Research Participation Opportunities

Find out why you should consider getting involved with research, and how you can advertise your opportunities too

There is a growing body of dance medicine and science-focused research that aims to improve our understanding of what it takes to produce healthy, high performing dancers. Remember that research cannot happen without participants, so as dancers, teachers, choreographers, and those actively working within the dance industry you have a very valuable role to play within the scientific research process.

Organisations such as The International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) promote research excellence within the dance medicine and science community as well as producing resources to disseminate research recommendations within the wider dance community.

We know that many professional dance companies and vocational dance schools are frequently approached by researchers, undergraduate as well as postgraduate, to take part in their projects. In order to help prevent these dancers suffering from ‘research fatigue’, while encouraging participation in research, we have produced a checklist (below) for schools and companies to help you decide on the quality of research opportunities presented to you and prioritise those you take part in. These points could also apply to individuals in deciding whether to participate in research or not.

 

White female dancer with long red hair running on a treadmill wearing face-mask to measure cardiovascular fitness. White male physiologist looking over to observe stats on the machine. In a white laboratory setting with a window in the background

Research participation checklist

  • Is the research at postgraduate level, with the intention for it to be published?
  • Is the research applied research that will have a practical bearing on dancers’ health, wellbeing, performance capabilities or education, on an individual level, organisational level or for the dance world at large?
  • Is the researcher planning to or have they sought input from dance professionals in choosing what to research and/or designing the research?
  • Is the researcher offering to provide feedback during and/or following the research that will be useful to the dancers and their work/training?
  • Have you or the researcher sought advice from One Dance UK’s HDP to ensure that this research project complements or adds to the research knowledge base and is not unnecessarily duplicating work already done?

If you can answer yes to these points it is likely to be worth your while taking part in a research project that may benefit dancers, company and the dance world at large.

Current opportunities

Listed below are research projects being conducted by One Dance UK members, which are currently seeking participants. If you are interested in taking part, please do get in touch with the researchers directly, or if you have any questions or concerns, contact the Healthier Dancer Programme: hdp@onedanceuk.org.

CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES 

Project summary:

My name is Maria Kolitsida and as part of my PhD project, I am exploring dance students’ understanding and experiences of self-harm, as well as investigating different factors that may relate to self-harm in private school dance students in the United Kingdom.

The University of Birmingham in collaboration with One Dance UK and the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) are conducting research to support dance teachers in private dance schools to respond to safeguarding concerns around self-harm in their students.

Our research has already highlighted that dance teachers are seeing an increase in the number of students who self-harm and need additional guidance and education for responding to self-harm in private dance education.

Thus, this two-fold research project aims to:

  1. Understand more about self-harm in dance students (i.e., what proportion of students self-harm and how/why they may self-harm).
  2. Investigate the best way of providing education to dance teachers about self-harm by pilot testing an educational workshop on self-harm for private dance schools.

Research Setting:

If you decide to take part in the study, you will be asked to sign a consent form. Before attending the workshop, you will then be asked to fill in a short questionnaire asking you about your pre-existing understanding of self-harm. This should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

After attending the workshop, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire, asking you to rate your knowledge and understanding of self-harm following your workshop attendance. You will also be asked to rate your experience of attending the workshop. Finally, you will be asked to give some basic details about yourself like your age, gender, and your role in private dance education. This should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

Should you wish to, you are free to refrain from answering any of the questions in the questionnaires. All questionnaire responses will be kept in either a locked cupboard at the University of Birmingham or on the University’s secure network drives until the analysis is completed and only the research team will have access to them.

Dance teachers and support staff in private dance schools will have the opportunity to take part in a workshop on self-harm. They can provide feedback on the workshop through a short survey to help us understand how to best provide educational resources on self-harm for those in private dance education. For more information or to take part in the workshop, please contact Maria Kolitsida at MXK029@bham.ac.uk 

Confidentiality and ethical approval:

This research will be confidential. No one outside the workshop will know that you have taken part in this research. No one outside the research team will be able to link any of your data back to you. To protect your identity, where direct quotes of what you have mentioned in your responses are included in publications or presentations of the research, these will not contain any information that could identify you or anyone else. Any identifiable information of yourself or those you mention will be removed from the questionnaire responses when these are stored electronically on the University’s secure network drives. All data will be handled in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2018).


