Over the past three centuries, knowledge has proliferated. At the same time, knowledge has become increasingly specialized. At the university level, this has led to a proliferation of departments, with courses of study carefully demarcated along disciplinary borders that are not particularly permeable. Indeed, the departmental structure of most universities makes it difficult for inter-disciplinary initiatives to succeed.
Nevertheless, it is the mission of the university to educate, and an educated person is supposed to know a little something about all fields of human knowledge. Enter the general education requirements. In our postmodern, globalized world, general education is meant to address the humanities, sciences, mathematics, social sciences, and “global culture.”
Usually there are a variety of courses that a student can take to fulfill these general education requirements. However, it is rare to find a required course that compares and contrasts the kinds of knowledge generated by these different disciplines. The student is left to his or her own devices to connect the dots. Or not.
This is where movement study could have enormous impact. Movement is a common denominator of human endeavor; it crosses disciplinary lines. Irmgard Bartenieff, who pioneered Laban Movement Analysis training in the U.S., was characterized as someone who thought “mind, body, and action are one, that the individual is one with the culture, and function with expression, space with energy, art with work with environment with religion.” When you studied with her, according to Marcia Siegel, “you could never again see the universe as a collection of isolated particles.”
Movement connects. Laban Movement Analysis can help college students make connections among the very specialized disciplines of our postmodern world.
