Paint splodge

Go Dance Project

Phase 1: January - April 2011

Four dance artists from Essex, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire undertook Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training to consider the issues of physiological health and psychological wellbeing within the planning of a 10 week scheme of work. Three of the artists that undertook the CPD training took their work into schools (in Essex, Norfolk and Hertfordshire).

Creative dance sessions in schools

The artists devised sessions which were creative in nature, but focused on addressing the physiological fitness components of flexibility, aerobic endurance and muscular explosive power. The artists also considered their modes of delivery to support notions of self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation amongst their students and discussed the development of attitudes to dance and intentions to exercise in developing a coherently developed series of workshops.

In order to ascertain the effects of the creative sessions, testing took place in January 2011, prior to the start of the sessions in school time.  Post testing took place 10 weeks later in April 2011.  Control groups were in place at each school, who continued their normal levels of physical activity in school at in their own time.  Measures for determining behaviour change amongst participants were grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour and influenced by the Transtheoretical Model Stages of Change concept. 

As well as quantitative data collection, students kept notebooks throughout the sessions and artists and school teachers observed children's behaviour both in the dance sessions and in normal school lessons. The Primary Researcher held focus group interviews with children from control and experimental groups from each school, to discuss attitudes to dance in more detail.

Data has now been collated and analysed, with a view to producing reports for each school identifying the trends and significance appropriate to their context.  A more detailed report has been written and is due to be available from the end of September 2011 for partner organisations.  Initial findings from the project were presented at the University of Bedfordshire conference From motivation to movement: Towards an empirical understanding of the role of dance in health in June 2011.  Titles of papers presented are listed below for information.

Phase 2: May - July 2011

Performance piece for Energize! festival, Brightlingsea

The second phase of the project focused on working with puplis from the same schools on creating a performance piece.

Professional choreographers worked with the school children between May and July, and created a piece which was performed at the Energize!  festival, in Brightlingsea, on Saturday 2 July 2011.

A detailed report of all the findings from the Go Dance project will be available from the end of September 2011 for partner organisations.   

  • Bradley, E. & Spampinato, A. (2011). Understanding physical activity behaviour change in children and adolescents via the Transtheoretical Model and the Theory of Planned Behaviour: A literature review.
  • Bradley, E., Chater, A. & Kozub, S. (2011). Exploring predictors of dance behaviour change amongst Year 6 children.
  • Hunt, S., Angove, H., Lewis, S., Ryan, K. & Bradley, E. (2011). Methodological approaches to dance as a healthful activity for children and young people: A movement session.