Kinesthetic Intelligence: Learning through Dance

Many cultures value dance as a form of non-verbal communication.  What can we learn through dance?   Is it possible to use dance for self-improvement to gain deeper knowledge of ourselves as we dance or others as we watch their performance? 

I was intrigued by the post "The brain dancer: How about a little movement in your mediation? Just a little?" at Brains on Purpose.  (As a former ESL instructor, I had fun watching the kinesthetic representation of regular and irregular verbs in the video.)   I also happened to be reading the article "A Nonverbal Language for Imagining and Learning: Dance Education in K–12 Curriculum" [PDF] by Judith Lynne Hanna at the time.  She writes:

"Drawing from movements in everyday life, dance stylizes movement with a degree of conventionality or distinctiveness. A multichanneled system, dance is embodied cognition that can convey declarative, procedural, and emotional knowledge, apart from co-occurring with speech or being an element of a sign language."

Judith Lynne Hanna describes six symbolic devices to encode meaning through dance:

"Concretization is movement that produces the outward aspect of something, such as a warrior dance displaying advance and retreat battle tactics. An icon represents most characteristics of something and is responded to as if it actually were what it represents. For example, a Haitian dancer manifesting through a specific dance the presence of Ghede, the god of love and death, is treated by fellow Haitians with genuine awe and gender-appropriate behavior—as if the dancer were actually the god himself. A stylization encompasses arbitrary and conventional gestures or movements, such as a ballet dancer pointing to his heart as a sign of love for his lady. A metonym is a motional conceptualization of one thing representing another of which it is a part, such as a romantic duet representing an affair. The most common way of encoding meaning in dance is through metaphor, the expression of one thought, experience, or phenomenon in place of another that it resembles.  Illustrative of joining different domains are contrastive movement patterns for men and women referring to their distinct biological and social roles. Actualization is a portrayal of one or several of a dancer's usual roles, such as a woman who performs in a dance for mothers, to convey her maternal role."

If we were to use the above devices to encode, for example, the meaning of an interpersonal conflict through dance, what would it look like?  Perhaps, we could explore the conflict as follows:

Concretization:  Use movement to express the development of the conflict and its effects on the lives of the conflicting parties.

An icon:  Represent the other side, or dance in the opposing party's shoes.

A stylization:  Express the feelings about the conflict through gestures and movement.

A metonym:  Convey the most important thing about the conflict though movement.

A metaphor:  Use a kinesthetic metaphor to represent the conflict.

Actualization:  Embody your typical role or your desired role in the conflict.    

What could we learn from this "conflicted dance" activity?  Among other things, we could learn to:

• Express ourselves non-verbally;
• Process our own assumptions, ideas, judgments about the conflict kinesthetically;
• Develop empathy to the movement and body language;
• Explore metaphoric associations;
• Read non-verbal clues;
• Use our body as a guide in making decisions;
• Heighten sensory perception;
• Release emotions through dance;
• Induce emotions through dance;
• Evoke the memory of an emotion through dance.

And it can be a fun workout and stress-relief activity too.    

Is there anything on your mind that makes you feel stuck?  Perhaps, you can explore your challenge through dance.

Comments

[dance]

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