A February update from Lindsay

What a month it’s been…all of Semester One’s assignments have been submitted (hurrah!) and results are now trickling in. It feels like a milestone for all of us. Most of all for my full-time classmates I’m sure, who are now a whole third of the way through the course. For me, the only part-time student on the course, it has been a little more relaxed, with only three assignments to tackle in January and just two lectures a week to look forward to this term. I’ve also had time to gain some experience of transcribing interviews, which has been an interesting insight into the process of qualitative research (as well as a true test of my attention to detail!).

Last week we kicked off Semester Two with our first lesson in Biomechanics, which was delivered by guest lecturer Ashley McGill. After blowing the cobwebs off our knowledge of the musculoskeletal system, we had a go at some movement analysis and left with heads rattling with new terminology. Charlotte, Ellie and I then began our optional module on Talent Identification and Development, whilst Jess started her optional module on Professional Skills for Health Care Providers. With our very different backgrounds and post-course ambitions, it’s great that we can shape the course to suit our interests in this way.

Some of us have already been giving some thought to what we might specialise in after the course. Ideas about physiotherapy, injury rehabilitation and dance psychology are all floating around so far but there’s plenty of work to get through before those choices need to be made. Speaking of which, Jess has been doing a spot of planning based on our upcoming assessments. I’m getting tired just thinking about it…

The part-time pathway of this course has really allowed me to balance my time between studying and other commitments, which is especially helpful now that I’m working as a freelancer. And whilst my full-time classmates are knee-deep in their dissertations this summer, I will be grateful for extra time to read and formulate research ideas.

That said, I’m sure time will fly – it will be my turn soon enough!

Busy Busy January

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. As I said in my last blog post I went to China with the University of Bedfordshire Go Global team. It was a great experience and the food was second to none. Below are a couple of group photos at the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

Now it's January and definitely time to get back to work. We have all submitted our essay for our dance psychology module and our presentation on future research ideas is coming up shortly. But first, Ellie has her practical assignment for her physical activity, nutrition and metabolic health module. This was an optional module and Ellie is the only dance scientist in the group, the other people on the module are studying related courses. Its great to have a cross over between MSc courses so that we get to meet lots of other people and experience different ways of teaching and learning outside of the dance world! 

Here is a photo of Ellie (left) and me (right) feeling nervous before her practical assessment where she will either be sampling my blood glucose or testing my rate of fat oxidation with a treadmill test. 

That's all for my blog entry this time as I have a lot of work to be getting on with! I look forward to posting again in February once my current deadlines have passed. 

The next blog entry will be written by Lindsay who is completing the course part-time. If you want to know more about part-time study then keep an eye out to hear about her experience so far. 

Pre-Christmas Update

It has been a very busy month for the dance science students at Bedford. To get an idea of what we are up to....our first assignment for the Research Design module is due on the 9th and our lab reports for Physiology are due on the 17th. Alongside our assessments are lectures and seminars have continued to intrigue and challenge us.


Here are some pictures of Ellie during our body composition lecture for Physiology. We even got the chance to sit in Bod Pod to get a feel for what it is like as a means of measuring body composition.






We have also been looking at dance and the disabled dancer and below is my auntie Tammy enjoying a bowling Christmas party. She loves dancing, drama and horse riding. Having a greater understanding of how  dance help disabled individuals is very interesting. I'm sure many disabled adults like Tammy will benefit both physically and psychologically from increased availability for dance opportunities. StopGap performed their piece 'Artificial Things' at the UoB theater last week which reminded us how dance is open as a career for anyone.

As part of our Psychology module we had a Skype seminar with Sanna Nordin-Bates. Nordin-Bates has come up a lot within our psychology literature so it was amazing to get the chance to chat to her about her work and hear about her background of how her career has progressed. We all agreed that it was great to grasp an idea of working life beyond the completion of our MSc course.

For me personally it has been a very exciting month as I am going on the Go Global trip to Beijing next week. The trip has been completely organised by the University and proves how there is so much available to students beyond the content of the course. It's been stressful to get my University work done before my trip but its such a fantastic opportunity that I'm sure my hard work will be worth it.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year from me (Charlotte) and the rest of the Dance Science students at UoB

High Intensity

If I had to summarize the last month as a dance science student, the term 'High Intensity' would be the words of choice for many reasons. Having testing our limits both physically and psychologically we have have had a few ups and downs.

We have done a VO2 Max test and Wingate test as part of our Dancing Body: Physiology module and I for one have very limited experience using any kind of exercise equipment so this was a steep learning curve to suddenly use a bike and push myself to my maximal. After a few moments of dizziness, I can safely say that I survived a Wingate test! 

Moving on to where us dancers feel more comfortable, we gave the Dance Aerobic Fitness Test (DAFT) and the High Intensity Fitness Test (HIFT) a go. We were all surprised how exhausting such a simple task can be!

As the nights get colder and its getting dark earlier, attention has shifted from being excited students to thoughts of our upcoming assessments. I think we are all feeling the high intensity of our workload as Christmas is fast approaching.

A New Chapter...

Hi Everyone. Welcome to the MSc Dance Science blog. 

We have almost survived our first month as dance science students and we are feeling optimistic about the year ahead. Having found out way around campus we took our first group trip into the library. unsurprisingly, we all came out with a fair few books to take home and flick through in our own time. Despite the initial shock to the system of masters level study, things have settled down.



I have even had time to attend some technique classes with the second year dance students. Dusting off my ballet shoes required some motivational self talking but I am glad I am making the effort to keep dancing. Taking part in classes is definitely helping me to better understand theories in physiological and psychological aspects of dance training. 


Keep updated with our progress throughout this academic year. I will be taking photos and videos of our time at the University of Bedfordshire so that you can all see what its like to be a MSc Dance Science student here. 

Charlotte