Movement in Practice

We are delighted to be running two Movement in Practice Facilitator Training cohorts in 2024. Cohort 6 will be held live, in-person, in London in August. Cohort 7 will be held over Zoom, starting in September. This gives you the opportunity to either study intensively in a five day “summer-school” environment in London or to spread your learning across the autumn term by attending weekly Zoom sessions from wherever you are in the world.

https://www.movementinpractice.com/facilitator-training/

How does movement in your workplace (or the lack of it) influence professional connections, creativity and teamwork?

We had a fantastic afternoon exploring these questions with attendees from banking, finance, government, education and the charity sector.

Learn more about Movement in Practice and our next workshop

https://www.movementinpractice.com/step-leadership/

Just look at the wonderful line-up of speakers for STEP2024

We are delighted to host a full day CPD event for Movement in Practice members to come together, to learn, share practice, dance and develop new ideas. Guests welcome.

Thursday 21st March, 9-5:15. Arts University Bournemouth

https://www.movementinpractice.com/step2024/

Lovely afternoon filming with Mavis for BBC Morning Live.

We were chatting about how dance can help people enhance their social connections.

We spoke about some academic research in the area and about how humans are born to dance.

Mavis asked if I had ever felt lonely- I said that I felt most lonely in the early stages of my cancer diagnosis- when Lindsey and I stopped talking (because we couldn’t). However, when we danced together we didn’t need to speak, because we communicated perfectly, without words - and I didn’t feel lonely.

The RSA Fellows Festival comes to London on March 2nd - what a line-up!

There’s ecologists, economists, dancers and psychologists - and so much more besides.

https://www.thersa.org/fellowship/fellows-festival-2024/speakers-2024

Want to feel Excited and Enthusiastic? Give Dance a go-go.

I added the question “Do you (or did you) Dance?” To the end of the PANAS questionnaire.

129 women (95 who dance for pleasure and 34 who never dance) completed the questionnaire.

Independent samples t-tests showed:

The Dance for Pleasure group had higher scores for Positive Affect (M = 33.45, SD = 5.91) than the Never Dance group (M = 30.44, SD = 6.35). This difference was statistically significant; t(54.74) = 2.41, p = .019, 95% Confidence Interval [0.512, 5.511], Cohen's ds = 0.48.

The Dance for Pleasure group had higher scores for Excited (M = 3.24, SD = 1.04) than the Never Dance group (M = 2.71, SD = 1.06). This difference was statistically significant; t(57.22) = 2.55, p = .014, 95% Confidence Interval [0.114, 0.958], Cohen's ds = 0.51.

The Dance for Pleasure group had higher scores for Enthusiastic (M = 3.32, SD = 1.04) than the Never Dance group (M = 2.85, SD = 0.89). This difference was statistically significant; t(67.6) = 2.48, p = .016, 95% Confidence Interval [0.09, 0.836], Cohen's ds = 0.5.

BUT - no difference in negative affect between the Dance for Pleasure group and the Never Danced group.

ALSO - no effect of dance participation on PANAS in male participants (n = 59, 31 Dance for Pleasure, 28 Never dance).

If you want to learn more about the psychology of dance and find out how to use dance to enhance people’s lives in business, education and healthcare, have a look at our courses on

www.Movementinpractice.com

Thanks so much to the London Women’s Forum and the Royal Academy of Dance for inviting me to talk (and dance) at tonight’s Power in Motion event.

The idea of Power in Motion is close to my heart - movement and dance really can enhance the human experience in many business and corporate settings.

For further information on the work I discussed see www.movementinpractice.com

Is movement the missing link between productivity and creativity in the workplace?

Working at the RSA this morning and intrigued by a visualisation of Coplin’s lecture: Re-imagining work shifts in the digital revolution.

We know that movement, dance and physical activity are great for productivity and creativity in the workplace and yet their positive aspects are missing from the drawing.

In fact, their only representations are depicted negatively- see, for instance, the miserable commuting sheep overlooked by the threatening predator, and the image of the dancing David Brent in the office.

Perhaps, if we want to enhance both creativity and productivity, we need to make a shift in our movement culture and recognise the positive, beneficial effects of movement on our interpersonal relationships, the way we think and solve problems, our feelings and emotions and on our physical functioning too.

I’d like to see what might happen if organisations really began to think differently about the power of movement to transform the way we do business.