Its well researched and documented that individuals suffering from an attention deficit (ADHD) have many more challenges with the learning and coordination of motor skills than individuals without this barrier to learning. So we might imagine that the profession of ‘dancer’ would not be an obvious fit when thinking of a suitable career path. Yet surprisingly, the dance sector boasts a higher than average percentage of individuals with ‘overactive brains’ and displaying the recognised symptoms of ADHD, than the general population. (Shuliman and Terry, 2017) Further research is necessary to understand whether it is the sheer amount of information that dancers are required to process and focus on at any […]

mind and attention strategies to free your power and precision. An open access, professional development webinar aimed at Professional Dancers and Trainers. Tuesday 9th November 11am ET / 5pm CET on line Join us for this 5th and final webinar in the ‘Bridging IADMS’ series that I have been hosting this year – Discovering Attention and Focus strategies in practice: Interdisciplinary tools to enhance performance, learning and recovery. This webinar for professional dancers is kindly hosted by Finnish National Ballet and we are joined by artistic director, Madeleine Onne, colleagues Jani Talo, Johanna Osmala, and Laura Nuutinen, and company dancers. We all want to do and be our best, but […]

Attentional Focus Learning on the move – professional development Pod-Casts with author Clare Guss-West. Here you can find two easy access podcasts to further your attentional focus in dance learning whilst on the move, thanks to two recent educational recordings: In October I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Aleksandra Efimova for her 5, 6, 7, Eight Pod Cast series on dance and together we discuss the role of the mind in dance and life and much much more. Listen in to our conversation, Episode 123 via apple podcasts or directly on the 567 Eight website: 5 6 7 Eight Website, Episode 123 with Clare Guss-West Apple PodCasts – […]

Saturday 29th May at 11am EST/5pm CET Dance Educators: The 1st guest of attention and focus specialist Clare Guss-West MA, in the IADMS interdisciplinary webinar series “Discovering attention & focus strategies in practice” is Ellie Kusner, MSc, IADMS Dance Educators’ Committee Chair. Join us and learn more about using Attention & Focus in your Dance context. IADMS – International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. Registration Join Clare Guss-West and Ellie Kusner on a metacognitive journey to explore the role of attention and focus in dance teaching. This relatively uncharted territory in dance provides rich tools for teachers to enhance the performance and learning of dancers. Ellie and Clare bring ‘internal’ and ‘external’ attentional focus approaches to […]

‘Bridging IADMS’ Webinar Series – May – September 2021 Interdisciplinary tools to enhance performance, learning and recovery. The interdisciplinary skills of Attention and Focus get the exposure they merit through IADMS – International Association for Dance Medicine & Science. I’ll be hosting this 5-part webinar series with amazing guest presenters Ellie Kusner, David Leventhal, Astrid Sherman, Johanna Osmala and Madeleine Onne, artistic director Finnish National Ballet. Open to the public and free access, this 5-part practical, interactive webinar series spans the disciplines and some specialist focus groups of IADMS with the objective of promoting interdisciplinary exchange. The webinar series aims is to provide a background introduction and application to the […]

Attention & Focus strategies to enhance on line learning and teaching. Still teaching virtually? This is the perfect moment to shift learners attention on line to an external focus whilst dancing by using imagery or focusing in on sensory feedback and proprioceptive feedback. The stress and frustration of on line learning will be relieved and as a secondary benefit – technique progression sharpened despite the virtual environment. Learn more in this Human Kinetics post . . .

2020 has been quite a year and dancers and dance teachers have had a steep learning curve to embrace technology and develop the skills sets to deliver effective distance and on line dancing and learning. The up side of this year is the incredible accessibility to learning that this new virtual medium has afforded. Dancers from as far and wide as China, Canada, the US and New Zealand have been able to participate together in my recent workshops, lectures and conferences. We are sharing knowledge and best practice in dance training in a way previously unheard of in my whole dancing life time. So if you participated in our on […]

We were around 80 dancers and teachers from across the globe from Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia through Europe: France, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK to Canada and the US who came together Wednesday 11th November for the virtual introduction to Attention and Focus in Dance. Colleagues joined from Dutch National Ballet, Scottish, Monaco and Houston Ballets as well as teaching faculty from the ISTD, RAD, Université du Quebec à Montreal, L’Ecole Superieure de Ballet de Quebec, Pôle Superieure National de Danse Rosella Hightower . . . Super exciting that there is such interest in this new frontier for dance – a vast unexplored territory of possible further performance […]

Attention is like a muscle that becomes stronger and more controllableover time. (Watson 2017, 250) If you just pause a moment over this internet page, notice how many millions of possible stimuli there are around you, all vying for your attention. That might be screen publicity, attractive images, pop ups, notifications – now take your attention away from the screen and notice any background sounds or noise you can hear – the traffic, children playing, a distant music. Take your attention up and notice the colours outside the window. Take your attention far away to the movement of the clouds and then suddenly inwards to any discomfort or tension you […]

We can all relate to the central role that mental and attentional training plays in high level sports. We easily recognise that the difference between a high performer – just think of Roger Federer – and one that perhaps did not quite make the grade is not about having more muscles, more physical training or more skills knowledge – but rather the wisdom of their choice of focus and attention under pressure and the essential ability to reset the mind when all seems to go off plan. In the last twenty years sports science has indeed made tremendous advances in harnessing the make or break power of the mind and […]