Ballerinas as analysts: Former ballet dancers’ transfer of 21st century skills to careers as data analysts

Abstract

This qualitative study examines 21st century skills used by former ballerinas in their current careers as data analysts. Using the Partnership for 21st Century Learning’s list of 21st century skills as the framework, four unstructured interviews were analyzed. The findings indicate that the former ballerinas (1) articulate a connection between the creativity needed for ballet and data analysis, (2) recognize that their ballet training helped them develop 21st century skills needed to be data analysts, and (3) suggest that being a dancer influences their identity. These findings can contribute to the discussion of developing transferable skills essential to workplace success.

Keywords

21st century skills ballet data analysts learning transfer professional science Master’s qualitative research

Fidgeting and pacing throughout Miriam’s presentation detracted from her message and harmed her ethos as a competent rising professional. She worked hard on her graduate school presentations, but her body seemed to betray and undermine her efforts. It was not stage fright. She was a former ballerina and had performed and competed on many stages. It was only after Miriam was advised to apply what she knew as a ballerina to her current work that her presentations improved dramatically. Miriam began delivering her presentations while standing in parallel first position (ballet terminology for feet pointing forward and planted no more than hip-width apart) with arms in a loose bras bas or preparatory position (ballet terminology for hands low and relaxed by sides, back straight, shoulders down and back). She was able to eliminate her distracting movements, and her audience could focus on her technical content.

In order to succeed in 21st century jobs, such as data analyst—which has been called the “sexiest job of the 21st century” (Davenport and Patil, 2012)—graduates must have a combination of technical expertise and transferable skills. Employers have a growing interest in hiring and cultivating so called T-shaped professionals who possess both the deep-level domain knowledge of their field and broad business skills (Hansen, 2010; Hansen and von Oetinger, 2001; Harris, 2009; Rao, 2012). According to the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) survey conducted by Hart Research Associates (2015), employers expect graduates to possess transferable skills such as communication (interpersonal, written and presentations), teamwork, critical thinking, and other business skills. Research in the fields of engineering and business confirms the need for transferable skills (Curran, 2010; Desai et al., 2016; Felder and Brent, 2010; Gibb, 2013; Green and Blaszczynski, 2012; Robles, 2012). These transferable skills can often be referred to as 21st century skills (“21st Century Skills,” 2016; Chalkiadaki, 2018; Dede, 2010; Greenlaw, 2015; Harris, 2009; Kay, 2010).

Researchers, educators and employers agree that 21st century skills are vital. However, how to develop the skills and then transfer them to the workplace is an ongoing discussion (Koenig, 2011b). Educators in both K-12 and higher education are interested in how their curriculum facilitates the learning of 21st century skills (Chalkiadaki, 2018; Kay, 2010; Koenig, 2011a; Marzano and Heflebower, 2012). In addition to classroom and training opportunities for strengthening them, some point to the arts and their role in developing 21st century skills (Boyes and Reid, 2005; Brown et al., 2014; Catterall, 2005; Zambon, 2014).

Much research has been done about the importance of 21st century skills and transferable skills (Alpay and Walsh, 2008; Dede, 2010; Kaiser et al., 2013; Marzano and Heflebower, 2012; Merriam and Leahy, 2005; Wolff and Booth, 2017). However, because the field of analytics is so new, there has been little research on this quickly growing population of students. Although some work has been done concerning the field of big data and the development of degree programs in analytics, extensive studies about graduates of professional science Master’s (PSM) programs in analytics are lacking (Cao, 2017; Fitzgerald, 2015; Parry, 2018).

The overarching intent of this study is to start a discussion and contribute to the research about the transferable skills needed by data analytics graduate students. Inspired by an interaction with a former ballerina during communication training for PSM data analytics students, the purpose of the study is to explore 21st century skills used by former ballet dancers in pursuit of their advanced degree in analytics and a career as a data professional. In addition, the study aims to connect to existing research about STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and the arts, especially the creativity used in both the arts and science (Root-Bernstein, 2001, 2015), the benefits of focused training in the arts (Posner and Patoine, 2009), the differing intelligences used in dance, such as kinesthetic intelligence (Warburton, 2003), and the transferable skills gained from participation in the arts (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 2003; Root-Bernstein et al., 2013).

With those goals in mind, the three research questions that guided this study were as follows. (1) What do alumni of a PSM program in analytics who were former ballerinas perceive as the importance of their dance training? (2) What 21st century skills did alumni develop during their ballet training that have helped them during their graduate studies and careers in data analytics? (3) How has studying ballet influenced these alumni?

Conceptual framework

The framework for this research study is 21st century skills (The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009). Dede (2010) provides an examination of five differing frameworks that exist for 21st century skills and concludes that the “frameworks are generally consistent with each other” (p. 67), with each adding “different areas of emphasis within the overarching skillset” (p. 73). This study uses the skills listed by The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) because P21’s list is “more detailed and more widely adopted” (Dede, 2010: 57).

