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The Development of Imagery in Dance Part II: Quantitative Findings from a

Mixed Sample of Dancers

Article  in  Journal of dance medicine & science: official publication of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science · June 2006

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 Original Article

The Development of Imagery in Dance

Part II: Quantitative Findings from a Mixed Sample of
Dancers
Sanna M. Nordin, Ph.D., and Jennifer Cumming, Ph.D.

Abstract might be developed by dancers, A second motivation behind Part II

The present study was undertaken to
investigate the development of imagery
among dancers. To effectively extend
the results presented in Part I, the main
topics emerging from the interviews in
that study were investigated quantita-
tively. Participants were 250 female (n
= 218) and male (n = 27) dancers from
various dance types and ranging from
recreational to professional in standard.
Dancers perceived their images to have
improved both in quantity and qual-
ity across their years in dance, with
qualitative changes including improved
complexity, control, structure, delibera-
tion, and sensory involvement. Several
differences existed between experience
levels. In particular, higher-level danc-
ers reported having been encouraged to
image more frequently and being given
more metaphorical images in classes
more often than lower-level dancers,
both when they first started dancing and
at present. Altogether, the study might
have implications for dance teachers as
well as for dancers and researchers.
despite this skill being prevalent in
dance settings.3-5 As a consequence,
the purpose of the present series of
two studies was to explore the devel-
opment of imagery in dance, and to
investigate the role of dance teachers
in the imagery development process.
Given that qualitative methods are
particularly useful when conducting
exploratory research, it was decided
to first investigate imagery devel-
opment via interviews with expert
performers. 6 The results of these
interviews were reported in Part I. To
further investigate the topic in a man-
ner that was more likely to generalize
across dance populations, a second
study was undertaken, and that study
is reported here in Part II.
This second investigation built on
the findings of Part I by using a quan-
titative methodology to investigate
imagery development with a large,
heterogeneous sample. The ration-
ale behind this study was twofold.
was that it permitted analyses to be
made by experience level, thereby
clarifying whether dancers at lower
levels differed from their higher-level
counterparts with regard to imagery
development. To accomplish these
aims, the main findings from Part I
were put into a questionnaire format
and administered to a separate, bigger
sample of dancers. The sample was
part of a larger investigation measur-
ing dancers’ imagery.
A literature review of the topic is
provided in Part I and therefore will
not be repeated here. However, it is
worth summarizing the main find-
ings of Part I to illustrate to the reader
which results guided the present
investigation. During the interviews,
it became clear that imagery typically
developed naturally for the profes-
sional dancers interviewed, with
few having been instructed about
the imagery process. Accordingly,
there seemed to be a lack of aware-

I
t has been noted that the devel- First, it gave us the opportunity to ness that imagery is a skill that can
opment of psychological skills investigate a more general pattern be taught and developed. Examples
such as imagery has not received of imagery development in dance. did exist, however, of dancers hav-
a great deal of research attention.1,2 By contrast, the study presented in ing been encouraged and instructed
In particular, there is no published Part I aimed to explore and not to to use imagery in various ways, and
research describing how imagery quantify the dancers’ experiences. of positive benefits that had resulted
from such practices. For instance,
dancers sometimes reported using
Sanna M. Nordin, Ph.D., is at the London Sport Institute, Middlesex University, imagery for a wider range of purposes
United Kingdom. Jennifer Cumming, Ph.D., is at the University of Birmingham, after consulting with, and following
Birmingham, United Kingdom.
the encouragement of, a teacher or
Correspondence: Sanna M. Nordin, Ph.D., London Sport Institute, Middlesex University, therapist. Other positive benefits
Archway Campus, 2-10 Highgate Hill, London, N19 5LW, United Kingdom. were described as the result of im-

