Dr Peter Lovatt AKA Doctor Dance

Dr Peter Lovatt holds a PhD in Psychology and is a published author on topics such as thinking, learning, problem-solving, memory, Parkinson’s disease, rhythm and timing.  He has spent over a quarter of a century teaching all over the country, from Cambridge University to the Royal Ballet School. He has spent his career researching Psychology, movement and dance, through which he became affectionately known as the one and only Doctor Dance.

Dr Peter Lovatt held the academic post of Reader and Principal Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire from 2004 to 2019. It was here that he ran the Dance Psychology Lab. His academic research addresses questions such as: what’s the link between dancing and neurodegeneration? How does dancing change the way people feel, think and solve problems? And, why is the way we move linked to our hormonal and genetic make up? Peter has a BSc in Psychology and English, a MSc in Neural Computation and a PhD in Experimental Cognitive Psychology. He carried out his post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge.

Before studying psychology, Peter was a professional dancer. He trained in dance and musical theatre at the Guildford School of Acting. Peter decided to combine the study of dance and psychology in 2008 and became known as Doctor Dance after his work was featured on TV, radio and in the national and international press

As a TV Dance Psychologist, he’s appeared on many popular shows, including Strictly Come Dancing: It takes two, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, Big Brother’s Bit on the Side and the Graham Norton Show.

Peter has been interviewed and had his work reported in serious and mainstream magazines (e.g. Scientific American Mind, Psychologies, Cosmopolitan, Top Sante) and in the broadsheet and tabloid press (e.g. The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, The Observer and The Sun). He has also appeared on serious, scientific radio programmes (e.g. Radio 4’s Today Programme, Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio 5 Live) on television and in the specialist dance press (e.g. Dance Today).

Internationally, he has been featured in the American press and TV (e.g. Good Morning America), in Europe, Russia, India and Australia. Videos of him discussing his research have been very popular on-line. One of Dr Dance’s videos, which sat on the BBC Radio 4 website for over four years, has appeared on the top 10 most watched videos on the BBC website.

Since 2016 his research on mood changes following dance classes for people with Parkinson’s disease has formed part of the OCR A-level Psychology syllabus.

Peter’s book, The Dance Cure, was published in the UK in 2020 and was listed as one of the Best Books of 2020 by The Observer. Darcey Bussell said about the Dance Cure, “Peter has brilliantly put into words what I have felt my whole dancing life; that the power of dance can liberate and change all our lives.”