Inclusion Criteria: 
Any private dance school staff between the ages of 18-65 who have taken part in the self-harm psychoeducation.

Benefits to the participant:

By sharing your experiences of the workshop with us you will help us better understand the effects of providing psychoeducational workshops on self-harm for dance school staff. This should help inform our understanding of the types of education that dance school staff benefit from the most around self-harm, and mental health more broadly. There is no risk to your taking part in the study, outside those you would experience in everyday life. Nonetheless, there is a risk that you may find answering questions on self-harm, upsetting. If this occurs, you do not need to answer the question. You may also choose to pause or completely stop your participation at any point. Any decision you make will be respected and resources are available at the end of this information sheet if you need additional support.

Contact details for the researcher:

Name: Maria Kolitsida

Email: MXK029@student.bham.ac.uk 

Project summary:

My name is Maria Kolitsida and as part of my PhD project, I am exploring dance students’ understanding and experiences of self-harm, as well as investigating different factors that may relate to self-harm in private school dance students in the United Kingdom.

The University of Birmingham in collaboration with One Dance UK and the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science (NIDMS) are conducting research to support dance teachers in private dance schools to respond to safeguarding concerns around self-harm in their students.

Our research has already highlighted that dance teachers are seeing an increase in the number of students who self-harm and need additional guidance and education for responding to self-harm in private dance education.

Thus, this two-fold research project aims to:

  1. Understand more about self-harm in dance students (i.e., what proportion of students self-harm and how/why they may self-harm).
  2. Investigate the best way of providing education to dance teachers about self-harm by pilot testing an educational workshop on self-harm for private dance schools.

Research Setting:

If you decide to take part in the study, you will be asked to sign a consent form. After consenting to take part, you will be asked to complete a questionnaire. The first section will ask you to provide some basic information about yourself (e.g., gender, age) and some details about your dance participation (e.g., which dance styles you take class in, how long you have been dancing). Then you will be asked to answer some questions regarding your thoughts and experiences of self-harm and disordered eating. You will also be asked to complete questions about how you regulate your emotions, cope with stress or problems and the type of support you receive from your social relationships. The final section of the questionnaire will also ask you about your experiences of perfectionism in dance.

The entire questionnaire should take 20-30 minutes to complete. Should you wish to, you are free to refrain from answering any of the questions in the questionnaire. All questionnaire responses will be kept in either a locked cupboard at the University of Birmingham or on the University’s secure network drives until the analysis is completed and only the research team will have access to them.

Dance students will complete a confidential survey on their thoughts and/or experiences of self-harm, disordered eating and dance education. They do not need to have personal experience of self-harm to take part. Dance students can access and complete the survey here: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/bham/self-harm-in-dance-students 

Confidentiality and ethical approval:

This research will be confidential. No one outside the research team will know that you have taken part in this research and will be able to link any of your data back to you. To protect your identity, where direct quotes of what you have mentioned are included in publications or presentations of the research, these will not contain any information that could identify you or anyone that you have mentioned. Any identifiable information of yourself or those you mention will be removed from the questionnaire responses when these are stored electronically on the University’s secure network drives. All data will be handled in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (2018). This project has been granted ethical approval by the STEM Research Ethics Committee at the University of Birmingham.

Inclusion Criteria: 
Any dance school students between the ages of 16-24 who are currently enrolled in a private dance school in the United Kingdom, regardless of whether or not they have experience of self-harm. A private dance school is a dance school that is not associated with any company, receives no government funding, and students typically pay tuition for the teaching they receive.

Benefits to the participant:

Participants will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win 2x£50, 2x£25, £5x10 gift cards (you will need to provide your email address to be entered into this). By completing this questionnaire, you will also help us better understand self-harm and which factors may put students in private dance schools at risk of self-harm. There is no risk to your taking part in the study, outside those you would experience in everyday life. Nonetheless, there is a risk that you may find answering some of the questions upsetting. If this occurs, you do not need to answer the question. You may also choose to pause or completely stop your participation at any point. Any decision you make will be respected and resources are available at the end of this information sheet if you need additional support.

