The Movement in Practice Academy (MiP Academy) is a specialist accredited provider of education in the psychology of movement and dance.
Dance Psychology is the study of dance and dancers from a scientific, psychological perspective. When Dance Psychology is applied to dancers and dance teachers it can help to develop a comprehensive set of mental skills, which are an essential part of all dance training.
Some of the best dancers in the world have mental coaches who work alongside their dance coach to help them to become the best possible dancer, both physically and mentally.
Mental Skills include topics such as managing performance anxiety, motivation and the pursuit of excellence. But it’s not always about controlling the negatives, mental skills training is also about helping dancers to push the boundaries of the art form, communicate emotion through their movements, helping them to understand the ups and downs of the creative process and helping them to understand the demands of learning and remembering long sequences of movement patterns.
Mental Skills are, in short, concerned with everything that is going on inside a dancer’s head as they learn, train, rehearse, compete and perform.
Dance is a full-brain workout.
Dance Psychology: an Introduction, provides a basic introduction to Dance Psychology and a set of mental skills that are relevant to dance. This course has been written and developed by Dr Peter Lovatt, who teaches Dance Psychology and Mental Skills to students at the Royal Ballet Upper School and to dance teachers studying for the Diploma in Dance Teaching at the Royal Ballet School.
Peter delivers the content online through a series of short videos and accompanying slides. Pause & Reflect Activities, which give learners the opportunity to think about how the content applies to their own dance experience, are interleaved between the videos. In addition, Active Learning Exercises are included to help students dive deeper into some of the content areas. The course includes two suggested readings and the Learning Outcomes are assessed by a Multiple-Choice Quiz (MCQ).
And there are Dance Breaks too. Simple, short dances are woven through the learning materials to help students stay physically and mentally active during the learning experience.
Dance Psychology: an Introduction is designed for anyone with an interest in the teaching and/or learning of dance, and who wants to enrich their dance practice. For example, it is appropriate for teachers of dance and movement and it is appropriate for people who are serious about their dance training.
This course has been through a rigorous, independent accreditation process, carried out by CPD Standards, and successful completion of the course carries 5 hours CPD (CE/CPE) credits, which are internationally recognised.
Course fee: £49
Click here for further information and to enroll on Dance Psychology an Introduction
Movement changes everything. When we move our body it changes the way we think, feel, behave and learn.
Discover how movement enhances the human experience, and think about how this can be applied in education, health and business.
My name is Dr Peter Lovatt and I am an academic Psychologist with a special interest in movement. I have spent the last twenty years working in university research labs trying to understand the science of what happens to people when they move their body. What I discovered is that movement changes us fundamentally in four different ways. Movement changes our relationships with other people, movement changes how we think and solve problems, movement changes our emotions and how we feel, and movement changes us physically, from the chemicals we produce in our brain to the way our heart beats. Movement changes everything.
When you move, you improve.
I have been using movement with organisations from different sectors, for example, in the banking, tech, creative, education, health and automotive industries, to help people find new ways of moving. Although each of these sectors is unique, in terms of their goals and methods of working, there are many similarities with regards to the challenges people and organisations face regarding human movement.
What I have found is that once people change the way they move, for example by breaking up long periods of sitting, standing or walking, and by changing their movement repertoire, this then leads to many positive changes in the way people interact and communicate with others, how they think and solve problems, how they feel and how their bodies work. All of these benefits lead to positive consequences in the workplace.
We know that when people coordinate their movements, it changes how much they like each other, it leads to higher levels of trust and increases the amount of helping behaviour they are prepared to show one another. Movement is great for social bonding and communication.
We know that the way people think and solve problems is related to the way they move their body. Different types of body movement can help with different types of thinking. For example, if you want to think more creatively then you might benefit from shaking out your body and moving it in a way you have never moved it before. Movement is great for creative thinking.
We know that the way people feel is related to their movements. We can all tell how a friend is feeling by the way they walk and move. We embody our feelings. It is also the case that moving our body can change the way we feel. Certain types of body movement are great for reducing feelings of stress, anxiety and depression and there is a relationship between occupational burnout and movement. Movement is great for changing how we feel.
We know that the way our body works is related to movement. Sedentary lifestyles can be fatal. Physical activity has been found to decrease all-cause mortality. Movement is great for our heart, lungs, brain and our immune system. Movement is great for our body.
The Psychology of Movement introduces students to a four-STEP approach to thinking about movement and its application in different settings. This course has been written and developed by Peter and Lindsey Lovatt. Lindsey is an Occupational Therapist.
Peter delivers the content online through a series of short videos and accompanying slides. Pause & Reflect Activities, which give learners the opportunity to think about how the content applies to their own experience, are interleaved between the videos. In addition, Active Learning Exercises are included to help students dive deeper into some of the course content areas. The course includes suggested readings and the Learning Outcomes are assessed by a Multiple-Choice Quiz (MCQ).
And there are Dance Breaks too. Simple, short dances are woven through the learning materials to help students stay physically and mentally active during the learning experience. After all, our moto is “when you move, you improve”.
The Psychology of Movement an Introduction is designed for anyone with an interest in the use of movement to enhance the human experience in education, health and business.
The Psychology of Movement has been through a rigorous, independent accreditation process, carried out by CPD Standards, and successful completion of the course carries 5 hours CPD (CE/CPE) credits, which are recognised worldwide.
Course fee £69
Click here for further information and to enroll on The Psychology of Movement an Introduction
Who's Who at MiP Academy
MiP Academy was founded by Occupational Therapist Lindsey Lovatt and Psychologist Dr Peter Lovatt in 2020. Lindsey and Peter met while studying psychology in 1988. They fell in love on a night club dance floor and have been married ever since. The MiP Academy is the culmination of their joint passions: People, Education, Psychology and Movement.
Lindsey Lovatt
Lindsey loves people. She’s a qualified Occupational Therapist with an MSc in Forensic Mental Health, and postgraduate qualifications in Systemic & Family Therapy, Dramatherapy, Eating Disorders, and Parenting. Specialising in CAMHS, Lindsey has always been a therapist at heart. She has spent the last 30 years working closely with people, seeking to understand. Lindsey has worked for the NHS as a leader in mental health services. With senior management roles, including Allied Health Professionals Lead for a large NHS Trust and being a specialist advisor for the Government’s Care Quality Commission (CQC), Lindsey understands how people and organisations tick.
Peter Lovatt
Peter loves to dance. A former professional dancer, he’s a qualified psychologist, with a PhD in Psychology, an MSc in Neural Computation and a BSc in Psychology and English. He has spent the last 25 years teaching at universities and carrying out research in Psychology, movement and dance. Peter’s academic and teaching career extends from Cambridge University to the Royal Ballet School. He has written two books on movement and dance and has authored academic papers on thinking, learning, problem-solving, memory, Parkinson’s disease, dance, rhythm and timing. Peter’s work has been reported internationally and he has shared keynote sessions with Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey.
Perfect Preparatory Reading
Dr Peter Lovatt has written two books on the relationship between dance and psychology.
