April 6, 2008 at 3:39 pm (Health)
Dance is inherent in every living thing from the swirl of atoms and molecules to the movement of galaxies. If thought about, all things dance. The simplest definition one could give of dance would simply be movement. For anything to exist it has to have motion or as the great philosopher Alan Watts said; resonance. Resonance is an echo and requires motion. Even what we would ordinarily consider to be static stationary objects, at a deeper level have movement. This simple movement could be considered a dance; in this context dance being the interplay of subatomic particles, atoms, molecules and so on. All dance requires space – that is for anything to move it requires somewhere to move. As a corollary this movement produces sound or resonance. This is well documented in Vedic literature where the entire universe is perceived as a symphony of sounds produced by vibrations of energy. This energy being pervasive animates all things, indeed BEING all things; it gives rise to all that we see feel and experience.Dance as one would more commonly think is expressive movement – and it is interesting to observe the similarity of the words motion and emotion – or one could say; Motion = emotion! Perhaps this is why dance is creative in nature and can have such a powerful impact on how one feels and expresses themselves. It would also explain why dance is useful in therapy and can be used to convey story as seen in theatrical performances. Interestingly enough our body language says far more than our words – according to Ray L Birdwhistell who carried out research in the 1970’s named kinesis and context. In short he discovered that more than half of our communication is expressed through our physiology; the rest through our tonality and words. This makes me think of the proverb:- Actions speak louder than words!
Perhaps this is why dance is able to convey such strong emotion and can tell a story. Dance is also synonymous with music so much so they are almost dualistic in nature. Music is also what makes dance fun exciting and invigorating or slow relaxed and introspective. Music and dance have so much in common that to separate them would be an arbitrary task. As with music, dance can also involve solo to group performances with some styles of dance only being suitable for you and your partner, such as swing or ballroom! Dance is a wonderful form of expression and can be fluid, rhythmic or gesticulatory. Involving the movement of legs hands fingers and toes; each of our extremities all exquisitely designed to allow for a myriad styles of movement. With our bodies so perfectly created to express such movement we can release powerful emotions and in turn heal our bodies of stress, psychological burden and repressed memories.
How does this work? What is the process that makes this healing possible?
In my opinion in comes back to the two words motion/emotion. Motion or dance allows us to explore emotion because when we move in specific ways we invariably experience specific states. Altered states and increased awareness through directed intentional movement can free us from limiting patterns of behaviour and if practiced regularly can create new physical connections in our neurology thus altering our perception of the world who we are and how we fit in.
With an art form such as dance using words to describe it is like a student of Zen trying to explain Zen. Basically it can’t be done; it has to be experienced. Dance could very well be a Zen experience. A direct experience of self and reality where the dancer is lost and only the dance remains. So whenever you’re feeling low or stuck in negativity get into the rhythm and swing it!
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April 7, 2008 at 11:07 am
[...] Cacaolover’s Weblog wrote an interesting post today on Releasing Emotion Through DanceHere’s a quick excerptIt would also explain why dance is useful in therapy and can be used to convey story as seen in theatrical performances. … Dance is also synonymous with music so much so they are almost dualistic in nature…. [...]