Biofeedback and dance performance: A preliminary investigation

Alpha-theta neurofeedback has been shown to produce professionally significant perfor-mance improvements in music students. The present study aimed to extend this work to a different performing art and compare alpha-theta neurofeedback with another form of biofeedback: heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback. Twenty-four ballroom and Latin dancers were randomly allocated to three groups, one receiving neurofeedback, one HRV biofeedback and one no intervention. Dance was assessed before and after training. Per-formance improvements were found in the biofeedback groups but not in the control group. Neurofeedback and HRV biofeedback benefited performance in different ways. A replication with larger sample sizes is required. KEY WORDS: alpha/theta neurofeedback; heart rate variability (HRV); dance