CAREER TRANSITIONS OF STREET DANCE DANCERS: TRENDS, IMPACTS, AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS—A BIBLIOMETRIC AND CONTENT ANALYSIS

The paper examines the development and global research landscape of career pathways and career transition studies related to street dance dancers, situated within the broader field of athletic career development, from 1985 to 2025. Emphasis is placed on influential contributors, dominant thematic patterns, and emerging research directions to clarify how this interdisciplinary area has evolved and where it is heading. Three core research questions guide the analysis:(1) How has research on career transition and post-performance development evolved over time, particularly in relation to street dance and comparable performance based sports? (2) What are the priority themes and the topical in this field of study? (3) What are the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and what can be achieved in the future? Using a mixed methods approach, this study integrates bibliometric analysis and qualitative content analysis to examine 426 scholarly publications indexed in major academic databases. The findings reveal remarkable growth in the number of research, particularly since 2014. Cite Space analysis shows the large contributors, among them Hogskolani Halmstad and the University of Stirling, with the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden being the most active in number of publications. Thematic analysis indicates that current research converges around athletes’ experiences of career transition, structural and psychological factors facilitating or constraining post-career adaptation, and the increasing emphasis on identity reconstruction, meaning-making, and professional role transformation, including dancer-to-coach pathways as an emerging theme. By synthesizing bibliometric patterns and thematic insights, this study contributes a conceptual framework that clarifies the positioning of street dance dancers within the broader discourse of athletic career transitions. The findings offer both theoretical contributions to sport and cultural studies and practical implications for athlete development programs, coach education, and policy design, while also outlining directions for future interdisciplinary research.