P21 organizes 21st century skills into multiple themes and categories. The overarching category is key subjects (such as English, math, science, history) and includes interdisciplinary themes. This study does not focus on these. Instead, the two categories relevant to this research are the learning and innovation skills and the life and career skills.

According to P21, the learning and innovation category includes three pairs of skills: communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, and critical thinking and problem-solving. Life and career skills include five pairs of skills: flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-control, leadership and responsibility, productivity and accountability, and social and cross-cultural skills.

It must be noted that researchers and educators have expressed valid and relevant concerns about 21st century skills—in relation both to the term and to the collection of skills. Naming a set of skills “21st century” implies that these skills were not needed in the previous century and that they will be needed for the entire span of the current century (Lucas, 2019). While the name has clear deficiencies, a lack of consensus on what should be included in a list of 21st century skills complicates the discussion further (Bernhardt, 2015; Mehta et al., 2019). Lastly, evidence-based decisions about how to teach these skills or evaluate them are lacking or missing entirely (Davies, 2018; Lucas, 2019). Often these discussions are centered on K-12 education; however, they are relevant to higher education as well.

So why use P21’s 21st century skills as the framework for a study about transferable skills of Master’s students? First, a list of transferable skills needed for success as a data analyst has not been codified. Lacking an agreed-upon list, the P21 list provides an established way to categorize the responses from participants. Second, although Mehta et al. (2019) are concerned about corporate influence on education, corporate influence is considered an important facet of PSM programs. The very structure of PSM programs relies on keeping “abreast of workforce demands through an external or employer advisory board” (Tobias and Strausbaugh, 2018: 9). Therefore, P21’s list of 21st century skills serves as an appropriate, although imperfect, framework for the discussion of transferable skills of PSM alumni—specifically, former ballerinas turned data analysts.

Literature review

Haskell (2001) defines learning transfer as the “use of past learning when learning something new and the application of that learning to both similar and new situations” (p. xiii). Haskell describes six levels of transfer: nonspecific, application, context, near, far and creative. Far transfer applies learning from one context to a dissimilar context (Perkins and Salomon, 1988). Creative transfer “refers to transferring learning in a way that leads to more than the insight of ‘that is like this’” (Haskell, 2001: 30). The kinds of transfer relevant to this study are far and creative transfer: taking skills learned in one context (ballet) and applying those skills in another context (data analytics careers).

Learning transfer is a complicated topic without easy answers. Researchers do not always agree on how transfer happens or on models of transfer (Cheng and Hampson, 2008; Perkins and Salomon, 1992). However, the transfer of learning is an important topic for research, and more is needed in order to gain a better understanding of how people apply learning from one context to another (Holton et al., 2000, Merriam and Leahy, 2005).

Learning transfer of 21st century skills is especially important to PSM degree programs. Launched by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Keck Foundation, PSMs are “designed to allow students to pursue advanced training in science, while developing workplace skills highly valued by employers” (Allum, 2013: 10). The science-PLUS curriculum is designed for students wanting advanced education but not interested in pursuing a PhD (Harkins and Strausbaugh, 2017). The technical aspects of the PSM degree are enhanced with the PLUS curriculum consisting of transferable business and communication skills that are used to complete an internship or other workplace experience (Tobias and Sims, 2006). The popularity of PSMs has grown substantially since their introduction in 1997 with more than 360 PSM programs recognized in the USA (Tobias and Strausbaugh, 2018). A recent survey of PSM programs noted that transferable skills like communication, leadership, strategic thinking and teamwork are vital parts of the curriculum (Harkins and Strausbaugh, 2017). Specifically, data scientists are expected to have transferable skills such as curiosity, creativity, communication, problem-solving and team skills (Ghosh, 2016).

The connection between arts and STEM disciplines, as well as what and how skills are transferred between them, has been studied in many fields and settings. Niemi (2012) identified a bridge between arts, science and innovation and how art “seems important to being a contributor to economic vitality and innovation in the United States workforce” (p. 21). Posner and Patoine (2009) suggest that art “may also lead to improvements in other brain functions” (p. 7).

Robert and Michele Root-Bernstein’s work about the transdisciplinary nature of knowledge and tools for thinking provides vital research to support the importance of arts and STEM integration. In their book Sparks of Genius (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 1999), they discuss 13 thinking tools: observing, imagining, abstracting, recognizing patterns, forming patterns, analogizing, body thinking, empathizing, dimensional thinking, modeling, playing, transforming and synthesizing. According to Root-Bernstein et al. (2013), a “skill used by many scientists is kinesthetic or body thinking. Dance is an especially effective way of learning of body thinking within a STEM environment” (p. 111). Other research in dance by the two Root-Bernsteins includes their investigation of Martha Graham’s polymathy and the importance of a transdisciplinary education that “makes connections across the curriculum by focusing on the nature of the creative process and developing transferable, imaginative skills necessary to lifelong learning” (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein, 2003: 25).