28

agery having developed across the
dancers’ careers. Reports were given
regarding how imagery structure,
deliberation, sensory involvement,
quality, control, complexity, and fre-
quency all typically increased as the
dancers became more experienced.
As for the role of teachers in imagery
development, large variations existed
between individuals: some dancers
were encouraged to image, while
others were not. On a related note,
dancers reported that teachers often
gave out images in class when they
were younger, but that they more
rarely received images from their
instructors at the present time, as
professional dancers.
Altogether, a range of informative
findings emerged, both deductively
and inductively, from the interviews
reported in Part I. However, qualita-
tive data can not be used to make
generalizations about what is typical
or atypical in dance settings. Nor can
these findings establish whether rela-
tionships between variables are statis-
tically significant, or whether dancers
at different levels differ with regard
to their imagery development. The
aim of the present study, therefore,
was to complement the qualitative
interview findings presented in Part I
by investigating imagery development
via questionnaires.
Method
Participants
Two hundred and fifty dancers were
recruited for the study, 218 of whom
were female and 27 of whom were
male. Five participants did not in-
dicate their gender. They ranged in
age between 16 and 66 years (M =
23.82, SD = 9.16), had begun danc-
ing at 9.74 years of age (SD = 9.13),
and had accumulated 11.92 years of
dance experience (SD = 7.49). The
dancers represented 13 dance types,
including contemporary or modern
(n = 82), ballet (n = 73), ballroom
and Latin American (n = 16), Kathak
(n = 15), flamenco (n = 14), tap (n
= 12), jazz (n = 11), salsa and Afro-
Caribbean (n = 6), Bharatnatyam
(n = 3), Ceroc (n = 2), and street
dance, Irish dance, and Bollywood
Journal of Dance Medicine & Science • Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, 2006
(n = 1 each). Thirteen participants
did not indicate their dance type.
The dancers ranged from recreational
to professional in standard, broadly
representing three experience levels:
leisure (dancers who participated in
dance classes in their leisure time; n
= 69), intermediate (dancers in full-
time dance training; n = 122), and
elite (pre-professional and profes-
sional dancers; n = 29). The descrip-
tions of these levels were written with
the help of several dance professionals
and pilot tested before they were used
in the study.
Materials
Dance Imagery Development
Questionnaire
A short questionnaire consisting of
14 questions was designed for the
purposes of Part II based on the main
results emerging from Part I. All ques-
tions are provided in Table 1. One
item gave participants the option of
checking several boxes, while 13 items
were scored on 7-point Likert scales.
The top and bottom verbal anchors
of these scales for each item are also
provided in Table 1. Many other
descriptive imagery studies have used
a similar methodology to produce a
range of useful findings.4,7-12
Procedure
First, ethical approval for Part II was
obtained from the relevant ethics re-
view board. Study participants were
then recruited from recreational dance
classes, residential dance schools, and
professional contacts. Questionnaire
completion took place in association
with classes; participants were first
issued an information letter and gave
informed consent, and thereafter
completed the questionnaire.
Results
As is typical for dance settings, a much
higher proportion of females than
males were recruited for the present
study, making it difficult to compare
imagery development by gender. How-
ever, sport imagery research indicates
that men and women rarely differ in
their imagery.13 Moreover, because of
the large number of dance types repre-
29
sented and the very small sample sizes
yielded for some types, comparisons
were not made by dance type. Instead,
we focused our attention on compar-
ing the imagery development of danc-
ers at different experience levels. This
was deemed most important because
sport imagery research has indicated
that both qualitative and quantitative
differences exist between performers
at different experience levels.13 Pre-
liminary findings in dance provide a
similar view.8,14
For the 13 items rated on a Likert
scale, the verbal anchor that was clos-
est to the average rating is presented in
the text. For example, the mean rating
for the question of whether imagery
had been taught or had come naturally
was 3.32, which is closest to 3. Thus,
in the text we say that the dancers felt
that imagery was more natural than
taught, as this was the verbal anchor
for 3. Because the participants circled
verbal anchors for each questionnaire
item, this presentation approach
may give the reader a better feel for
the dancers’ opinions, as opposed to
simply providing a number. The exact
means and standard deviations for
each question, however, are presented
in Table 1.
Early Experiences
Imagery Acquisition
It was found that the ability to use
dance imagery was more natural
than taught. When asked who
taught them about imagery, 82.8%
of the participants reported that
their teacher had done so, 32.4%
said that they had learned from
other dancers, 17.2% from other
friends, 11.2% from parents, and
12.8% reported having learned
about imagery from some other
source. The majority of these (n =
12, 37.5%) indicated that they had
taught themselves. Further examples
included other instructors (2 sports
coaches, 1 sports psychologist, 1
psychology teacher, 1 physiotherapy
teacher, 1 other teacher), books or
films (n = 3), other artists (n = 2),
and siblings (n = 2). We also asked
how effectively their teachers had
taught them to use imagery and
30 Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, 2006 • Journal of Dance Medicine & Science