Contact details for the researcher:

Name: Maria Kolitsida

Email: MXK029@student.bham.ac.uk 

Project summary:

This research is part of a PhD degree at the University of Birmingham and aims to understand what vocational dancers believe about their emotions, how they may try to manage their emotions, and how these beliefs and emotion management techniques relate to their mental health and wellbeing. As a vocational dancer, by sharing your experiences on this research topic, you would be helping us to better understand vocational dance students’ approaches to emotions which we can use to better support vocational dancers in training with managing their emotions and promoting and sustaining good mental health and wellbeing in future work.

Start date of the project: 01/11/2023 End Date of the project: 01/01/2025

Start date of testing: 01/11/2023 End date of testing: 01/01/2025


Research Setting:
You will be invited to complete an online questionnaire pack which will involve you responding to a series of questions which will ask about your beliefs about emotions, strategies you may or may not use to manage your emotions, and indicators of your mental health (including stress, depression, anxiety, and vitality). We will also ask some demographic questions about you (e.g., your age, gender, ethnicity, duration of course, genres you dance in) which helps us to know our sample. This questionnaire pack should take no longer than 20 to 30 minutes to complete and we ask that you take the time to complete the pack in one sitting. Questionnaire link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/DANCER/


Confidentiality and ethical approval:

All data collected in the questionnaire will be kept private and confidential however it will not be anonymous to enable you to withdraw your data up to 2-weeks after taking part. Your data will not be stored with your name but instead will be assigned a unique ID which will be generated by answering some questions at the start of the questionnaire pack. This ID number will help us locate your data should you decide to withdraw. Data will be handled in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and will be securely stored on password protected computers which will only be accessible by the researchers listed at the bottom of this document. In accordance with the University of Birmingham’s data protection guidelines, all identifiable data will be stored securely for a minimum of 10 years after which it will be permanently destroyed. Upon completion of the project, the data collected will be made open access a scientific online database. No identifiable data will be made available, and your unique ID number will be removed from this file so the datafile will be completely anonymous. If you do not want your data to be made publicly accessible, you have the right to not consent to this and your data will be removed from the dataset. This research is also independent to any vocational dance training institution and therefore no institution will be informed of your participation in the research should you choose to take part and we will not ask you which institution you attend at any point. This research has gained ethical approval from the University of Birmingham Ethics Comitttee (ERN_1369-Nov2023).


Inclusion Criteria: 
Anyone of any gender and ethnicity who meets the below inclusion criteria can participate in this study:
• Between the ages of 16 to 25
• Enrolled on a minimum 3-year full-time vocational dance training course in the UK.
• Been a vocational dance student for a minimum of 6-months.
• Be able to read and understand English language.

 

Benefits to the participant:

Participating in this study could benefit you by helping you reflect on how you have managed your emotions previously which could be beneficial to help you select strategies when you have to manage emotions in future. You will also help us to collect data which we can use to develop knowledge that will enable us to support vocational dance students in future with their beliefs about emotions, managing emotions, and mental health and wellbeing. By participating, you will also have the option to enter a prize draw for the chance to win up to £50 in Amazon vouchers. One winner will receive a £50 voucher, two will receive a £20 voucher, and six will receive a £10 voucher. If you withdraw during participation of the questionnaire pack, you will not be eligible to be entered into the prize draw, however if you withdraw your data following completion of the questionnaire pack you will still be entered.

Contact details for the researcher:

Name: Morgan Milne

Mobile: 07800757367

Email: mxm1495@student.bham.ac.uk 

Project summary 

-The Primary aim of this study is to explore the association between the risk of low energy availability and MSK injury prevalence in UK dancers and athletes.

-The Secondary aim is to investigate the association of nutritional intake, eating disorders, and menstrual irregularities with MSK injury prevalence.

-The Tertiary aim is to measure body composition for the dance cohort only. We will investigate the association between body composition and MSK injury prevalence in in UK dancers and athletes.

