How to Find Dance Research

I wrote a post on How to Find Research back in 2011, but I want to update it to How to Find Dance Research. The beginning is a repost of the previous blog post.

When I am looking for information for my research or anything scientific in nature I always go to PubMed first. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Google Scholar by now, but the problem with Google Scholar is that you need to give it VERY specific words to search for what you are looking for or you will get thousands of hits to irrelevant stuff. One last thing about Google Scholar, it is good if you are looking for something from a non-traditional source. 

PubMed looks at the good scientific journals that have the information you really need. I know some of my professors have snubbed PubMed for Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, Jurn, and SportsDiscus, etc, but anyone can access PubMed and sometimes you can get free articles. (Another reason I like PubMed is that they list the articles chronologically.) With other databases you have to have a login access, which means you have to be student, staff, or faculty. The only database I use with login access is Web of Science/Knowledge. I like it because you can look at a specific article's references and they link to other articles that have referenced that article you are looking at. Plus with PubMed and Web of Knowledge/Science you can click on any of the authors of an article and see what else they have written.

There are databases specifically for dance/performing arts; Dance Education Literature and Research descriptive index (DELRdi), International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text (IBTD), and International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA). I have mainly used IBTD, but it has the same information as PubMed, so I don't go to it often. 

There are journals specifically for dance/performing arts. Some are more scientific or medical (quantitative) in nature and some are educational or more qualitative.

American Journal of Dance Therapy

Dance Research Journal

Dance Research: the Journal of the Society for Dance Research

Journal of Dance Education

I have used the educational journals on occasion, but I mostly use medical journals and I have been published in MPPA.

Medical Problems of Performing Artists (MPPA)

Journal of Dance Medicine & Science (JDMS)

I rarely use these journals mostly because they rarely publish anything about dance and when they have it is usually out of date. 

ICHPER-SD Journal of Research in Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport & Dance

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (JOPERD)

There are other non-dance journals, more medical or educational, that publish articles about dance/performing arts, but you can usually find them in PubMed or other databases. 

The International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) also has published the Bulletin for Dancers and Teachers and Resource Papers about different, but important topics. Here is a list of IADMS Resource Paper topics:

·         Bone Health and Female Dancers:  Physical and Nutritional Guidelines

·         Dance Fitness

·         The Challenge of the Adolescent Dancer

·         First Aid for Dancers

·         Mirrors in the Dance Class: Help or Hindrance?

·         Motor Learning and Teaching Dance

·         Nutrition Fact Sheet:  Fueling the Dancer

·         Proprioception

·         Screening in a Dance Wellness Program

·         Somatic Studies and Dance

·         Stretching for Dancers

·         Standard Measures Consensus Initiative (SMCI) Executive Summary

·         Recommendations and Implementation Strategies for the Assessment and Reporting of Dancer Capacities, Risk Factors, and Injuries: Steps toward Consensus

·         Turnout for Dancers: Hip Anatomy and Factors Affecting Turnout

·         Turnout for Dancers: Supplemental Training

·         When Can I Start Pointe Work?  Guidelines for Initiating Pointe Training

One last thing to remember about research if you want to publish; how to reference. Most medical and scientific journals use similar reference styles, but some are picky and have their own way. If you are trying to publish make sure you look up what that journal wants. Within the article there are two ways to reference either Marshall¹ or Marshall (2012). In the references section this is usually how to write the references: Title, Author(s), Journal Name, Volume, (Issue in parentheses), Page Number(s), and year. For example:

·         The effect of whole-body vibration on jump height and active range of movement in female dancers. Marshall, LC and Wyon, MA. J Strength Cond Res 26(3): 789–793, 2012

·         Marshall, LC and Wyon, MA. The effect of whole-body vibration on jump height and active range of movement in female dancers. J Strength Cond Res 26(3): 789–793, 2012

·         Marshall, LC and Wyon, MA. The effect of whole-body vibration on jump height and active range of movement in female dancers. J Strength Cond Res 2012:26(3): 789–793.

·         The effect of whole-body vibration on jump height and active range of movement in female dancers. Marshall, LC and Wyon, MA. J Strength Cond Res 2012:26(3): 789–793.

And to reference books or book chapters:

Book

Author Name, I. Title of book. Edition. Location: Publisher. Year.

Strunk W, White EB. The elements of style. 3rd ed. New York: Macmillan, 1979

Book Chapter

Author Name, I. Title of chapter In: Editors (Ed.), Title of book Publisher City, State: Publisher. Year: page numbers.