found that the dancers perceived
this to have been done fairly effec-
tively. When asked how structured
this dance imagery instruction had
been, the mean rating was halfway
between very unstructured and very
structured.
Experience Level Differences in
Imagery Acquisition
To investigate how the acquisition
of imagery might differ between
dancers at the different levels, a one-
way between-groups ANOVA was
performed. Results indicated that no
difference existed between dancers
at different experience levels in the
degree to which their ability to use
imagery had emerged naturally or
through teaching, F(2, 230) = .52,
p > .05.
Teachers
Imagery Encouragement
Descriptive results (Table 1) revealed
that the dancers felt they had some-
times been encouraged to use imagery
on their own when they first began
dancing, and were still sometimes
encouraged to do so. However, a
paired sample t-test indicated that the
dancers felt slightly more encouraged
to use imagery at present than they did
when they first started dancing, t(239)
= -6.44, p < .01, η2 = .15.
Images Given by Teachers
When the participants first started
dancing, teachers had sometimes
given out images, such as metaphors,
in class. However, they felt that this
was the case fairly often nowadays.
Another paired sample t-test indi-
cated that this increase was significant,
t(237) = -4.68, p < .01, η2 = .08.
Differences Between Imagery
Encouragement and Images Given
A further two paired sample t-tests
compared whether encouragement to
use imagery as a form of mental prac-

Table 1 The Dance Imagery Development Questionnaire: Questions, Likert Scale Anchors, Means, and Standard
Deviations
Bottom Top
Question anchor (1) anchor (7) M SD
1. Did your ability to use dance imagery come naturally to you, Completely Completely 3.32 1.42
or was it something you were taught? natural taught
2. Who taught you how to use dance imagery? (Check all that apply)
Dance teachers / Other dancers / Friends / Parents / Others: ___________________
Considering your dance teachers only:
3. How effectively were you taught to use dance imagery? Very Very 4.73 1.65
(the instructions received were useful and informative) ineffectively effectively
4. How structured was the dance imagery instruction? Very Very 4.18 1.64
(mentioned in passing, or organized teaching sessions) unstructured structured
When you first started dancing:
5. How often did your teachers encourage you to use imagery Never Very 3.66 1.78
on your own? (for example, say, “practice in your head”) often
6. How often did your teachers give out images in class? Never Very 4.36 1.90
(for example, metaphors) often
At present:
7. How often do your teachers encourage you to use imagery Never Very 4.37 1.82
on your own? (for example, say, “practice in your head”) often
8. How often do your teachers give out images in class? Never Very 4.90 1.75
(for example, metaphors) often
Compared to when you first started dancing, please indicate whether you have changed:
9. The number of senses that you include in your imagery? A lot fewer A lot more 5.28 1.26
(for example, feeling, seeing, hearing) senses senses
10. The clarity of your images? Much poorer Much better 5.50 1.10
clarity clarity
11. The structure of your imagery? Much more Much more 5.36 1.08
unstructured, structured,
spontaneous deliberate
12. The amount of imagery you use? Decreased Increased 5.53 1.17
a lot a lot
13. Your ability to use imagery? Worsened Improved 5.54 1.06
(for example, the ease with which you form images) a lot a lot
14. The control you have over your imagery? Much poorer Much better 5.32 1.02
(for example, the ability to manipulate or change an image) control control

