry'. I believe that these two components of dance work together hand in hand and it is a combination and balance between these two things that make a good dancer. This was referenced in here when this topic was spoken about in the text:
Angioi M, Metsios GS, Twitchett E, Koutedakis Y, Wyon M. Association between selected physical fitness parameters and aesthetic competence in contemporary dancers. J Dance Med Sci. 2009;13(4):115-23. 

In the section of the text where suggestions are made for teachers it is suggested that training sessions should be scheduled at the end of the day so as to not interfere with the dancer's already heavy workload. It also states that the selection of exercises can be tailored to specific choreographic demands. The article concludes by talking about Weight Based Vibration training and how effective it is at minimal time cost. I would like to do further research into this as I don't know much about this form of training. Unfortunately, as a touring company we wouldn't be able to have this equipment, however a power plate or some similar equipment is easily accessible at a gym so it could be interesting for me to see use of this could be tailored specifically for dancer's needs. 

To conclude both of these articles although carrying out different experiments prove the same results that supplementary training is definitely beneficial for dancers! 

This article below is another interesting one I have found on the IADMS website:

 Pilates Technique for Improving Dancers’ Performance

Tania Amorim, M.Sc., and Matthew Wyon, Ph.D., Research Centre for Sport, Exercise and Performance, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall, UK; National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science, UK 

This article talks about the results of an experiment carried out that compares two groups of dancers strengths. One group does three sessions of Pilates a week and the other just partakes in regular dance classes. The result clearly show the the Pilates group improve in strength, control and develope height. Whereas the other group (the control group) remain the same. 

Dance scholars!

Part of my module 2 feedback was to look more at dance scholars work on topics related to my inquiry to open up my view and prevent myself from working in a vacuum. I have begun drafting interview questions and topics for discussion and I can already see how it could be easy to become wrapped up in my own actions with my company and my inquiry rather than looking outwardly at other researchers and their discoveries. 

This is why I have decided to do lots of reading and try to do a brief literature review as I go along. On the Dance UK website I found an article called Strength and Conditioning in Dance: Power, performance and rehabilitation which is a write up of a conference at Elmhurst School for Dance where Dance UK’s Healthier Dancer Programme (HDP) and the National Institute for Dance Medicine and Science came together for the last ever Dance UK meeting. This training session was deemed very useful but what I found most interesting about reading this article was not what they did but what they learnt from it. Something that is very relevant to my professional practice and my inquiry was the theme that there should be more resources for independence dance artists who don't have the benefits of facilities and trainers. This can be directly linked to my working environment because as a touring ballet company we don't have a base studio or any dedicated area or allotted time for conditioning and supplementary training. Although we have time for warm up before class we don't have any facilities or equipment with us so if for example we wanted to use the cross-training before class this would be impossible. This triggered thoughts about alternative ways to gain the same effects of traditional exercise forms.  

'In particular, there is a need for more research tailored specifically to dance, and a need for more forums to share high quality research and best practice for experienced practitioners already working in this field.' I agree with this quote because as someone who is researching this topic it is difficult to find any sort of forum where ideas are being shared on this topic. 

At the end of the article it is stated that the most important message to arise from the day is understanding the individual dancer's workload and performance schedule.  


...................................................................................................................................................................


I've found some interesting links on YouTube about the Royal Ballet and their physio Greg Retter.
They were very interesting videos and I think it is important for me to look at other forms of media rather than just articles. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlvJrXvTBrk


INJURY PREVENTION;

Unexpected - lifting heavy weights. Better strength 

Strength program, cohesive approach towards Pilates motor control through to strength train and good nutrition and physiological support and making sure dancers are fit and able to withstand the strain as possible.


INOVATION:


There's no good evidence about how much is a dancer loaded through a day, through class, through rehearsal and performances. How can we look at the program and start to predict when there might be injury spikes along the way. 

Quantify the loading characteristic across the repertoire of the royal ballet. Interventional strategies where there might be the risk of injury spikes.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0uVH62QPXo

Inside the Royal Ballet healthcare suite.


In the video with Greg Retter he talks about collaborating strength and weight training with Pilates exercises to form an effective training program for dancers.

Module 3 first steps

The second step in module 3 is to start looking at literature and after reading my feedback from module 2 I think a good area of literature for me to focus on is research inquiry methodology and also to read other scholars literature reviews so I can compare them to my own and look for differences and areas for me to improve upon. 


Here I have quoted some areas of interest from Reader 7 about literature reviews.


A literature review is a common feature in academic and professional writing. Often, the review operates to prepare you about you topic in order to carry out more effective practitioner research. Hart defined a literature review as:
The selection of available documents (both published and unpublished) on the topic, which contain information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint to fulfil certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated, and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed
(1998, p. 13).
Hart goes on to states the purposes on a review, which he says are not ranked in order of importance:
1 distinguishing what has been done from what needs to be done;
2 discovering important variables relevant to the topic; 3 synthesizing and gaining a new perspective;
4 identifying relationships between ideas and practice;
Middlesex University@2016 5

5 establishing the context of the topic or problem; 6 rationalizing the significance of the problem;
7 enhancing and acquiring the subject vocabulary; 8 understanding the structure of the subject;
9 relating ideas and theory to applications;
10 identifying the main methodologies and research techniques that have been used;
11 placing the research in a historical context to show familiarity with state-of-the-art developments (1998, p. 27). 


RESEARCH INQUIRY METHODOLOGY:

I have found a book about research inquiry methodology and it raised some interesting areas of thought.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hZ9wSHysQDYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA2&dq=research+inquiry+methods&ots=1r-etBb1H6&sig=CYlFbwu6nk_6s2DZf1230cvMlUA#v=onepage&q=research%20inquiry%20methods&f=false

Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques

By C. R. Kothari

Identify objectives and and motivation for research. The main objectives of research is to find out where the truth is hidden and how to discover it. I will be trying to approach my topic of inquiry through different angles in order to gain results through a different perspective to other existing studies. My motivation for research is more of a fundamental one because I am undertaking a research degree, but I will also reap consequential benefits to my work through undertaking this research which is the whole purpose of this degree. My motivation is also to have a beneficial impact on an area of my professional practice by broadening my own and my colleagues knowledge about injury and supplementary training. 

Different types of research:

Descriptive vs analytical - 
Descriptive - using surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kinds. 
Analytical - use facts and materials already available and analyses these to make a critical evaluation


Applied vs fundamental - 
Applied - finding a solution for an immediate problem facing society.
Fundamental - associated with generalisations and the formulation of a theory

Quantitative vs qualitative - 
Quantitative - based on measurement of amount. 
Qualitiative - investigating human behaviour, finding underlying motives or desires by using in depth interviews.

Conceptual vs empirical - 
Conceptual - used by philosophers to develop new theories related to abstract ideas.
Empirical - relies on experience or observation alone often without regard for system or theory.