(Re)centering the Body: Agitating Dance Science Research Methodologies

Abstract

Background: As dance medicine and science research paradigms expand, researchers are adopting interdisciplinary approaches which widen the research questions that are asked, how such research might be done, and the relevance that findings have for those working and participating in dance. There is growing momentum for critical discourse on the philosophical foundations of dance science, particularly in reflecting the embodied nature of dance practice in research methodologies. Purpose: In this paper, discussions on methodological rigour from dance for health research are extended to the broader field of dance science. By (re)centring research participants’ bodies as sites of knowledge production in dance science research, prevailing notions of knowledge creation, ownership and applicability in dance science are challenged. Drawing on an interpretivist, feminist, ethnographic study of periodisation in tertiary vocational dance education, the largely positivist construction of knowledge about periodisation, and more broadly dance science, is disrupted. Conclusions: The discussion in this paper exemplifies how dance science research can embrace socially constructed, subjectivist research approaches whilst maintaining philosophical and methodological rigour. Tensions between positivist and non-positivist research paradigms are highlighted, using examples from periodisation research. Drawing on reflexive examples of researcher decision-making, this paper contributes to the paradigmatic critiques evident in recent dance science literature. The aim is to aid researchers’ practical thinking in critically examining their assumptions and design choices when developing research projects. The paper advocates for coherent methodologies in qualitative dance science research which derive from thoroughly considered philosophical underpinnings.