Confidentiality and ethical approval

Collected data will be stored in the QMUL cloud system SharePoint in a dedicated folder. Only researchers named on this application will have access to it.  Ethical approval reference:  QMREC2018/48/138

Inclusion Criteria 

  • Female and male professional, preprofessional, recreational, vocational dancers.
  • aged 18 and above.

Exclusion Criteria 

  • If they have pre-existing medical condition (Endocrine conditions, chronic pain conditions, autoimmune disorders, neurological conditions),
  • Pregnant, or on medication (Appetite suppressants or weight loss medications, Corticosteroids, Antidepressants, Stimulants: Drugs like amphetamines, Antacids, Thyroid hormones, Opioid pain medications, immunosuppressants).

Benefits to the participant

By exploring the association between the risk of low energy availability and MSK injury prevalence, individual participant will have the opportunity to gain valuable insights into their own health and well-being, specifically in relation to MSK injury risk. Study participants also can influence the development of implementing targeted injury prevention strategies.

Contact details of researcher

Name: Nouf Bin Diran

Email: n.bindiran (at) qmul.ac.uk

Project summary

The project aims to investigate the impact of lower limb symmetry on the prognosis of rugby players and dancers with lower limb musculoskeletal injuries. By studying the correlation between parameters and injury outcomes, the study aims to improve diagnostic accuracy for similar injuries in the future. The findings will guide the design of individualized recovery programs, addressing inequalities from the start to maximize recovery and improve functional outcomes. The project aims to improve injuries management in sports and dance, improving both short-term and long-term recovery outcomes and performance.

Research Setting 

Research can be conducted at your institute/dance school/ training or Mile End Hospital, Sports and Exercise Medicine department, Queen Mary University.

For this study, we would like to conduct a range of strength and biomechanical tests. We will also ask you to complete a set of questionnaires which will relate to your injury, we will ask you to record where you get pain on an app called Navigate Pain and perform a set of biomechanical tests on Force Deck which stores de-identified data on an EU server.

We will conduct these tests when you first attend, 6 weeks later. Each participant’s data collection would take about 20-25 minutes.

The testing will involve some biomechanical jumps, squats and leg strength tests. We ask you to do some movements while standing on force plates. These movements are balancing on one leg, squatting, jumping and jumping off a box. You only need to do the tests you are comfortable doing and can stop at any time.

For more information, please refer to the Participants information sheet and consent forms which is attached with the email.

Confidentiality and ethical approval

We received the ethical approval from our university’ ethical committee. All the data collected at each visit will be de-identified and anonymised. Data will be stored in on a secure database and in password protected laptops.

Queen Mary Ethics of Research Committee reference number: QMREC2018/48/134

Inclusion Criteria 

  • We want dancers of age group 18 to 65 years,
  • Any dancer with or without lower limb musculoskeletal injury who are willing to participate.
  • If dancers aren’t sure about their injury, if they have some pain which they are not clear about, they can reach out to us through given email anytime without working hours i.e., Mon-Friday 9a.m. to 5 p.m.

Exclusion Criteria 

  • A non-dancer less than 18 years or more than 65 years of age and
  • dancers diagnosed with any cardiovascular, rheumatologic, neurological condition or not willing to participate.

Benefits to the participant

If dancers wish to get feedback on their testing, we can give them the test report of their strength and functional tasks results. This might be useful information for you and your clinician (doctor, physiotherapist, etc.) to guide your rehabilitation or training. These tests can be expensive but there will be no cost for them.

Contact details

Following are the name and details of investigators/supervisor in our research project:

Principal Investigator

  • Name: Prof. Dylan Morrissey
  • University: Queen Mary University of London, William Harvey Research Institute
  • Email: d.morrissey (at) qmul.ac.uk

Student investigator

  • Name: Ritika Sony
  • University: Queen Mary University of London, William Harvey Research Institute
  • Email: r.sony (at) smd23.qmul.ac.uk

Student Co-investigators

  • Name: Merve Bodur
  • University: Queen Mary University of London, William Harvey Research Institute
  • Email: m.bodur (at) qmul.ac.uk

 

  • Name: Krushi Pandya
  • School or Institute: Queen Mary’s University of London
  • Email: ha23808 (at) qmul.ac.uk

 

Take part in the study here

Project summary 

This cross-sectional study aims to assess the perspectives and practices of sport scientist and sports-medicine practitioners within the ballet. It focuses on understanding their role in optimizing dancers' performance and minimizing the risk of injuries. Additionally, the study explores how these perspectives and practices align with current evidence-based approaches in sports scientist and medicine.

