April Dances Bring Advances 2

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Fifteen years ago, Olie Westheimer, executive director of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group approached the Mark Morris Dance Company about creating a dance class for her clients.  Dance for PD©, a program training teachers and providing classes for those with Parkinson’s disease, is the result.

The program initially met with skepticism, recalls dancer-developer David Leventhal.  Medical doctors felt that dance is “frivolous.”  As Leventhal notes,  “There is a lot of misconception about the amount of learning and skill and brain work and physical work that somebody has to do to execute a dance.”

dancing

Helen Bronte-Stewart, a Stanford professor of neurology and former dancer, agrees.  “As physicians, we stress the importance of physical activity, social interaction and mental stimulation to our patients with Parkinson’s disease.  Dance for PD gives them all three.”

Here we have the same triumvirate of benefits noted in the research on contra dance and memory –  dancing provides cognitive and social stimulation in addition to physical activity.  But that is not all.

As Bronte-Stewart continues, dance is more than just physical therapy – “The PD dancers have told us this type of dance restores their self-image and brings them joy.”  Immersed in the activity, participants sometimes find they are able to regain function.  For example, during a flamenco dance routine, one woman found herself snapping her once-rigid fingers – “it just came to me,” she recalled in amazement.

April Dances Bring Advances 1

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movement and healthIn late April we celebrate National Dance Week. This year’s festivities come with scientific evidence that dancing is good for you!  A research team based at Colorado State University found that contra dancing may help to fend off aging in the brain.

A four-year clinical trial followed a group of 174 healthy adults aged 60 – 79.  The group was divided into four parts.  One group did aerobic walking, another not only walked but also took a nutritional supplement, the third group participated in stretching and balance classes, and the fourth group attended contra dance classes involving a sequence of figures as dancers progress up and down a line.  Each group met three times a week for six months.

The study focused on the fornix, which connects the hippocampus with other areas of the brain and is believed to play an important role in memory.  Each participant’s fornix was measured at the start of study and six months later.  The integrity of the fornix increased in the dance group in contrast to declines noted in half of the other participants.

This finding led researchers to conclude that “there is more benefit in activities like dance, that simultaneously provide cognitive and social stimulation in addition to physical activity,” according to an article in The Denver Post.

This study of the benefits of contra dancing is just the tip of the iceberg.  Find out more in the next blog.

Dancing with Your Eyebrows

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dancing with your eyebrows“You must not think of dance as steps,” Rudolf Laban once told a group of student actors.  “Dance is meaningful movement.  You can dance with your eyebrows. When I have taught you, you will be able to dance with any part of your body.’’

The acting students were skeptical, or course.  They thought that dance was frivolous, not serious.  Laban, however, had spent a lifetime investigating not only the physical aspects of dance, but also its mental, emotional, and social dimensions.  He saw dancing as an activity involving the whole person; he understood that dancing brings together body and mind, self and other.  

Now contemporary science is corroborating Laban’s observations with evidence based research.  Find out more in the following blogs.

Effort and Imagination

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effort and imagination“Effort is visible in the action movement of a worker, or a dancer, and it is audible in song or speech,” Laban observes in Mastery of Movement.  “The fact that effort and its various shadings can not only be seen and heard, but also imagined, is of great importance for their representation by the actor-dancer.”

Awakening the imagination is an important part of enriching one’s dynamic range.  Laban draws a close link between imagination and playing.  During play, he explains, the child experiments with all imaginable situations —  offense, defence, ambush, ruse, flight, fear  — searching for “the best possible effort combination for each occasion.”  He adds, in children, “we call it play; in adult people we call it acting and dancing.”

Effort patterns become habits as one matures, Laban notes, and that is why young humans “have a much more varied scale of effort capacities at their disposal than their elders.”  This statement reminds me of Isadora Duncan’s observation that most people resort to a set of habits, and “with these few stereotyped gestures, their whole lives are passed without once suspecting the world of dance which they are missing.”

Revitalize your own dynamic range and stimulate your movement imagination in the forthcoming Red Thread workshop, “Expanding the Dynamosphere,” July 22-23, in New York City.

Beyond Mechanical Movement

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mechanical movementIn discussing the actor who is an artist, Laban writes “this kind of performer concentrates on the actuation of the inner springs of conduct preceding his movements, and pays little attention at first to the skill needed for presentation.”  In other words, this actor focuses on the inner intention to move.

For Laban, this inner intention manifests through visible behavior as EFFORT.  Effort reveals itself as a fighting or indulging attitude towards one of the four motion factors of flow, weight, time, and space.  These attitudes color the way a given action is done, imparting a perceptible quality and making movement meaningful.

As human beings, we can exercise a great deal of conscious control over how we move.  We can learn to make a physical effort – to be gentle and to push harder, to move quickly and gradually, to control and focus our motions or let them flow freely and indirectly.  We can put on a good show.

Without linking thought, feeling, and action, however, movement becomes mechanical.  From Laban’s perspective, meaningful effort requires inner participation.

Activate your inner springs of motion in the upcoming Red Thread workshop, “Exploring the Dynamosphere,” July 22-23, in New York City.

Mastery of Movement Takes Off

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laban movement theoryI launched the new MoveScape Center correspondence course, Mastering Rudolf Laban’s Mastery of Movement, with 19 reading companions on five continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia).  In early April we plunged into the first chapter.