While the two Root-Bernsteins and their colleagues explored overall arts education, which included dance, other researchers have focused more specifically on dance. Deasy (2002) includes eight studies about dance in his compendium about learning in the arts. The compendium provides a critique of the studies and how they can contribute to the field of education. Studies have been done in high school settings to explore the themes of self-growth, interpersonal growth, growth and understanding relating to dance, and understanding connections between dance and other academic areas and work (Minton and Hofmeister, 2010). Minton and Hofmeister assert that dance is a way to foster 21st century skills based on observations, survey results and interviews with International Baccalaureate students. Their findings are consistent with other studies about the benefits of participating in the arts.

In addition, studies have been conducted with college students. Brown’s (2007) study of university students in the performing arts focuses on the transferable skills of teamwork, self-management, and effective learning and academic, personal, institutional issues and career workforce preparation. Most of the college students who participated in the study believed that arts courses were improving their problem-solving skills, communication skills, creative abilities and teamwork. Cobb Payton et al. (2017) focused on STEM majors participating in arts curricula, specifically dance. They found that participating in the arts was fundamental to the students’ experience and noted similarities between the rigor of both curricula (lab time for STEM and studio time for dance). Research studies are not the only way that the connection between dance and transferable skills is being shared. Professors at the University of Washington are helping students to see how skills learned in dance transfer to other classes and future work. The faculty teaching the dance department’s senior seminar “focus on cultivating creative problem solving, critical thinking, and a fearless willingness to try new things” (University of Washington, 2015).

High school and college students are aware of transferable skills developed through their engagement with the arts. In addition, professional dancers are keenly aware of the transferable skills that can be developed through serious dance training. Jeffri’s (2005) study indicates that most dancers recognize their transferable skills of self-discipline, teamwork and stamina. Self-discipline and teamwork fall into the categories of 21st century skills. Overall, studies about correlations between the arts and STEM find that “participants were explicitly aware of the connection between their ACD [arts, crafts, design] avocations; their STEMM [science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical] work; and the tools, skills, and knowledge derived from the former” (Root-Bernstein et al., 2019: 1910).

The intention of this study is to reify the importance of the transferable 21st century skills that can be developed through serious dance training by adding a new group of participants: Master’s level data analysts. As the field of big data grows, more attention and interest must be afforded to students pursuing a graduate degree in analytics.

Method

In this study the researcher investigated how former ballet dancers perceived the importance of their dance training, what transferable skills they developed and how their ballet training influenced them. Four former ballerinas who were also alumni from a PSM analytics program were interviewed about the transferable skills they gained from their dance background.

Participants

The study was conducted using nonprobabilistic purposeful sampling (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016a). A message was posted to the approximately 300 female alumni on the PSM’s alumni mailing list, asking for former ballerinas to participate in an interview about their dance training (NB: male ballet dancers, called “danseurs,” were not part of this particular study). Because the possible population is so small, a small sample was inevitable. Participants must have had extensive previous ballet experience to qualify for the study as defined by dancing en pointe (i.e. dancing using pointe shoes)—sometimes pointe shoes are called “toe shoes” by people outside of ballet because the hardened box that surrounds the dancer’s foot allows them to dance on the tips of their toes. In order to dance en pointe, dancers must have significant training and strength. This limited the sample to just four women to participate in semi-structured interviews.

Participants were given pseudonyms so they could not be directly identified: Eliza, Leah, Karmen and Joanna. Eliza, Leah and Joanna are white and Karmen is Hispanic. Eliza and Leah are in their early 20s, Joanna in her late 20s and Karmen in her 30s. All graduated within the last 10 years with their Master’s degree and are currently working as data analysts. All four women trained extensively in ballet, starting in elementary school. As they matured, their time in the ballet studio increased—dancing more than 20 hours per week. The height of their ballet training came during high school and early college. Karmen was a professional ballerina for a short time before she began studying analytics. All four continue to do some dancing; however, none continues to train at the same level they once did.

Data collection

The main data source of this study was individual interviews, which were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. Each interview lasted approximately 1 hour. At the start of each interview, a short briefing (Kvale, 2007) covered the process of the interview, including the disclosure of recording and the general purpose of the research. Minimal time was needed to establish rapport because the researcher and the participants had established a good relationship prior to the interview. The secondary data source was researcher field notes taken during the interviews.

The researcher used a semi-structured interview (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016b) process based on a list of three main interview prompts and possible probing questions to encourage participants to share more detail. The prompts were: tell me about your dance experience, what transferable skills did you develop as a dancer and how has your experience as a dancer influenced your experience in the field of analytics?

The researcher applied the “listen more, talk less” (Seidman, 2005: 63) strategy to allow space for the interviewee to share as much as she was comfortable with. The researcher’s goal for the interviews was to take on an attitude of qualified naïveté by “exhibiting openness to new and unexpected phenomena, rather than having ready-made categories and schemes of interpretations” (Kvale, 2007: 12). Although the framework for the study is P21’s 21st century skills, at no point did the researcher suggest the list of skills to the participants. Instead, the researcher used only the word “transferable” when asking questions about skills. The aim of this approach was to avoid leading questions that would “reveal a bias or assumption that the researcher is making” (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016b: 121). By allowing the participants to identify their own transferable skills with their own words, the hope is that the results are more authentic to the individual participants.