Figure 1 Differences in teacher behaviors for dancers at different
experience levels.
tice or the provision of metaphorical-
type images was more common. It was
found that teachers more often gave
out images in classes than encouraged
their dancers to mentally practice via
imagery, both when they first started
dancing, t(241) = -7.20, p < .01, η2 =
.18, and at the present time, t(236) =
-5.73, p < .01, η2 = .12.
Experience Level Differences in
Teacher Behaviors
In accordance with our aim to ex-
amine whether dancers at different
experience levels differed in how
their teachers had provided and
encouraged imagery, a MANOVA
was conducted. Experience level
served as the independent variable,
and teachers’ behaviors (items 3-8
in Table 1) served as the dependent
variables. The results of this analysis
are presented in Figure 1. A signifi-
cant multivariate effect was found,
Pillai’s Trace = .32, F(12, 426) =
6.85, p < .01, η2 = .16, and tests
of between-participant effects were
significant at the p < .01 level for
all teacher behaviors except for how
effectively imagery had been taught.
Tukey post-hoc tests clarified that the
intermediate dancers perceived that
their imagery instructions had been
more structured than did leisure or
elite dancers. Elite and intermediate
dancers felt more encouraged to use
imagery both when they first started
dancing and at present than did the
leisure dancers. The same was true
Journal of Dance Medicine & Science • Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, 2006
Figure 2 Differences in imagery changes for dancers at different
experience levels.
for the frequency with which images
were currently given in classes. With
regard to how frequently teachers
gave images in classes when the danc-
ers first started dancing, elite dancers
reported the highest score.
Imagery Changes
Improvements in Imagery
Participants generally indicated that
they had gained a little better con-
trol over their imagery compared
to when they first started dancing
(Table 1). They also believed that
they had gained better clarity across
their years in dance, and perceived
their ability to form images to have
improved. Participants indicated that
their imagery had become a little
more structured and deliberate and
that they now involved some more
senses compared to when they first
started dancing. Similarly, they had
increased the amount of imagery they
used since beginning in dance.
Experience Level Differences in
Imagery Improvements
We also investigated whether dancers
at different experience levels varied in
the amount they had increased the
quality and amount of imagery in
which they engaged. This analysis was
inspired by Cumming and Hall, who
established that athletes at higher lev-
els not only engaged in more imagery
than lower-level performers, but
that this was due to greater increases
during their careers. 15 Moreover,
31
no studies have examined whether
higher-level performers have also
improved their imagery quality more
than their lower-level counterparts.
Because changes in imagery could
also depend on the number of years
spent in one’s chosen activity (for
example, if one has only danced for
one year, there is likely to have been
less change than if one has danced
for 30 years), it was important to
consider whether years spent in
dance should be controlled for in the
analysis. When separate correlations
for each experience level were calcu-
lated between total number of years
in dance and changes in quality and
amount of imagery used (items 9-14
in Table 1), however, no significant
correlations were found. This result
indicates that changes in imagery are
not related to the number of years
spent in dance.
Consequently, a MANOVA was
conducted with experience level as
the independent variable, and chang-
es in quality and amount of imagery
used as the dependent variables. The
results of this analysis are presented
in Figure 2. A significant multivari-
ate effect was found for experience
level, Pillai’s Trace = .22, F(12, 452)
= 4.73, p < .01, η2 = .11, and tests
of between-participant effects were
significant at the p < .01 level for all
six imagery changes. Tukey post-hoc
tests clarified that the intermediate
and elite dancers did not differ from
each other, but that both of these
32 Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, 2006 • Journal of Dance Medicine & Science
groups had increased the number of
senses included in their imagery; the
clarity, structure, and control over
these images; the amount of imagery
used; and their ability to image more
than the leisure dancers.
Relationships Between
Encouragement and Imagery
Improvements
To investigate whether any of the
improvements in imagery could be
related to the encouragement to im-
age that the participants had received
when they started dancing, a series of
correlations were calculated. Small
but significant and positive rela-
tionships (r = .14 - .23) were found
between encouragement received
and improvements in structure and
senses used (p < .05) as well as clar-
ity, ability, and control (p < .01). No
relationship was found between en-
couragement received and increases
