IADMS New York 2002   [back to the Category]

The “Theme Week” Concept: A Positive Mental Stimulant for the Post High School Dance Student   [read the french version]

Author :   Fay Nenander

The “Theme Week” Concept: A Positive Mental Stimulant
for the Post High School Dance Student

Fay Nenander
Head of Studies, Balettakademien
Stockholm, Sweden



The problems concomitant with compacting a dance education into three or four years are common for a growing number of professional schools throughout the world. The tendency to postpone professional dance education until after secondary school graduation has many positive aspects - not least in relation to the dancer’s situation when progressing to a second career. However, for the dance educator, such students present a “catch 22” situation with not only insufficient hours in the day to provide an adequate technical training, but also a constant struggle to find time for even such “basic” additional subjects as dance history, anatomy, physiology, music etc.

Excessive physical demands are a daily reality for many post high-school dance students. A student who lacks the necessary mental well being essential to balancing the physical load, can easily spiral into loss of energy, poor concentration, and below potential achievement. Dance educators, increasingly aware of the importance of nurturing not “just the dancer” but also “the whole individual”, are presented with a dilemma. How to promote mental well being whilst striving within a time limit to maximize technical prowess? How to find time to address such essentials as exposure to related arts, life skills, role models and the “world” outside dance?

Similar issues related to mental well being are widely recognized as being of prime importance within sports medicine, where coaching on an elite level is invariably done in conjunction with behavioral psychology tests such as POMS (Profile of Mood States).

The workshop will concentrate on the concept that health, well being and physical achievement in the professional dance student can be furthered by offering as wide a variety of cultural stimuli during training as possible. “Theme week” is a viable structure for facilitating this - offering possible solutions for the nurturing of the “whole individual” and not “just the dancer”, whilst at the same time recognizing the need to maintain an intensive dance program.

The presentation is based on 13 years personal experience as organizer and initiator of “theme week” within a post high school (19 plus), three-year professional dance program environment.


The structure of “theme week” or “theme days” will be addressed by detailing:
Activities: physical, discussions and lectures, exposure to achievement of excellence in other fields, study visits etc.
Schedule balance: between themes, physical versus mental stimulation, arts versus other subjects etc.
Logistics: economy, administration, and organization.

As a choreographer and teacher with international experience, I have often observed mental “burn-out” in dancers - frequently as a result of a too rigid, monotonous professional training. Evaluations of “theme week” from participants and others will demonstrate its far-reaching, positive consequences in this respect. These include more than 900 participant questionnaires evaluated over 12 years as well as testimonies of “spin off” benefits from former students -now dance professionals or transitioned former professionals, from dance educators and dance medicine practitioners