In his Introduction, Laban covers a dizzying array of topics, addressing animal and human movement; playing, dancing, and acting; humane effort; movement thinking; dance as a civilizing force; and more.  Yet how he delineates virtuosity and artistry seems to have provoked the most heated responses from my fellow readers.

According to Laban the virtuoso employs the “mechanical perfection of speech and gesture” to mirror “man’s happiness, folly and misery.”  By representing “the more external features of life,” this actor entertains, allowing the audience “to find comfort and relief from its workaday sorrows.”

On the other hand, there is another kind of actor, one who pays “little attention at first” to skillful physical representation.  Rather this actor concentrates on mirroring “the hidden processes of the inner being.”  As Laban sees it, a different kind of contact with the public results, one that he sees as being on a higher rung.

Not all my reading companions agree with Laban.  And I’m delighted to see that a close reading can trigger reflection and critical response.  The whole experience is making me think more about the relationship between virtuosity, artistry, and mastery.  That’s what I like about Laban.  Even if one doesn’t always understand what he means, he encourages thinking about the many dimensions of embodiment.

Effort Shape and Individual Difference

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movement pattern analysisLamb affirmed that “effort goes with shape organically.”  Yet careful study of an individual’s movement pattern will reveal an emphasis on effort more than shape, or vice versa.   Lamb came to feel that this difference was fundamental and significant.

For example, he observed that an emphasis on effort reflected an Assertion-oriented approach to decision making.  Such a person is driven, applying his or her energies, both physical and mental, to make things happen.  This decision-maker gets results by focusing, applying pressure, and setting the pace.

An emphasis on shape reflects a Perspective-oriented approach to decision making.  An analogy to drawing is helpful here.  If I’m drawing an apple, and I change my position relative to this object, my view and perspective also changes.  Thus shifting places and shaping the body allows the decision-maker to see the situation from different angles, broadening the scope, gauging value, and projecting the steps needed to reach a goal.

Recent pilot studies have shown that the relative emphasis on either Assertion or Perspective is predictive of how much information and how much time an individual needs to make a decision.   These results demonstrate the validity of movement  analysis when compared with other established criteria for discerning individual differences in decision making.

There is, of course, much more nuance in a Movement Pattern Analysis profile.  From a research perspective, however, it is vital to test the most global factors first before digging deeper.  With positive results to date, research efforts can continue.  There is still much to be learned!

Lamb and Embodied Cognition

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Laban correlated physical efforts with mental efforts, relating Space effort to Attention, Weight to Intention, and Time to Decision.  Warren Lamb added shape to this scheme, noting  that “We cannot move in making an Effort without an accompanying movement of Shaping.”

movement pattern analysis

The paths traced by the moving parts of the body lie predominately in one of three planes – in the horizontal or table plane, in the vertical or door plane, or in the sagittal or wheel plane.  Lamb related these movement patterns to cognitive processes in the following way.

He noted that “horizontally-oriented movement puts the performer in touch with what is going on around him.”  Thus shaping in the table plane relates to giving Attention.

Vertical orientation then emphasizes where the person stands “in relation to whatever he is in touch with.”  That is, shaping in the door plan relates to forming an Intention.

Finally comes the sagittal orientation, Lamb writes,“a form of decision to advance or retire from the subject matter.”  Consequently, shaping in the wheel plane is linked to making a Commitment.

Interestingly, this progression also underlies motor development.  The infant first learns to roll over (horizontal plane).  Then he pulls up to standing (vertical plane).  Finally, he walks (sagittal plane).  Perhaps these early development phases provide the sensorimotor foundation of our decision-making processes!

Laban and Embodied Cognition

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movement theory analysisRudolf Laban’s use of movement-based observational techniques anticipated the notion of “embodied cognition” by several decades.  In his writings in the 1940s and 50s, Laban already had identified “mental efforts” — namely those of giving attention to what must be done, forming an intention to act, and finally taking decisive action — as stages of “inner preparation for outer action.”

Laban went on to associate each of these mental efforts to one of the motion factors, according to the following scheme:

“The motion factor of Space can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with attention.  The predominant tendency here is to orientate oneself and find a relationship to the matter of interest either in an immediate, direct way or in a circumspective, flexible one.”

“The motion factor of Weight can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with intention.  The desire to do a certain thing may take hold of one sometimes powerfully and firmly, sometimes gently and slightly.”

“ The motion factor of Time can be associated with man’s faculty of participation with decision.   Decisions can be made either unexpectedly and suddenly … or they may be developed gradually.”

Building on Laban’s correlations, Warren Lamb extended and refined the linking of movement factors with mental processes.  Find out more in the next blog.

Assertion and Perspective in Making Decisions

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movement pattern analysisA Movement Pattern Analysis profile reflects how an individual balances Assertion (the exertion of tangible movement effort to make something happen) with Perspective (positioning oneself to get a better view of the situation).  In the pilot study group, some individuals emphasized Assertion, while others favored Perspective.

The hypothesis was that those high on Assertion would need less information and come to a decision more quickly than those high in Perspective.  And this proved to be the case.  With regard to these two dimensions, the MPA profile showed predictive validity.

This pilot study focused on the utility of using movement-based observational measures to capture individual difference in decision-making.   Wide use of MPA profiles in business (where some companies have employed it in management teams for two – three decades) has established face validity of the profile.  That is, MPA profiles appear accurate and practically useful.

This more recent study has implications for applying movement-based observational methods in a broader context — to the investigation of experienced military and political leaders.  Find out more –   http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00658/full.