Assessing the Need for A Long-Term Development Framework Among Dancers

A Sport LTD Framework for Dance

Long-Term Development (LTD) frameworks have been created for many sports, but dance is not among these sports. This is because dance is not often considered a conventional sport, despite providing social and health benefits aligning with physical literacy development.

Supporting Dancers at Any Stage

The impact of Long-Term Development frameworks are a more physically literate population, athlete excellence, and more people pursuing activity for life.

Physical literacy (PL) encourages individuals to take ownership of their lifelong physical activity (PA) journey through developing areas such as motivation, confidence, and physical competence alongside increased knowledge and understanding. Dance provides social and health benefits aligning with PL development and yet is not often considered a conventional sport. Due to this, dance does not yet have a developmental framework to provide a structured approach to increase PL. This study aims to understand the presence of physical literacy and the relevance of a Long-Term Development framework in the Dancer Population at a Competition, Recreational, and University Level.

Study Measures and Objectives

Content Analysis

The first objective of this project is to explore evidence of physical literacy domains already present in dance certifications that currently exist, by a content analysis.

Assessment of Physical Literacy Among Dancers

Physical Literacy evident after the content analysis in the dance population at a competition, recreational, and university level will be explored using four assessments from the Physical Literacy Assessment of Youth (PLAY) toolkit.

Assessment of Relevance of a Long-Term Development Framework For Dancers

Lastly, to assess relevance of a structured developmental framework grounded in PL for use in and around dance, a survey with dance educators, studio owners, and community program directors will take place with the option for interviews and focus groups for those who wish to discuss the framework further.