Objective: 1. To assess the perceptions and practices of sport scientist and sports medicine practitioners towards training load monitoring, their roles and responsibilities within the ballet or ballet-adjacent organization. 2. To survey the specific practices and interventions implemented by sport scientist and sports-medicine practitioners to support ballet dancers in their training and performance.

Research Setting 
Online survey questionnaires, takes 10 mins to fill out. Data will be stored on my university’s OneDrive.

Confidentiality and ethical approval
Written consent will be obtained, it will be an online survey which guarantees me and the participants anonymity. Ethical approval has been granted from the University of Edinburgh and my supervisor Matthew Weston

Inclusion Criteria 
We are seeking individuals fitting the following demographic criteria to participate in our research: individuals engaged in sports or healthcare related to sports and ballet-adjacent fields, possessing a minimum of 1 years of experience in their respective domains. i.e: the participants must be sports scientists or sport-medicine practitioners; such as physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coaches, sport scientist research, manual therapist, exercise physiologist, dancer coaches, gyrotonic instructors.

Exclusion criteria
Individuals who have not consented, professions with less than 1 years of experience within the ballet domain and professions that do not directly interact with the ballet dancers

Benefits to the participant
This study explores the decision-making processes, practices, and perceptions surrounding training load monitoring among sports scientists and sports-medicine practitioners within ballet. Halson et al. expressed that diligent monitoring of athletes’ training load is essential in determining whether they are adapting to their prescribed training program, comprehending individual responses to training, evaluating the presence of fatigue and the associated need for recovery, and mitigating the risk of non-functional overreaching, injury, and illness. However, despite the recent boom in research in this domain, much of what is known about athlete monitoring still comes from personal experiences and anecdotal accounts, often lacking formal publication (Bourdon et al., 2017; Halson, 2014). By conducting this study, we can raise more awareness for ballet as an intensive athletic sport that can develop robust academic literature surrounding training load monitoring and assist and inform coaches/managers' decision-making on dancers' ability for training. Moreover, this study aims to get global perspectives and practices of sports scientists and sports-medicine practitioners within ballet; the outcome of this research can help us know where the future of ballet is heading, as well as practice-based evidence and evidence-based practice.

Contact details

  • Name: Sara Saud Alshawi
  • Email s2598180 (at) ed.ac.uk

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Take part in the study here

Project summary 
I an investigating whether menstruation symptoms and the way adolescent girls feel about themselves, affects how much physical activity they do. This is important because seven in ten adolescent girls in the UK do not enjoy or take part in physical activity, and 85% of girls do not reach the WHO-recommended average of 60 minutes a day of physical activity. Yet, participating in physical activity during the crucial developmental period of adolescence is known to reduce all mortality risks and poor mental health while increasing bone health, academic achievement, brain development, job prospects, life skills, and life chances. My aim is to gain understanding into why adolescent girls reduce physical activity and investigate a feasible solutions to prevent it from happening.

Research Setting 
Online via a computer or smart device.

Confidentiality and ethical approval
All data is anonymous and no IP address data is collected at any point. Full ethical approval has been granted by the School of Psychology Ethics Committee at the University of Buckingham

Inclusion Criteria 
Adolescents who are able to menstruate between 12 & 18 years old. This includes girls, trans boys, and other young people who have periods

Exclusion criteria
Anyone who was not observed female at birth. Anyone who is younger than 12 or older than 18 years old. Anyone who has not started their periods (unless they are taking part during as an activity in a school/dance school environment.

Benefits to the participant
Participants will be able to share their experiences of menstruation, physical activity levels and how they feel. This will bring understanding of how menstruation symptoms and how adolescent girls feel about themselves affects physical activity. From this pioneering research, it is hoped that girls in the future are less likely to stop enjoying being active.

Contact details

  • Name: Lisa Ruggles
  • Email: 2300724@buckingham.ac.uk

Take part in the study here