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The concepts learned in Kinesiology 361 have been genuinely interesting to learn and are easily transferred to real life scenarios. While these concepts are applicable in everyday movements, this motor scrapbook focuses on how certain concepts discussed in class are applicable to my passion, Irish dance.

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A fusion of Ireland's vibrant, longstanding dance form and elements of American innovation, Trinity Irish Dance Company (TIDC) dazzles audiences with its hard-driving percussive power, lightning-fast agility, and aerial grace. Minutes into watching the awe-inspiring precision of its dancers, TIDC expands whatever notions you may have about Irish dance, revealing its limitless possibilities through a performing arts lens.

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At the age of five, I started an activity that would turn into my passion and shape me into the person I am today. That activity was Irish dancing. Dance has opened several doors for me through competition, performing, and teaching. Irish dance, like most forms of dance, encompasses complex technical skills in addition to performing and entertaining. One technique skill required in Irish dance is turnout. Turnout is key in injury prevention as it allows for stability during intricate steps and landing jumps. As is expected with new skills, some dancers are naturally better than others at the concept of turnout. Unfortunately, I was not one of those dancers. Turnout was an extremely unnatural concept for me and was something I was constantly trying to improve.  Body structure is a key component in determining how good one will be at turnout, and is something that no matter how much you practice it will never change.
For example,  femoral anteversion can be a limiting factor for turnout. At the top of the femur the angle at the neck is usually 15 degrees in front of the shaft of the bone. When that angle varies in either direction, it alters the positioning of the foot and the range of a person’s turnout.  A person that has femoral anteversion has a shorter angle at the neck and stands pigeon toed. They will ultimately have a limited ability to turn out at the hip as they have to use their hip muscles to turn out in order to have their foot be in parallel before turning out passed parallel. Secondly, if your hip sockets are pointed out more towards the sides, a person will have greater ability to turn out. Fortunately, there are ways a dancer can unlock their full turnout potential. Working on hip flexibility can loosen muscles surrounding the hip joint and allow for additional rotation. In addition to working as much as you can on turnout, dancers can also work on other aspects of technique to compensate for their decreased ability to turn their feet out. For me, I was able to work on other skills used in Irish dancing such as sharp and snappy legs, lines, and athletic tricks to hide my lack of ability to turn my feet out. This example of skills vs. abilities was a key aspect of being successful for me. Focusing on improving skills allowed me to compete at the highest level and become a professional Irish dancer where I had the opportunity to perform on some of the most prestigious stages in the performing arts world.

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There comes a time in every dancer's career where they completely go blank on stage. Whether that happens at a competition or on tour, it is an embarrassing feeling. As they reflect on their big mistake, they ask themselves the question, "How did that happen? I practiced that so many times." They are right. They put in countless hours of hard work, so how did they forget a routine? Most likely when dancers step on stage, they strive for perfection and might overthink the movements they are about to make. With all of the practice they put in, their routine is now procedural knowledge and they can most likely do the movements without thinking too much about them. They have become automatic (muscle memory). If a dancer tries to think about each little thing they have ever been told about a routine and start using declarative knowledge, they might be pulling at something that they haven't had to think about in a long time, and isn't there anymore; thus blanking on stage.

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As I progressed through competitive Irish dance, I was presented with an opportunity to teach. Through teaching, I have found my passion for dance grow as I can see dancers improve and know that I was a part of their journey.  When teaching, it is important to make the learning process as easy as possible. My number one goal when teaching is keeping dancers interested and having fun; not worrying about struggling to learn steps. One strategy I use during class is chunking. Irish dance involves several intricate steps and could become overwhelming if we taught every single movement. Using the chunking method, I can incorporate steps that dancers already know and string 3-6 moves together. Once dancers learn that first string of steps we can work on another, eventually stringing those chunks of steps together to form the final routine. When learning new routines, dancers incorporate moves they have previously stored in their long-term memory with the new moves using their working/short-term memory. Breaking the routine up into chunks allows for dancers not to overwhelm their short-term memory and prepare the information for storage. Once these chunks are transferred to their long-term memory, the dancer will be able to remember the steps, continue to practice them, and make improvements. When refining these steps, the corrections will be small additions to these long-term memories. Hopefully the corrections will become part of the long-term memory that is retrieved when they perform the steps the next time.

Here are some of the dancers I teach!

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As a coach, it is important to know how to enhance a student's performance. One way in which a coach can help performance is through feedback.  During dance class, I give verbal augmented feedback regularly.  As an experienced dancer and coach, I have acquired a knowledge base of what judges are looking for and training techniques that have been successful in the past. Drawing from these experiences, I can use Knowledge of Performance feedback when correcting dancers. An example of a correction I may make during class could be: "that sounded great, but make sure to cross your back foot over at the end."  While using a mirror provides visual feedback to a student (intrinsic), there are several corrections that a young dancer wouldn't know be able to identify or correct, so verbal feedback from a coach would help improve a dancer's skills. It is important for dance coaches to limit their augmented feedback in order for dancers to feel how a move feels like when done correctly, and start to catch mistakes on their own (either using proprioception or visual feedback from a mirror). It is extremely useful for dancers to become their own coaches and fix things on their own so they can don't rely on a coach telling them if it was good or not. A seasoned dancer will be able to reflect on a performance and recall what things could have been improved (proprioception).
When coaching, I like to ask dancers how a routine felt and see what they say. By asking these types of questions,  dancers become more aware of their movements and helps them determine how to improve on their own.

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For the last 16 years, I have been performing and teaching Irish dance. During Irish dance, you learn several skills and routines. We use bilateral transfer to practice new skills on one foot and then perform it on the other foot as well. In addition, for competition there are 3 steps per dance that a dancer performs. Each step consists of 16 bars of music, 8 bars for the step performed on the right foot, and then 8 bars of the same step performed on the left foot. When training for competitions, the coach usually breaks down either the right or left foot of a step looking for corrections or comments. It is then the dancer's job to fix those corrections for the other foot of that step. Usually during class the dancer won't have enough time to work on the corrections on the other foot before showing the coach both feet of a step. It is up to the dancer to practice the other foot at home when there is more time. While dancers still need to practice skills and steps on both feet, bilateral transfer is a pertinent part of the training process, and helps them improve and save time training. Referring back to the Generalized Motor Program Theory, we know that the muscles involved in the task is a parameter of the Generalized Motor Program (Lecture Notes, 2017). This means that when performing specific dance moves we are most likely using the same Motor program just using different muscles when we switch feet. As we practice, regardless of which foot we are using, we are improving that task/motor program since all of the invariant features are staying the same. Although we are improving the overall motions required for the move, when we switch the muscles we use, there will be a difference in performance as we haven’t trained/practiced with those exact muscles yet.