Working Memory, Perceived Stress and the Technical Abilities of Street Dancers – A Preliminary Study

Hip Hop Culture is a unique and important source of creativity and empowerment for young people.Like other sports, based on motor actions, only in this case mostly performed to music, Street Dance can bring countless benefits to a person's life.Considering the novelty that Street Dance brings, the fact that it is in a continuous development and that young people are more and more attracted by these dance styles, we considered this research beneficial.The scope of the research was to investigate the correlations between working memory, perceived stress and the technical abilities of preadolescent Street Dancers.12 street dancers, (2 boys and 10 girls), all secondary school students, took part in the study.As a part of the research we used the TIM test (part of the Psiselteva system) to assess working memory, the Delphy method for athletes' technical skills, and the Stress Perception Questionnaire (Makarowski & Plopa, 2010).A significant correlation between street dancers' emotional tension and working memory capacity was found.Also, a positive association between athletes' capacity to store and quickly process data, and athletes' technical skills drew our attention.Future studies should examine this possible link, on a larger number of preadolescent street dance practitioners.