Mental skills sit at the heart of how dancers learn, practise, perform and navigate the demands of a dance life. They include familiar topics such as motivation and performance anxiety, but also broader influences including self-esteem, resilience, imagery, support networks and career management.

This five-hour, self-paced course provides an accessible introduction to Dance Psychology and explores 13 mental skills relevant to dancers. The course first introduces four broad areas of psychology – developmental, social, biological and cognitive – before applying psychological thinking to dance.

Short video lectures are interleaved with Pause & Reflect Activities, an Active Learning Exercise, suggested reading and Dance Breaks. Rather than offering a single formula for success, the course invites you to notice individual differences and consider how different skills may become more or less important at different times.

By the end of the course, you will have a broader psychological vocabulary for understanding dance practice and a structured way to reflect on strengths, challenges and sources of support. Successful completion of the final quiz leads to a five-hour CPD Certificate of Completion.