ABSTRACT
Lay Summary Psychobehavioral skills are acknowledged as useful for coping within talent development pathways, but the idiosyncratic nature of challenge experienced across individuals makes it hard to evaluate their use and efficacy. This study aimed to explore the impact of a generic stressor, the COVID-19 lockdowns, on dancers within a talent development pathway. We were interested in how dancers were perceived to have coped with this challenge and what skills, if any, they used. Fifteen practitioners (11 females, 4 males;M age = 42.3 years;M experience = 18.4 years) were interviewed across eight Scottish performance/educational government-funded organisations. Data analysis used reflexive thematic analysis. Findings revealed important perceived impacts on physical and psychological health and wellbeing, with the majority of participants reporting surprise that some coped differently than expected. Coping well was perceived to result from taking advantage of developmental opportunities, facilitative environmental factors, and possessing key psychobehavioral characteristics. Performers who were perceived to struggle did not cope well with teaching, interpersonal, physical, and psychological factors which were exacerbated by social/environmental contexts, leading to pathway disengagement/derailment. Data suggest a need for greater and proactive integration of psychobehavioral skills within this pathway to better support those advancing to professional status and those who do not.This study explored practitioners' perceived use and relevance of performance psychology for dancers during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Dancers were perceived to be impacted both positively and negatively, notably reporting high relevance and use toward psychological and social aspects of the experience.Implications for Practice Transitional challenges need to be recognized and embedded within the dance talent development pathway Psychological Characteristics for Developing Excellence are yet to be formally exploited in dance practice A psychobehavioral curriculum should be explored in tandem with, and through, technical skills training Transitional challenges need to be recognized and embedded within the dance talent development pathwayPsychological Characteristics for Developing Excellence are yet to be formally exploited in dance practiceA psychobehavioral curriculum should be explored in tandem with, and through, technical skills training [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Research in Dance Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)