Implementing Behavioral Coaching Strategies in Remote Dance Instruction

After university research ethics board clearance was obtained, we recruited dance instructors by sharing a recruitment poster directly with contacts from the dance community (e.g., dance studios, dance apparel stores, community centers offering dance classes), by posting on relevant social media (e.g., dance community Facebook groups), and through word of mouth. The primary investigator provided interested dance instructors with an information letter that outlined what was involved with the study. Then, the primary investigator determined their eligibility through a consultation on a secured virtual meeting platform (i.e., Lifesize). During the virtual consultation, the primary investigator verified the following eligibility requirements: (1) self-reported experience (past or current) teaching dance (any form, any level); (2) no previous training in behavioral coaching methods (in which the foundation of the method was in applied behavior analysis) for dance instruction; and (3) access to an electronic device (computer or tablet preferred) with an Internet connection. If eligible, the primary investigator then reviewed the consent form with the dance instructor during the virtual meeting.
Five female dance instructors from various geographical locations (four from Ontario, Canada and one from the Caribbean) provided informed consent to participate in the study. Dance instructors ranged in age from 28 to 50 years (M = 39; SD = 7.4) and all had over 10 years of experience teaching dance at a private dance studio and/or community dance program. See Table 1 for individual demographic information and a description of each dance instructor’s teaching experience.Table 1

Dance instructor demographics and description of teaching experience

Participant	ParticipantCharacteristics(age, sex, ethnicity, education)	GeographicLocation	Summary of Teaching Experience
Dance Instructor 1	50 Female White—European College	Southeastern Ontario	Taught children, youth, adults, and seniors at a private dance studio for over 10 years. Registered Royal Academy of Dance teacher, who specialized in teaching recreational and competitive Ballet. Obtained eight teaching certificates (e.g., Classical Ballet Checchetti Method, Modern Theatre Dance).
Dance Instructor 2	39 Female White—North American College	East Central Ontario	Taught recreational and competitive jazz, and musical theatre to children, youth, and adults for 18 years in a private studio and community dance program. Attended trainings with the National Ballet School of Canada, Broadway Dance Centre in New York, Acro Dance, and Toronto Dance Expo.
Dance Instructor 3	43 Female White—North American College	Southwestern Ontario	Artistic director/owner of a private dance studio that offered classes in ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics, musical theatre, lyrical, and hip hop. Had taught recreational and competitive dance to children, youth, and adults for over 10 years. Completed Associated Dance Arts of Professional Teachers training, Level 2 Progressive Ballet Technique, and Level 2 Acro Dance Teacher’s Association.
Dance Instructor 4	28 Female White—North American Undergraduate (with minor in Dance)	Southwestern Ontario	Taught children, youth, and adults recreational and/or competitive ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, musical theatre, and hip hop for over 10 years.
Dance Instructor 5	35 Female Black—Caribbean Undergraduate (in Performing Arts, Major in Dance	Caribbean	Taught recreational and professional level modern and West African dance forms to children, youth, and adults for 20 years.

We conducted all sessions remotely across two sites using Lifesize—a secure videoconferencing platform compliant with local privacy legislation. The trainer delivered training from their home and the dance instructors received training from their respective homes. Each session was recorded using the built-in capabilities of the Lifesize platform. At the start of each session, we provided dance instructors with a word document that contained a blank table with four columns—one for each strategy in the behavioral coaching package and 10 rows with a note that stipulated that those rows could be added or removed as needed. During sessions, the dance instructor used the word document to record their implementation of the behavioral coaching strategies. As a reference tool, the trainer had access to sample templates (completed word documents) for each dance skill during training sessions. The trainer screen shared these sample templates with the dance instructor only during an error correction procedure.
During sessions, the trainer and dance instructor reviewed: (1) an online instruction manual (a PowerPoint presentation that provided key points on how to implement each strategy on each slide, a full description of these key points in the notes section for each slide, and an example of how to implement each strategy); (2) a tip sheet that concisely reviewed the material covered in the online instructional manual; and (3) sample videos of a dancer performing dance skills correctly and incorrectly (with planned errors commonly observed in the dance studio setting by the first author). The trainer controlled the dance instructor’s access to the sample dancer videos and screen shared the video with the dance instructor when appropriate.