Process

After interviews were completed, the researcher used the recordings and transcribed each interview using a verbatim oral approach (Kvale, 2007), in which laughter, filler words and pauses were noted. All identifiable information, such as graduation date, undergraduate university, current employment, names of team members, practicum project sponsors and geographical location, were removed. This is especially important because the sample size is so small: with any of that information, the participant could be readily identified.

After the transcripts had been prepared, the researcher used member checks as a “strategy for ensuring validity in qualitative research” (Merriam, 2002: 26). Each participant received a copy of her transcript and was asked to review it. One participant corrected three sentences to make them more precise. Otherwise, the transcripts did not need to be altered.

Analysis

The researcher analyzed the transcripts using open coding techniques, grouped open codes by a priori categories, noted patterns and developed themes and assertions (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The field notes were used to support decisions about coding, categories and selection of appropriate quotations.

First cycle coding

For the first pass, the transcripts were coded line-by-line. The researcher used in vivo coding to capture “words or short phrases from the participant’s own language” (Miles et al., 2014: 74). This first cycle coding process generated more than two dozen codes. As a result of using in vivo codes, the codebook was difficult to manage because some of the codes overlapped. Although first cycle coding provided a good start to the analysis, the second cycle coding made the analysis more manageable.

Grouping open codes using a priori categories

During the second cycle coding, the initial codes were categorized using the eight skills from P21’s 21st century skills categories of learning and innovation and life and career. In addition to the eight 21st century categories, four emerging themes became additional categories: dealing with setbacks, managing social life, finding academic success and reflecting on feelings about ballet as an adult.

Changes to codebook

In order to best use the list from P21 for this research study, the definitions of the skills were edited so that overlapping skills were eliminated, and each set of skills had a definition distinctly different from the other skills. This final codebook was used to analyze the transcripts for a third time.

Conclusion drawing

Using the patterns established through the multiple rounds of coding, the jottings and the analytic memoing as recommended by Miles et al. (2014), the researcher analyzed the data and identified three assertions based on the analysis of the interviews.

Researcher positionality

The researcher is a self-identified balletomane—a ballet enthusiast. Previous ballet experience, a professional ballerina for a daughter and volunteer work backstage for both student and professional ballets has shaped the researcher’s attitude toward ballet. While acknowledging that ballet has a dark side—eating disorders, body image issues, low pay, exhaustive training and stressful competition—the researcher values the ballet and the artists who perform it.

The researcher had a teacher–student relationship with all four of the interview participants. This serves as both an advantage (rapport had been established prior to the interview) and disadvantage (responses may be influenced by the power dynamic of the previous relationship). In noting the relationship, the researcher hopes to assuage any misgivings about the authenticity of the participants’ responses by addressing the situation in order to “allow the reader to better understand how the individual researcher might have arrived at the particular interpretation of the data” (Merriam, 2002: 26). First, the participants are no longer in a teacher–student relationship with the researcher. The alumni voluntarily agreed to the interviews without any compensation or fear of consequences for not participating. Second, the relationship that the researcher and participants had prior to the interviews was professionally friendly. Lastly, the insider relationship allowed the researcher and the participants to speak comfortably about their shared interest.

Findings

The data analysis focused on answering the three research questions: what do participants perceive as the importance of their dance training; what 21st century skills did participants develop during their dance training; and how has ballet influenced the participants? The following three assertions can be supported from the data analysis of the interviews and the field notes: (1) creativity was identified as the most important transferable skill for a data analyst; (2) the former ballerinas identified eight 21st century skills that they had developed during their dance training and used in their current work as data analysts; and (3) the participants’ identities were influenced by their ballet training.

Creativity

Creativity is one of the 21st century learning and innovation skills. The theme of creativity was evident in each of the interviews, and the participants indicated that creativity was extremely important to their current work as data analysts. When thinking about data analytics, art is not usually the first concept that comes to mind: data analytics is usually associated with numbers, logic, programming, and science. However, both Eliza and Leah specifically discussed how they viewed both ballet and the field of data analytics as an art and a science. Eliza said:

They say analytics is a science and an art. I feel like the dance side of me brought that part to it. It allows me to take the science behind it and think about how to do it in so many different ways. Whereas if I didn’t have that background, and was completely science, science, science, or school driven my whole life, I think I might have lost some of that creativity and that creative mind to be able to venture down this path.

Eliza made connections between adjusting to new music or choreographers and thinking creatively. Her dance experience made her “think on her toes, literally.” The creativity and discipline required for dance translates to her work in analytics and allows her “to see things in different ways than most people” in the analytical world. Leah reflected that in her work as a data analyst she gets to “do art in a different way than I was doing when I was dancing.”