in the amount of imagery used (p
> .05). Thus, the more dancers had
been encouraged to image when they
first started dancing, the more they
had improved their imagery quality,
but not their imagery quantity. How-
ever, imagery quality and imagery
quantity improvements were also
significantly correlated (r = .51 - .72;
all p < .01).
Discussion
The present study investigated imag-
ery development by administering a
questionnaire to 250 dancers. Similar
to the findings reported in Part I,
it was found that the ability to use
dance imagery had emerged more
naturally than through teaching, and
that no differences existed between
dancers at different levels in this re-
gard. It was therefore something of a
surprise to find that the vast majority
of Part II participants (82.8%) felt
that they had learned something
about imagery from their teachers,
and that 73.6% had done so from
one or several other sources. We did
not investigate the extent or formality
of this teaching, but it is likely that
it was rarely formal in nature, given
that not even the professionals in-
terviewed for Part I had participated
in any organized imagery training.
Still, it is encouraging that the Part
II dancers felt their teachers had
been fairly effective in their imagery
teaching.
Similar to the results of Overby
and colleagues,10 the general opinion
of dancers in the present investiga-
tion was that their teachers’ im-
agery instructions had been neither
unstructured nor structured. A
related finding was that the dancers
increased their imagery structure and
deliberation as they became more
experienced, which is consistent
with experiences of the professional
dancers described in Part I, as well
as evidence that elite athletes have
more structured and regular imagery
sessions than do novices.7,9 Interest-
ingly, our full-time dance students
perceived their imagery instructions
to have been more structured than
dancers at either lower or higher lev-
els. It is possible that this is because
the dance students whom we sur-
veyed were either in residential ballet
schools or undertaking university
dance degrees, and perhaps one or
more of these institutions were more
structured in their imagery teaching.
Because it has been claimed that im-
agery sessions need to be structured
to be effective,16 increased structure
in imagery teaching should probably
be promoted in dance. It has previ-
ously been shown that an imagery
training program can help increase
both the frequency and the structure
of imagery practice.11,17,18
In addition to improvements in
structure, our dancers experienced
more multi-sensory or kinesthetic
images as well as greater image qual-
ity, complexity and control as they
became more experienced. These
findings again mirror results from
Part I as well as previous findings in
sport.7,19,20 The dancers also reported
increasing their amount of imagery
as they progressed, which resembles
previous findings in both dance8,14
and sport. 7,9,12,15 However, while
these previous studies have found
experience-related differences in
imagery, this is generally assumed
to reflect greater increases for the
higher-level performers and not to
a stable imagery ability difference.
Only one sports study has previously
verified that this is indeed the case.15
Thus, our study was the first to find
that imagery differences between
higher- and lower-level dancers are
due to greater increases on behalf of
the better dancers.
Differences in how imagery had
changed were related to level but not
to years spent in dance, suggesting
that aspiring elite dancers can make
the deliberate choice to improve their
imagery. Such deliberate, systematic
imagery can bring a multitude of
benefits, including improved per-
formance, motivation, and self-con-
fidence.2,13 Accordingly, Abbott and
Collins make convincing arguments
for psychological skills training with
young performers, even claiming
that such skills are crucial to move
to higher developmental stages.21 All
in all, there is good reason to believe
that instruction and encouragement
of imagery is useful in dance teach-
ing. Teachers should also highlight
that imagery is a skill that can be
taught and improved. As indicated
in Part I, dancers may not develop
such awareness until later in their
careers, which clearly would hamper
their ability to make decisions regard-
ing whether to engage in deliberate
imagery practice or not.
In Part I, some participants had
been encouraged to use imagery and
some had not, making it interesting
to investigate what the typical pattern
might be in dance settings. In the
present study, it was established that
the participants felt encouraged to
use imagery some of the time and that
such encouragement had increased
across the dancers’ years of participa-
tion. Moreover, higher-level dancers
felt more encouraged to use imagery
than lower-level dancers, both when
they first started dancing and at pres-
ent. Encouragement received when
first starting was positively related
to qualitative changes, but not to
changes in quantity, suggesting that
while teachers seem to do a good job
in encouraging quality imagery, they
could further encourage their dancers

