Flourishing in Salsa Dance:  A Qualitative Investigation of Aesthetic, Artistic, and Creative Contributions

Pablo Domene; Laura Jackson de Domene

doi:10.32388/C3WYND.2

Flourishing in Salsa Dance: A Qualitative Investigation of Aesthetic, Artistic, and Creative Contributions

Pablo Domene, Laura Jackson de Domene

School of Life Sciences

Staffordshire University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

198 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Salsa has been referred to as the world’s most popular partnered social Latin dance and is likely health-enhancing when participated in for leisure and socialisation purposes. We are unaware of any qualitative research that has explored salsa dance, specifically, through an aesthetic, artistic, and creative practice lens. In this research, we sought to interpret how these elements of dance may contribute to a sense of flourishing, or holistic well-being, as described by Seligman (2011) in his PERMA model, in a positive psychology context. We designed an anonymous fully open-ended online qualitative survey to explore the experience of salsa as it relates to dancers’ flourishing. Forty-one salsa dancers completed the survey. Their average experience level was 11 years of dance practice in salsa. We used the reflexive thematic analysis approach of Braun and Clarke (2021) to analyse our data. Our actively constructed themes (A dance of positivity; Dance's cognitive embrace; Healthful bodies in harmony; and Steps, hearts, and spirits coming together) highlighted emotional and physical benefits, cognitive and learning aspects, health and wellness, and community building within the data. We believe these findings illustrate that salsa dance does indeed foster a sense of flourishing in experienced dancers within a community dance setting. The practical applications of our research in terms of promoting dance for health are discussed.

Original language	English
Article number	C3WYND.2
Number of pages	17
Journal	Qeios
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.32388/C3WYND.2
Publication status	Published - 28 Dec 2023

Bibliographical note

Qeios applies the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license to published works (please see Copyright for more information). This license was developed to promote Open Access – namely, free immediate access to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types. Under this license, authors agree to make works legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these works, as long as the author and original source are properly cited.

Keywords

adult
arts on prescription
dancing
interpretative
interpretive
Latinx
mental health
participatory dance
social prescribing
wellbeing

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.32388/C3WYND.2Licence: CC BY

Pure-Domene-2023-VoRFinal published version, 1.25 MBLicence: CC BY
Domene and Jackson de Domene (2023)Final published version, 879 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Flourishing in Salsa Dance: A Qualitative Investigation of Aesthetic, Artistic, and Creative Contributions",

abstract = "Salsa has been referred to as the world{\textquoteright}s most popular partnered social Latin dance and is likely health-enhancing when participated in for leisure and socialisation purposes. We are unaware of any qualitative research that has explored salsa dance, specifically, through an aesthetic, artistic, and creative practice lens. In this research, we sought to interpret how these elements of dance may contribute to a sense of flourishing, or holistic well-being, as described by Seligman (2011) in his PERMA model, in a positive psychology context. We designed an anonymous fully open-ended online qualitative survey to explore the experience of salsa as it relates to dancers{\textquoteright} flourishing. Forty-one salsa dancers completed the survey. Their average experience level was 11 years of dance practice in salsa. We used the reflexive thematic analysis approach of Braun and Clarke (2021) to analyse our data. Our actively constructed themes (A dance of positivity; Dance's cognitive embrace; Healthful bodies in harmony; and Steps, hearts, and spirits coming together) highlighted emotional and physical benefits, cognitive and learning aspects, health and wellness, and community building within the data. We believe these findings illustrate that salsa dance does indeed foster a sense of flourishing in experienced dancers within a community dance setting. The practical applications of our research in terms of promoting dance for health are discussed.",

keywords = "adult, arts on prescription, dancing, interpretative, interpretive, Latinx, mental health, participatory dance, social prescribing, wellbeing",

author = "Pablo Domene and {Jackson de Domene}, Laura",

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