Next weekend, LAB:SYNC and the Dance Program of the Department of Music and Dance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will host the Dance Science Symposium (DSS) 2022!
The DSS 2022 will be held online via Zoom
1:00pm – 4:30pm ET
Saturday, March 26th, 2022
Click here to register
The Dance Science Symposium is an annual meeting that aims to bring together dancers and dance scientists to discuss critical and emerging research within the field of dance science and medicine. Grounded in the premise that science is not separate from art, the symposium features original research conducted by dancers who are actively contributing to the advancement of knowledge within the field of dance science. The symposium speakers collectively reflect diversity in praxis and theory with respect to their dance training and performance histories, as well as in their respective areas of scientific inquiry.
DSS 2022 Speakers
The Dancing Brain: From Young Experts to Older Amateurs
Agnieszka Burzynska, PhD | Colorado State University
Presentation Time: 1:05pm ET
Dance participation and proficiency involves cognitive, social, and physical activity, all of which require neural processing and control. I will present data from two neuroimaging studies on dance. The first study aimed at identifying brain structural, functional, and cognitive correlates of professional dance training in young adults (Burzynska et al., 2015). The second study aimed at understanding whether 6-month exercise and dance training in older adults may elicit white matter plasticity (Burzynska et al., 2017, Mendez et al., 2021).
Dance on the Brain: Enhancing Mental Health and Interpersonal Synchrony
Julia C. Basso, PhD | Virginia Tech
Presentation Time: 1:50pm ET
Dance evolved as a form of interpersonal coordination, which serves to connect the self to others. We will discuss The Synchronicity Hypothesis of Dance, which posits that we dance for the purpose of intrinsic reward, enhancing behavioral and neural synchrony in the process, leading to improved interpersonal communication.
Dance Self-efficacy in Older Adults
Martha Waugh, MA | Western Sydney University
Presentation Time: 2:35pm ET
For older adults, self-efficacy for dance – dance-related confidence – is likely to influence participation in dance programs. We explore individual factors expected to contribute to dance self-efficacy and discuss how measuring dance efficacy could inform dance program evaluation and design and improve understanding of dance-related health outcome variability.
Panel Discussion
Panelists: Julia C. Basso, PhD; Martha Waugh, MA; and Agnieszka Burzynska, PhD
Discussant: Aston K. McCullough, PhD, MS, MA | UMass Amherst
Panel Discussion Time: 3:30pm ET
A panel discussion on the current state of research in dance science and medicine, with space for musings, insights, and questions as they relate to the next steps and evolutions for research in dance.
The Dance Science Symposium 2022 is an official research event of the National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab (Laboratory for the Scientific Study of Dance -LAB:SYNC) based at UMass Amherst. LAB:SYNC is also proud to announce that the DSS 2022 will also be streamed as part of the 2022 American College Dance Association New England Conference, which is being co-hosted by the Dance Departments of the University of Vermont and Middlebury College.