The psychologist Howard Gardner once proposed a “bodily-kinesthetic intelligence,” characterized as the ability to use one’s body in highly differentiated and skilled ways. Educator Ruth Foster addresses this intelligence even more directly: “We are in the world through our body, and the basis of knowledge lies in sensori-motor experience, the most intimate way of knowing.”
I’m sure Laban would agree with both statements. But for him, bodily knowing goes beyond practical concerns to the transcendental realm of “gnosis.”
Gnosis (from the Greek) simply means knowledge.… Read More