Postdoc, Faculty of Social Sciences

Intro

Lisa Sandlos is an interdisciplinary researcher who investigates various aspects of dance education. In particular, she has closely studied sexualization in dance, how it impacts training and performance practices, public perceptions of dance, and young dancers’ psychological and social development.

What does your postdoc research focus on?

As a member of a multidisciplinary research team at Brock directed by Dr. Dawn Zinga (CHYS), I am using my skills as a dance studies scholar, a long-term dance educator, and a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) to contribute qualitative data based on close observation of competitive dancers’ movements. These movements are performed and analyzed using motion capture technology in the Neuromechanics and Ergonomics LAB under Dr. Michael Holmes (Kinesiology), with Dr. Shawn Beaudette (Kinesiology) drawing on this data to train AI in recognizing typical competitive dance movement vocabularies and phrases. Dr. Danielle Molnar (CHYS) is applying quantitative methods to further analyze the data in the contexts of perfectionism and social comparison in dance. I am learning many new and valuable skills as I work together with this team towards innovation of an interdisciplinary method for measuring dancers’ movements, which has the potential to significantly enhance dancers’ performance and reduce their incidents of injury.

What are your career goals following a postdoc?

Following my postdoc position at Brock, my main objective is to write and publish a book on sexualization within the industry of competitive dance. The book will be a resource for dance educators, parents of dancers, dancers, researchers, and anyone looking for a better understanding of the impacts of sexualization, why it occurs, and what can be done to address this pervasive issue.