Sensing the direction of leadership and social identity in dance education

There is a clear consensus that skills relating to creating, performing, and appreciating dance are all critical to the learning experience. The Social Identity in Leadership (SIL) model, recently applied in sports coaching environments, argues that leadership is best understood in terms of the relationship between the leader and followers within a particular social or cultural group. SIL addresses how individuals who share a common social identity collaborate to lead other members of the community and influence them. Despite potential application benefits, this theory has yet to be defined and contextualised in dance environments. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine current approaches to the delivery of dance with regard to motivating learners to initiate, then sustain and extend their engagement. Specifically, we sought to discover the approaches to leadership currently applied by dance teachers and to determine if the principles of SIL are used. Based on a review of current literature about the application of SIL in teaching and coaching contexts, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight experienced dance teachers. Five themes emerged from the data that provide evidence to suggest that, whilst not as yet clearly defined, the principles of SIL were employed by the dance teachers.