Joanna was also clear about the importance of creativity developed in ballet being important to her work. She said:

Creativity from dance that’s huge. My favorite part about it is being able to think of a routine and making it your own and I think that’s directly applicable to all of my projects. I probably wouldn’t be happy in my job if it was a very standardized process. So, learning how to figure things out on my own and make them my own and follow them through from start to finish that’s transferred from dance to my current job.

Karmen discussed creativity in terms of talent and learning to find the story in the music. Her early experiences with The Nutcracker music and learning choreography from different instructors had influenced her. Overall, creativity plays an important role in the participants’ current work.

Applying 21st century skills

None of the participants was surprised that they had developed skills other than dance-specific abilities during their dance training. However, it was evident that the act of reflecting on their dance experience during the interview made them realize just how much their dance training had offered them. Eliza prefaced many responses with “looking back,” indicating that she was reflecting and making new connections. Leah began a response with “I think reflecting on the reason I love dance….” Later, she had a significant realization about the connection between her past dance training and her current work demands: “I have never even really made the connection between dance and my career. It has always seemed pretty separate in my mind until I started to think about it.” Karmen said, “Now that I look backwards, I think I’ve used it [ballet training] in a lot of situations and definitely that made me stronger to pretty much understand the situation and keep pushing myself beyond.” Joanna made a connection between her current work of juggling multiple priorities: “I think I had to do that as well when I was dancing.” So, not only do the participants link their development of 21st century skills to their dance training; they actually demonstrated the use of their critical thinking and problem-solving skills during the interviews.

Learning and innovation skills

The three pairs of skills in the learning and innovation category are communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation (discussed above), and critical thinking and problem-solving. All participants noted experiences in dance that had allowed them to develop or hone all three of these learning and innovation skills pairs that they use as data analysts today.

Communication and collaboration skills: Communication and collaboration skills are important for working together with diverse team members. Participants discussed their experiences with their fellow dancers which had helped to shape their communication skills. Specifically, Eliza noted that the way she had learned choreography had informed the way that she currently taught coworkers programming skills. She said:

I will break it down, provide example code, and try to show step by step how I got to where I was, which I think is very similar, the same thing as choreography—it’s showing someone step by step to get the same end result.

Karmen added a different aspect of communication to the discussion because her first language is not English. She commented that learning and working in an environment that was not in her native language was a challenge, but one she was prepared to accept because of her determination and grit established in her dance training.

Leah discussed the challenges of working on a team and competing against close friends for coveted roles. She said:

Everyone in the company wants the same ones [roles] and they’re also your best friends and you learn about being happy for each other and accepting the part that you’re given because you don’t really have a say in it. You just have to work as hard as you can and be happy for others. Our teachers really liked to emphasize the spirit of community and all of that. And that they didn’t want to make it a competitive environment, but by nature it is kind of a competitive place.

Leah noted a connection between her getting cast in certain roles in a ballet with the job search process at the end of her PSM program. During job season, students are interviewed for the same jobs in a very public process. Leah commented:

They’re also your friends who you’ve been getting to know for many months at that point. And that’s really emphasized too, before the job process starts, is helping each other and being happy for each other throughout that whole time, because otherwise it’s just gonna crush you and make you go crazy.

Joanna described her dance experience as less competitive and more focused on being a team. In her current work, she values her team and appreciates the support, even though she works on projects independently. The way she describes her work as an individual endeavor that is supported by a team, available to review work and whose members learn from each other, is similar to what a dancer must do. A ballerina must be able to perform her choreography, but she must also be able to work together with other people as a member of a team.

Critical thinking and problem-solving skills: Reflecting on experience and solving problems by considering different points of view is an important skill for data analysts. The former ballerinas identified their ballet experience as shaping the way that they thought about and looked at different situations. Eliza values the fact that her dance training enables her to view things differently from her coworkers. Leah explained that there is “always something you can improve on—the challenge of reaching that impossible standard,” and she believes that this applies to both ballet and data analytics. Ballerinas can always improve their technique, musicality, flexibility and execution; and data analysts can always improve their cleaning, coding, programming, analyzing and visualizing skills. All participants indicated that both ballet and data analytics were mentally challenging. Karmen is drawn to both ballet and data analytics because of those challenges. She says she does not “want to be going through life in an easy way. I want it to be challenging and painful because I enjoy that, and I think that’s something that ballet gave me.”

Joanna attributes her careful approach to ballet. She said, “I like to really think through everything before I say something or do or make a decision.” While she notes that this may be considered a negative trait, the cautious and careful approach to decision making serves her well as an analyst where she needs to interpret, analyze and evaluate information.

Life and career skills

The five pairs of skills in the life and career category are flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-control, leadership and responsibility, productivity and accountability, and social and cross-cultural skills. All four participants described developing these five pairs of skills during their ballet training.

Flexibility and adaptability: Of course, the former ballerinas were physically flexible. However, physical flexibility is not the topic of this skill; instead, the focus is on being able to adapt to change, apply feedback appropriately and accept praise and criticism.

