The Adolescent Dancer
The adolescent dancer consultancy was started by Siobhan in 2014 as a way to deliver educational workshops developed during her PhD to dance teachers, dancers and those who support young dancers. Through the consultancy and dance organisations One Dance UK and the Royal Academy of Dance. Siobhan offers a variety of talks and workshops on supporting and training the adolescent dancer. Siobhan is an active researcher in this area, publishing in peer reviewed journals and creating blog posts on the topic for organisations such as the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and Energetiks Australia.
Siobhan Mitchell, PhD Health and Wellbeing
Siobhan trained as a dancer before going on to complete a BA Hons in Dance Studies at the University of Roehampton, an MSc in Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and an MRes in Health and Wellbeing at the University of Bath. Awarded a full ESRC studentship in 2014, Siobhan has recently completed her PhD studies at the University of Bath exploring growth and maturation in the context of dance, specifically psychosocial and physical implications of differing maturity timing in young dancers. Siobhan has research expertise in growth and maturation in performing arts and sports contexts, biocultural approaches to adolescent development and mediated effects models of adolescent adaptation with an interest in health risk behaviours.
Siobhan works as a researcher on projects relating to adolescent health, as an associate lecturer (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, FHEA since June 2017) and also delivers educational sessions for dancers and dance teachers on the topic of growth and maturation on a freelance basis and through One Dance UK and the Royal Academy of Dance.
Siobhan has been a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) since 2011, has been on the IADMS student committee since 2014 and is the current Student Committee Chair. Siobhan has presented at a number of international conferences including IADMS Conferences in Seattle and Pittsburgh, the IADMS regional meeting in Ipswich, the Royal Academy of Dance Conference ‘Dance Teaching for the 21st Century: Practice and Innovation’ in Sydney, Australia and the British Psychological Society Qualitative Methods in Psychology Conference, Aberystwyth, UK. Siobhan has published work in academic journals including the Journal of Adolescence and the Journal of Sports Sciences and was recently shortlisted as a finalist for the Ede and Ravenscroft prize for best postgraduate research student at the University of Bath. In November 2017 Siobhan was the recipient of the Healthy Dancer Canada’s Annual Research Award.
