Trinity Laban Receives Leverhulme Trust Award
for the First Music and Dance Collaborative Screening and Profiling Project
Trinity
Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance has received a £54,109 grant from the Leverhulme Trust for a groundbreaking study
entitled Music & Dance Science:
Optimizing Performance Potential via an interdisciplinary music and dance
screening and profiling programme.
Research
has found that injuries among performing artists are more frequent compared to
other professions that use the human body, such as sport. A recent survey of dancers in the UK found that
80% of the dance population incurred an injury inhibiting performance within a
12 month time-span. Musicians’ playing-related injury rates can
be as high as 70% of a population. However, there have been comparatively few longitudinal
studies investigating the causes of performance related injuries in dance, and fewer
still in music.
The project aims to find ways of optimizing music and
dance performance through an advanced screening and profiling programme, assessing
biomechanical, physiological, and psychological aspects of approximately 180 vocational
music and dance students during their training at Trinity Laban over a two year
period. The results will be used to
assess the effects of particular training regimes, to develop better education
and training techniques, and to thereby contribute to the health of professional
dancers and musicians.
Learning and
teaching methods in dance and music have typically evolved from tradition and
personal experience rather than scientific principles, and within music
training, health provision is more treatment-focused than preventative. Laban was one of the first dance training
institutions to pilot comprehensive screening within its undergraduate
programme and is now perceived as a leader in this field. The recently merged Trinity Laban, which
incorporates Laban and Trinity College of Music, is in the ideal position to further
develop the dance science model and adapt it for the benefit of musicians
also.
Principal Investigator Emma Redding says: “This
research is truly ground-breaking. It is
the first time vocational music and dance training will
be studied in this way from a scientific perspective within a longitudinal study. It’s the first interdisciplinary project to
investigate the physiological, biomechanical, and psychological aspects of
training and performance - their interrelationships and potential links to improvements
in vocational training and optimisation of performance of the ‘whole’ musician
and ‘whole’ dancer. It’s also the first
time an organization has been in the position to collaborate with music and dance with a vocational student
population of exceptional calibre, thus enabling interdisciplinary
investigation of music and dance talent development at the elite level.”
Derek
Aviss, Joint Principal of Trinity Laban and Principal of Trinity College of
Music comments: “Even less attention has been given to the causes of
performance related injuries in music than in dance. This may in part be
because musicians’ injuries can be very specific, seem small-scale to the
non-musician and are sometimes open to mis-diagnosis and vary considerably with
instrument. Research also suggests that
both professional and student musicians are reluctant to disclose injury
in case it is perceived as a sign of weakness.
Added to this, such is the competitive nature of the music and dance
profession that musicians and dancers will often try to conceal injury, or
continue playing or dancing in spite of it, thereby exacerbating the situation. Thanks to the generosity of The Leverhulme
Trust we are in the position to help address these issues and contribute to the
development of health-aware training which will benefit dancers and musicians
both physically and psychologically.”
Anthony Bowne, Joint Principal of Trinity Laban
and Director of Laban says: “The time has come to surmount traditional academic
boundaries in music and dance training. Trinity
Laban’s mission is to promote internationally the highest quality of
professionalism through the provision of specialist education reflecting the
increasingly collaborative world of artistic practice, dedicated to the career
development of students and professional performing artists. This project will
contribute to the development of effective music and dance training in the UK and
consequently a physically and psychologically healthier work force of
professional musicians and dancers.”
The Leverhulme
Trust has also granted £48,000 over three years to provide student bursaries to
young people with exceptional talent and potential in dance to study on Laban’s
Centre of Advanced Training (CAT) scheme.
The innovative scheme, which offers young people the opportunity to
access high quality dance training, is part of a national programme funded and
developed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ Music and Dance
Scheme.
-ends-
Editors
Notes
For more information, images or to
speak to Emma Redding, Derek Aviss or Anthony Bowne,
please contact Miranda Harris, Public Relations and Communications Manager,
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, 020 8469 9549, mharris@trinitylaban.ac.uk
Trinity
Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
In 2005 Trinity College of Music and
Laban, leading centres of music and contemporary dance, came together to form Trinity
Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Trinity Laban was ranked first in both music and dance in the Guardian
Higher Education/University League Tables 2008. For more information
please see www.trinitylaban.ac.uk
Laban
Laban is an internationally renowned
conservatoire for professional contemporary dance training, at the forefront of
developing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well as a range of
continuing professional development opportunities. Laban has a strong programme of work in the
community, across London
and nationwide in partnership with dance organisations, agencies and
professional dance companies. Based in
an awe-inspiring landmark building in Deptford Creekside, SE8, state-of-the-art
facilities include 13 dance studios, a health suite, café and 300-seat purpose
built theatre. For more information
please see www.laban.org
Trinity College of Music
Located in the beautiful Wren
designed King Charles Court
at the Old Royal
Naval College
in Greenwich, Trinity College of Music is one of
the UK’s
leading centres for the training of professional musicians. It is a creative and cosmopolitan community
of performers, composers, teachers and researchers. The College runs a vibrant programme of
performances and festivals as well as groundbreaking education, community and
social-inclusion schemes. For more
information please see www.tcm.ac.uk
Dance and
Music Science
Dance Science is a developing
area of research and study and Music Science is a relatively new field with its
recent focus primarily being on performance psychology rather than biomechanics
and physiology. By recognising dancers and
musicians as athletes as well as artists and investigating the physiological,
biomechanical and psychological characteristics underlying training and
performance, the aim of dance and music science is to enhance pedagogic
practices and optimise the potential of every elite performer.
The
Leverhulme Trust
The Leverhulme Trust is
one of the largest all subjects providers of research funding in the UK,
distributing funds of some £40 million every year. For further information
about all of the schemes that the Leverhulme Trust fund please visit their
website at