Joanna has found flexibility to be a challenge in her career. As a dancer she had class, run-throughs and dress rehearsals prior to a performance. These days she often does not have the ability to prepare as much as she likes. “Sometimes in work you have to be a little more flexible and you don’t always have that time to prepare. That’s been a little tough because I would always prepare before time.” Eliza attributes some flexibility and adaptability to working with different choreographers and also teaching. Karmen notes that she can identify resilience and adaptability in dancers now in other professions. Karmen says that ballerinas learn a lot about “dealing with frustration…Your body and your mind are never going to be exactly the same, so it requires a lot of focus and concentration to pretty much get the output that you’re looking for.” As an English-as-a-second-language speaker, Karmen had to deal with the frustrations of learning a complex topic in a language that was not her own. She said:

English was not my first language and statistics of course it’s hard in your own language. Now imagine in your second. In your second language it was a little frustrating, but I pretty much had that sense of resilience to say okay I understand today is not my best day…I’m just going to push myself as much as I can today, and tomorrow is going to be another day…The second thing that I learned from ballet is I had this teacher that she always was yelling at us that the body always goes beyond what the mind thinks.

Leah identified the importance of accepting feedback and adapting. She said:

I think a huge part of dance is accepting criticism and not even accepting criticism, but even coming to crave that feedback. So, we were always taught by our teachers to do that gracefully and the whole frame of mind was that they’re trying to help you and make you better. If you’re not getting criticism that means that they’ve given up on you and that you don’t think you can or want to improve…I think is a huge part of life and something that doesn’t come easily to everyone now in the workplace. I still crave feedback now. I’m doing it in all areas…I think that was a big lesson, maybe the biggest lesson.

Leah believes that she is able to be open to feedback because she is not discouraged by criticism. Instead, she finds it encouraging and uses it to adapt and improve. She says in dance you must accept feedback “and then try to apply it as quickly as you can because you’re gonna keep getting that same feedback until you have applied the correction and then you’ll be able to work on other things and perfect other things.”

Initiative and self-control: All the participants discussed the drive that was needed to pursue their passion for dance. They identify themselves as self-directed with a commitment to the process of learning and striving for advanced skills. All four women balanced full schedules of dance and school. Eliza acknowledged that it was stressful, but claimed:

I was always the type of person that wanted to stay busy. I thrive off of being busy. So that worked really well for me because I had school and that set schedule. It was stressful. But dance was also kinda my release from all of that.

Eliza and Leah both attribute their dance training to developing patience and working hard. Leah appreciates that ballet helped her realize that “the value of hard work doesn’t necessarily show itself to you right away.” Karmen and Joanna acknowledge how much work it takes to be successful as both ballerina and data analyst. Karmen said, “It’s not only talent but it requires a lot of sweat from your side to say ok, I want to get good at this. Definitely it requires a lot of effort.” Joanna said, “To achieve your goals, [you need] self-dedication and learning how to do something on your own. You’d have to practice outside if you wanted to achieve your goals in class. You can’t just rely on being in the studio.”

Leadership and responsibility: The participants were clear that their dance training had required them to take on responsibility at an early age. Eliza discussed how she could figure out how to deliver what her clients needed because she had practiced that responsibility in dance. Leah noted that being responsible was “just a matter of actually doing what you signed up for, and I think that’s also a lesson that I’ve carried with me.” Joanna learned “how to be really dedicated and achieve personal goals while also making sure that I was not interfering with other groups around me.” Leah discussed being an understudy and how important the role was, even though it was rarely necessary to actually perform the understudied part. Karmen commented on the difficulties of becoming a soloist and the preparation time that was required. The participants found that similar leadership and responsibility skills were needed in teams for school and work.

Productivity and accountability: The participants had developed skills to set and meet goals because of the demanding nature of their ballet training. As ballerinas, they had balanced schoolwork, time in the studio and performances. Eliza said:

Having to follow that rigorous schedule in high school and ultimately trying to maintain levels in school to be able to go to college and things after…that discipline has been able to translate over into my day to day work…, [I’ve] been able to transfer into my personal life. I am very type A because of it. So, I like to have a schedule. I like to follow it. I am very disciplined.

Karmen said she often missed out on time with friends and family because of rehearsal commitments. Joanna and Leah cited time management as an important skill they had developed. Joanna said, “I feel like I had a lot less time than even people that were on school sports.” Eliza explained that her schedule was so full that she had to fit in time to do homework:

Most of the time because I did not have much time, I’d usually spend a lot of my lunches or breaks in between dance classes to do homework to keep up with the school stuff…I’d also be studying for tests or doing homework during this time so it pretty much anytime I had a break I would be focusing on my schoolwork to keep up.

Leah also found time to squeeze in her homework:

Dance really helped me with learning how to have time management pretty early on because I also wanted to be to be successful in school and do my best in school. So, I had to just fill in the gap…So, I would always bring some piece of homework to dance.

In addition to time management and balancing workloads, Joanna indicated that project management skills had transferred from dance to her work as a data analyst.

