Dance

A comprehensive guide to conducting empirical research in dance.

Mixed methods research techniques, combining both quantitative and qualitative elements, have become well established throughout the social, behavioural and natural sciences. This title focuses on the application of mixed methods research in the movement sciences, specifically in sport, physical education and dance. Researchers and practitioners in each of these fields are concerned with the study of habitual behaviour in naturalistic contexts, and of the concurrent and sequential nature of events and states, precisely the kind of work that multi-method research design can help illuminate.

Covers the skills of choosing a research topic; refining research questions; conducting literature reviews; citing sources; synthesizing and analyzing data; developing conclusions and results; and the presentation of findings. Contains examples.

Contains dedicated chapters for the research, skills, and methods employed by each theatre area: scripted theatre; devised and new works; applied theatre; scenic, costume, sound, and lighting design; and theatre theory and interdisciplinary studies.

This book aims to address the methodological, interpretive, ethical/procedural challenges and tensions within theatre-based research with a goal of elevating the field's research practice and inquiry. Each chapter embraces various methodologies, positionalities and examples of mediation by inviting two or more leading researchers to interrogated each other's work and, in so doing, highlighted current debates and practices in theatre-based research.

This title covers the first steps in starting to think about performance, through to the diverse and interrelated concerns required of higher-level study.

How have theatre and performance research methods and methodologies engaged the expanding diversity of performing arts practices? How can students best combine performance/theatre research approaches in their projects? This book attempts to answer such questions.

This volume focuses explicitly on three critical, often contentious themes that run through much discussion of PAR as a discipline: Knowledge - the areas and manners in which performance can generate knowledge, Methods - methods and methodologies for approaching performance as research, Impact - a broad understanding of the impact of this form of research.