Trinity Laban Dance Science team at IADMS

The Trinity Laban Dance Science team returned from the 23rd Annual Meeting of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS), held this year in Seattle, Washington, USA during 17^th-19^th October.  IADMS is an international organisation, represented by members from clinical, academic, educative, performance and research professions, which includes recently announced honorary member Darcey Bussell. Their mission is as follows; ‘IADMS enhances the health, well-being, training, and performance of dancers by cultivating educational, medical, and scientific excellence.’

Head of Dance Science at Trinity Laban, Dr Emma Redding, handed over her two year presidency position to Janet Karin at the closing ceremony of the conference. During Dr Redding’s speech she encouraged conference attendees to ‘keep being inquisitive’ and commented on the enormous progress and development this relatively new subject area has made over the past 30 years.

Trinity Laban was extremely well represented at IADMS with over 20% of the content from the three-day conference being presented by Trinity Laban MSc Dance Science graduates or staff. Two of the five possible awards for presentations were awarded to two Dance Science staff for their presentations, which was an extreme honour as the competition was high.  Sarah Beck, Lab Technician, won the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) Dr Marjorie Moore Award for her research poster entitled, Injury Tracking in Pre-vocational dancers: findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training. The award was supported by Harlequin Dance Floors and included a cash prize and glass trophy (on display in the dance science lab office). Stephanie De’Ath, Graduate Intern, won the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) Harkness Centre for Dance Injuries Award for her research poster entitled, An inquiry into the correlation between knee injuries and hypermobility: findings from the UK Centres for Advanced Training. The award was sponsored by Harkness Centre for Dance Injuries and included a cash travel award.

 

The conference was interesting, engaging and vibrant with a great atmosphere of inclusivity and peer support as always. We are already looking forward to the 24^th Annual Meeting  which will be held in Basel, Switzerland in October 2014. For more information about IADMS, the annual meeting, resources or membership visit iadms.org.