Social and cross-cultural skills: Working with different teachers, navigating complex relationships as both friends and rivals for performance and competition roles, and learning from different choreographers had all contributed to the participants’ development of social and cross-cultural skills. Leah commented about the need to make changes when she transitioned from her dance company at home to college: “It was a very different environment than the dancing that I had done.” She also noted that adapting to the different teachers, students and choreographers “does require some effort from your side.” Karmen discussed her challenges of training in another country. She had had to learn a new style to adapt to the other members of the company. Leah discussed how important it had been to her that her friends were also dancers with her. In contrast, Eliza, Karmen and Joanna noted that dance had kept them away from their friends outside of dance. They discussed how difficult it had been to balance the rigors of their training with a social life. Lastly, Joanna discussed how different styles of dance influenced movement and how her ballet training had made her appreciate the diversity of styles.

Identity

All four dancers revealed that their ballet training had greatly influenced their identity or personality. This emerging theme is not directly related to the eight 21st century skills in this study. However, all the participants clearly stated that dance training and ballet experience had shaped their personalities. They described how being a ballerina had improved their patience, discipline, interpersonal interactions and dealing with setbacks. Although these skills can be included in the 21st century skills categories, they deserve separate consideration. Eliza said that her ballet training had influenced her a lot and the influence continued to be present in her daily work. Karmen noted that being a dancer was part of who she is:

I think it is part of my personality now…But, it’s very wired in me definitely to deal with frustration and deal with pain because definitely ballet, it requires a lot of dealing [with pain]. Pain—it’s not only physical, also in your mind and also in your feelings about how you think about yourself…I did think about that in ballet, but I think it’s also very very in me right now. And actually, I deal with it every day and as a data scientist. We do deal with a lot of frustration every day and definitely that’s something that it has given me the ability to pretty much overcome any challenge that I have.

Karmen recognizes that ballerinas have skills that are visible outside the dance studio:

I’ve seen dancers that are not only data scientist[s] but in different professions as well and you can actually see the resilience that a ballerina can have. So, I do think that there is a correlation.

Joanna recognized that her ballet training encouraged her to push herself:

I do stress my body into going above and beyond what my mind thinks it does. Those two combinations I think are two key things. I have seen it and now that I look backwards, I think I’ve used it in a lot of situations and definitely that made me stronger to pretty much understand the situation and keep pushing myself beyond.

All four dancers had faced a difficult decision to leave dance. Each had made the choice to step away from the studio and focus on other pursuits—specifically math and technology. Leah explained that math and ballet were very similar:

Math was always my favorite subject in school—was my best subject in school. It came the most naturally to me and I think it’s set up in a very similar way to ballet in that if you’re taking a math test you follow all the rules that you’d be given and then you get the right answer. You know it’s right and the teacher knows it’s right and no else can debate whether or not it’s right.

The participants agreed with each other about the importance of their dance training, the kinds of skills they had developed, and that dance was and continued to be an important part of their personality or identity.

Discussion

Overall, the former ballerinas in this study recognized that their dance training had developed more than just physical skills. This is consistent with the findings of other researchers, including Root-Bernstein et al. (2013) and Posner and Patoine (2009). First, the participants named creativity as being the most important aspect of their experience as dancers and analysts. Creativity is one of the learning and innovation skills, but was singled out as being more important than the eight other skills. Root-Bernstein (2001) posited that “creativity comes from finding the unexpected connection, from making use of skills, ideas, insights and analogies from disparate fields” (p. 66). Second, without prompting, the participants recognized that they had developed all eight 21st century skills in the categories of life and career and innovation and learning during their dance training. They also use these 21st century skills in their current work as data analysts. The former dancers seem to have identified what Root-Bernstein (2001) calls “correlative talents…skills or abilities in several different areas that can be integrated to yield surprising and effective results” (p. 19). Third, the participants continue to identify with being a dancer even though they are no longer serious ballet dancers.

Other factors certainly influenced the development of the skills and the participants’ identities. In no way is this study attempting to assert that ballet was the sole contributor to their identities. It is important to not confuse correlation with causation, specifically when considering arts education and the potential outcomes or benefits (Burton et al., 2000; Posner and Patoine, 2009; Root-Bernstein, 2015; Root-Bernstein et al., 2013). However, on reflection, the participants did draw specific connections between the skills they had developed during ballet with the skills they were using now as data professionals. The findings suggest that ballet training played an important role for these participants. This is consistent with other research. Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein (2003) suggest that “a dance is not an equation; but the way one invents and learns a dance is the same way that one invents and learns an equation. Students who learn to pay attention to the creative process learn how to learn” (p. 25). Although the skill set of a ballerina may seem to be in the realm of physical expertise, the mental, emotional and interpersonal skills developed are used well beyond their days in the studio. This finding is consistent with research that indicates that “many STEM professionals find useful analogies between their creative processes as artists or craftspeople and as scientists or engineers” (Root-Bernstein, 2015: 209).

