Abstract
The effectiveness of dance movements for developing the body image was investigated. A sequence of dance movements was taught to 42 college students by a specialist dance teacher, 26 students in the self-study group learned the same dance movements through watching a video, and 33 students who participated in other dance classes were used as a control group.
The results indicated that positive changes in the quality movement because of the dance experience affected the participants self-image as being more graceful than the control group. Although statistically significant differences were not detected, certain body image items were marginally different between experimental and control groups. The results suggest that practicing dance movements may help to improve certain aspects of the body image accompanied by improvements in the quality of dance movements. However, further studies are needed to verify the empirical usefulness of dance movement to the body image.
