Motivation in dance : Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of adult evening class pupils

The purpose of this study is to examine what motivates adult pupils to participate evening dance classes at School of Dance and Circus. In addition to this, the purpose is to find out if their motivation is more intrinsic or extrinsic. Furthermore, the study aims towards investigating how dance pedagogues can develop their teaching with this specific target group to support the pupil’s interests and desires. The questionnaires of one evening dance course consisting of 11 pupils are analysed with Grounded Theory. The results show that there are 15 motivational factors: Joy, Development in dance, Physical development, Promotion of mental well-being, Other activity and Other form of training, Price, Curiosity, Cognitive development, Challenge, Aesthetics, Different experience of dance class, Social interaction, Prevention of pain and Prevention of injuries. The first six ones can be summarized as Self-fulfilment that work as the basis for the theory of the study. It is also shown that the motivation of the target group is more intrinsic than extrinsic. Promotion of experience of flow and creativity, preference of using mastery goal structures and teaching with direct instructions enforce intrinsic motivation and serve pupils’ interests and desires. These are suggested to dance pedagogues to use for developing their teaching with this target group