Most interestingly, the act of talking about the skills developed through ballet training seemed to bring these skills to the forefront for the participants. Although they were not prompted with any of the specific 21st century skills, all the dancers identified that they had developed all eight of the skills through their training by citing specific instances and describing the skills. One take-away from this research is that it may not be just the previous experience but the reflection on the previous experience that is important. By being asked to describe transferable skills, the former ballerinas had to consider what they had taken from their dance training and how they currently used it. Now that they have this awareness, they are able to make connections between a seemingly unrelated activity (ballet) and their current work (data analysis).

Although not generalizable because of the sample size and the nature of qualitative research (Miles et al., 2014), the study does contribute to areas of research (learning transfer of arts education, transferable skills and PSM programs) that need further exploration. As with all qualitative research, the aim is not to make claims that apply to all cases. In addition, the researcher is not suggesting that ballet training was the only variable contributing the development of these participants’ 21st century skills. Rather, the findings show that these former ballerinas recognize their ballet training as important to their current work as data analysts.

Saying that the arts can support STEM careers is a common argument used to justify arts curricula and participation (Boyes and Reid, 2005). However, the primary role of the arts is not to provide transferable 21st century skills for STEM careers. Instead, “what is critical is not that capacities and dispositions transfer, but that they are exercised broadly across different knowledge domains and that no subject has prior rights over any other subject” (Burton et al., 2000: 255). It is not the intention of this study to suggest that the value of ballet training for the participants is that it serves them in their careers. Rather, the intention is to show how ballet influenced these data analysts. Ideally, arts such as dance would not be considered mere “luxuries or forms of entertainment” (Root-Bernstein et al., 2013: 113), but rather as important transdisciplinary tools.

A secondary goal of the study is to begin building a body of research about data analytics graduate students by encouraging other researchers to examine this field more closely. The findings of this research could be important to PSM programs in analytics and in other fields as well. The study could contribute to the ongoing research about 21st century skills. Specifically, it could provide important information about data analytics students’ transferable 21st century skills, an area that has not been carefully explored.

Future studies with more participants could help reify the role of ballet training in the development of 21st century skills. A larger sample size could be achieved by not limiting the participants to a particular degree program. Using a mixed methods approach could gather more data that could be used to analyze the factors that contribute to the development of 21st century skills. Another approach to rethinking this research is to perform a similar study with dancers other than ballerinas.

Limitations

The researcher acknowledges that three limitations of this study must be considered: sample size, format and self-reported data. Although the researcher cannot claim that saturation was met with just four participants, the similar responses to the interview questions suggest that this sample size is adequate for the purpose of this study (Kvale, 2007). An additional concern about the small number of participants is that only one person of color was represented. Typically, people of color are underrepresented as ballerinas and as data analysts. So, that is a frustrating and unfortunate, but not surprising, limitation of the study. As recommended by Merriam and Tisdell (2016a), the researcher used triangulation of interview and field notes, member checks, a researcher positionality statement, peer review, audit trail and descriptions that are thick and rich to address the potential concerns about the limited number of participants.

A second limitation is that not all the interviews were conducted in the same way. Three of the interviews were done using video conferencing and one was done in a face-to-face setting. The reason for the difference is that three of the participants are no longer living in the same area as the researcher. Although there are differences in the format of the interviews, the previous rapport established meant that the video format did not detract from the intimacy of the interview. The participants using the video conferencing were comfortable with the format and it simulated the face-to-face setting appropriately.

As with any interview, the data collected during this study was self-reported. This study was not intended to measure the degree to which the participants used skills from ballet training in their current careers; rather, it was intended to explore whether the participants recognized and reported specific skills learned from ballet. The field notes collected helped to reflect on the participants’ responses.

Conclusions

The transferable 21st century skills developed during their ballet training serve these dancers well in their careers as data analysts. The researcher plans to use these findings to help more students find a connection between the skills developed from a dedicated pursuit in the arts and the transferable skills that are needed in their future workplaces. The researcher was not surprised that the dancers developed and recognized that they had developed valuable skills during their ballet training. With more time, repeating this study with additional participants may reveal valuable insights into how passionate commitment to ballet creates skills that can be used across disciplines and may help to shape a data analyst.

The findings may encourage faculty to consider the many ways of thinking and learning that students bring with them, especially ways of thinking and learning that are developed and honed through the arts such as ballet. It is worth reiterating that the arts are not and should not be in service to STEM, but the arts can contribute to students’ overall learning and “may help individuals to develop the kinds of skills and knowledge that foster innovation in science and technologies” (Root-Bernstein et al., 2013: 97). As educators, we can help students make connections between their interest in the arts and their interest in STEM, while encouraging them to reflect on the value of their arts experience and its contribution to their lifelong learning.

Miriam, in the account that begins this paper, adjusted her presentation skills by applying physical skills developed from her ballet training. Similarly, the participants in this study use their creativity skills, innovation and learning skills, and life and career skills every day as data analysts.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Sarah Egan Warren

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