Gurman AS, Kniskern DP. Family therapy outcome research: knowns and unknowns. In: Gurman AS, Kniskern DP, editors. Handbook of family therapy. New York: Brunner/Maazel, 1981:742-75.

What if…war vs. voting?

In light of the EU Referendum vote in the United Kingdom, it made me think; what if the American Revolutionary War was a vote and not a war? What would have been the results?

In England only white male adult property owners were allowed to vote, I can only assume what the white male adult property owners would have been the voters in each colony. According to historian Robert Calhoon, 40–45% of the white population in the Thirteen Colonies supported the Patriots' cause (supported independence), 15–20% supported the Loyalists (supported the British), and the remainder were neutral or kept a low profile. So the question is how would the remainder (35-45%) vote, especially since this was a large portion of the colonies populations?

Historian Leonard Woods Labaree found Loyalists were more likely to be conservative, older, and more established. Loyalists tended to have longstanding social and economic connections to British merchants and government, as did men involved with the fur trade along the northern frontier. There were rich and poor Loyalists, many in New England. The revolution divided families, the most well known example was when William Franklin, son of Benjamin Franklin and Governor of New Jersey, remained loyal to the King throughout the war. Recent immigrants who had not been fully Americanized were also inclined to support the King. I found out recently that I had some German ancestors settle in South Carolina that supported the British and when the war ended they moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.

Patriots viewed independence as a means to gain freedom from British oppression and taxation. Mark Lender discussed how ordinary folks became insurgents because they held a strong opinion that the British were violating their rights, local autonomy, fair dealings, government by consent, and were highly sensitive to tyranny after the British response to the Boston Tea Party. The Patriots were also mix of rich and poor, with the richer and better educated more likely to become officers in the Army. Many of the Patriots tended to be yeomen farmers, craftsmen, and small merchants in the frontier areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and down the Appalachian Mountains. The Patriots also included many prominent men of the planter class from Virginia and South Carolina. Newspapers were the Patriots strongholds and printed many pamphlets, announcements, patriotic letters, and pronouncements.

Since Massachusetts was a leader in the resistance (i.e. remember the first shots were at Lexington and Concord), even with some Loyalists within the colony, I would assume those Patriot colonists would vote to Leave. It would be hard to figure out as a whole state what the majority vote to Leave or Remain would have been. For example, the frontiers of New York would have voted to Leave, but the colonists of New York City (or old New Amsterdam) would have voted to Remain, so which side would have had the most votes? 

Voting was the real problem, “No taxation without representation”. The Colonists didn’t have a way to vote, there was no precedent in allowing everyday men and especially women or non-whites to vote. Once Independence occurred most states only allowed white male adult property owners to vote, with freed slaves in four states, women property owners in New Jersey, and non-white property owners in several northern states.

Before 1776 when a people rebelled against its’ oppressors they went to war. When George Washington left office other countries thought there would be violence when the transfer of power to John Adams occurred. When did diplomacy or peace work before Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience influenced Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr?

References

1.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Woods_Labaree

2.   http://www.amazon.com/Robert-M.-Calhoon/e/B001H6OT3A 

3.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-4/why-the-loyalists-lost

Raising Money for the Next IVF

After our last failed IVF cycle, our fertility dr suggested our next step would be egg donation or embryo adoption. Dave and I are leaning toward embryo adoption because it costs less. So I started to raise money. I sold my bar stools, which was one of my first purchases when I moved into my first apartment all by myself in Texas. 

  I have already also my sold bed frame which I bought as a graduation present to myself when I finished my Master's degree. 

Now I am trying to sell a bunch of my dvds.

Next I will try to sell some of my books.

Salt Flats

Dave had Monday off so we decided to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Dave is a huge fan of the British tv show Top Gear and they have filmed there before.

The sun and the reflection of the salt made it sooooo bright that it took a while for our eyes to adjust.

I like when we take these short road trips because it gives Dave and I the time to really talk which is really essential since we have infertility. Plus, I keep telling Dave we need a YouTube channel to record all the goofy stuff he says which can be really hilarious on a road trip. If you want a sample of Dave's goofy sayings you should follow us on Twitter.

Riding Family Tree

I made this family tree a while ago, but Dave and I have only been adding embryos instead of children. I still think it's cute. I can only hope and imagine that our embryos would have been friends with their cousins like I am.