Dance and Sport

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to survey a dance oriented ocupational interest group as to: nature of involvement, father and mother occupational status of dance oriented persons, perceived motivation why people dance, and beliefs concerning differences between dance and sport.

A questionnaire was distributed to 220 members of the Modern Dance Council of Washington, D. C. which is composed of dancers, dance teachers, choreographers, artists in related fields, or persons interested in helping to expand the role of dance. The hypothesis was that dance and sport differ and that the motivation for dancing differs from the motivation for participating in sports. The method of in vestigation was to collect descriptive information by use of a questionnaire.

A limitation of the study is that it investigates one dance subculture. Since research tends to support the view that persons in certain sports, such as fencers, have different characteristics from football players: it is probable that ''modern'' dancers belong to a specific and, in some ways, unique dance sub-culture.

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