Author: Hannah Etlin-Stein 

Another year, another IADMS Annual Meeting - this one celebrating the 25th anniversary of IADMS!  

Day two is only halfway through and already there have been some memorable presentations and movement sessions.  

Yesterday began with some opening remarks by the IADMS team and a welcome from Terrence Orr, Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the newest honorary member of IADMS. He was followed by a Clinical Symposium from Dr. Paula Thomson who discussed the differences between dancers with high and low internalized shame. Dr. Thomson broke down important information related to the psychological profile of dancers in a highly informative and powerful presentation touching on psychological issues many dancers face. 

The day progressed with many presentations and movement sessions of a high calibre. One of these was presented by Dr. Danielle Jarvis, winner of the IADMS student research award sponsored by the Harkness Centre for Dance Injuries, who delivered to a packed audience! Outlining the research she did for her PhD work at the University of Southern California, Danielle clearly and concisely discussed the effects of jump strategy modifications on energetics during dance jumps. 

The first day of presentations ended with the research committee giving an extremely informative presentation on survey research lead by Lynda Mainwaring and Esther Chou. We were all reminded there are no easy options when it comes to research and surveys are no exception! From specifics on how to avoid sampling errors, vague wording and formatting we were given an in depth ‘how to’ on survey research! 

Overall the energy in the conference has been extremely high with this year’s Annual Meeting having the largest number of delegates attending. As you walk through the crowd during coffee breaks you can hear the buzzing sounds of young students networking with established researchers, exciting collaborations being created and big plans for the future of IADMS. 

There has been some really good engagement through social media on our twitter feed so head over there to join the conversation via #IADMS2015. There are still loads of presentations ahead including the famous IADMS dance party this evening so stay tuned!  

Hannah Etlin-Stein