Blurring Sport Boundaries in Postsecondary: Examining Experiences of Dancers as Student-athletes

ABSTRACT

Our research examined the student-athlete experience for university dancers transitioning from studio-based competitive dancing to the competitive university context. This experience was explored in a photovoice project with 12 dancers on a competitive university team in Southern Ontario. Collectively, the researchers and dancers established three themes to explore: (1) university athletics; (2) culture and identity changes; (3) motives to continue dancing. Throughout the competitive season, dancers selected pictures to reflect on the themes and provided an accompanying narrative for each photograph. Overall, dancers’ responses identified distinct similarities and differences, benefits and challenges, and shifts in culture when transitioning from a competitive studio context to a competitive university context. Additionally, dancers described the profound impact of dance on their identities and how this impact shifted as a student-athlete in university. Finally, dancers expressed their appreciation and frustrations with how they perceived dance as being valued and resourced in postsecondary institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Competitive dance
• student-athlete
• postsecondary dance contexts
• identity
• U Sports

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The term “postsecondary” was used rather than “postsecondary education” to distinguish between dance teams in postsecondary contexts and postsecondary education dance programs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [430-2017-01223].