to image more frequently. Perhaps
this is particularly the case for danc-
ers at pre-professional levels, because
findings from Part I indicated that
professional dancers felt there was
no longer any need for teachers and
choreographers to tell them what
to do, such as imagery practice. It
should be noted, however, that the
relationships between imagery en-
couragement and imagery changes
were small. Further investigation is
required to examine whether other
factors might more strongly con-
tribute to imagery changes across a
dancer’s years of participation.
Similar to encouragement received,
dancers at higher levels were given
more images in classes, both when
they first started dancing and at
present. The elite dancers were par-
ticularly likely to be given images by
their teachers when they first began.
By contrast, Overby has reported
a more even distribution of images
given to beginner, intermediate and
advanced dancers.4 Interestingly, the
dancers in Part I disagreed with both
of these patterns of results: while
most of them were frequently given
images when they were young, several
also reported that this practice had
declined across their career. Clearly
then, large individual differences exist
in this regard. However, Parts I and II
consistently indicate that elite dancers
frequently receive images when they
start out in dance. Although specula-
tive, this difference might to some
extent help explain how the higher-
level dancers became better.21 This is
possible because metaphorical images
can enhance performance,22-24 and
our participants indicated that such
images were also used to enhance un-
derstanding, interest, and movement
quality when they were younger. Thus,
an increased amount of metaphorical
imagery could bring several benefits.
Further, dancers in Part I described
a preference for teachers who gave
plenty of metaphorical images. Given
these results, we encourage dance
teachers to give out metaphorical
images as frequently as possible. Nev-
ertheless, the designs of the present
two studies do not allow conclusions
Journal of Dance Medicine & Science • Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, 2006
to be drawn regarding cause and ef-
fect relationships. Indeed, alternative
explanations for the findings might
be that more successful dancers were
better able to remember the images
given to them by teachers, or better
able to use them. Further research
into these intriguing possibilities is
encouraged.
Some limitations to our study
should be noted. First, we recognize
that a study-specific questionnaire
with unknown psychometric quali-
ties was employed. Although this is
commonplace for imagery studies,4,7-
12
the validity and reliability of these
findings, including our own, should
be interpreted with some caution.
However, our questionnaire was cre-
ated based on previous literature as
well as the qualitative responses of Part
I, and it can therefore be argued that
it possesses adequate content validity.
Another potential shortcoming of
both Part I and Part II concerns the
use of retrospective recall for access-
ing information about the dancers’
imagery. Although performers can
accurately recall their imagery over a
short interval (1 week), their ability
to accurately report imagery experi-
ences from several years ago is as yet
unknown.25 Still, retrospective recall is
probably one of the most viable op-
tions for researching imagery develop-
ment, because it occurs covertly and
is unobservable to others. Moreover,
there is no reason to believe that danc-
ers at different levels would recall their
imagery differently from one another,
and we therefore believe our findings
to be at least relatively precise. Overall,
the main strength of our investiga-
tion lies in the fact that few studies
have examined imagery development
in depth,1,2 and none have done so
with dancers. The use of quantita-
tive methods as a complement to the
qualitative research presented in Part I
allowed us to not only explore imagery
development in depth, but also in a
way that makes our findings possible
to generalize across dancers of a broad
range of ages and dance types.
In conclusion, the present study
has further examined dancers’ imagery
development and the role that their
33
teachers have played in this process.
Together, our two studies represent
the first steps toward guidelines for
how imagery is best developed in
dance settings. Still, our studies are
only initial attempts, and future re-
search into how to best develop danc-
ers’ imagery skills would be welcome.
What has become clear through the
present investigation is that imagery
is a complex psychological skill that
often develops naturally, but that
this process can be impacted not just
by individuals themselves but also by
others, such as dance teachers. Thus,
we encourage teachers to learn about
imagery and to use it creatively, so that
they can help their dancers optimize
the benefits that stand to be obtained
from using this valuable psychological
skill effectively.
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