“Some neuroscientist believe that the brain is made by evolution for us to move. That is its mission in life” – Doctor Jose Luis Díaz Gómez, psycobiology and cognitive neuroscience specialist.
The Doctor, it its article, comments how human postures are effective for transmitting information about the psychological and physiological state of the transmitter. These language of postures and the postures sequence rhythm and the raw material of dance.
I find very interesting, how he mentions all this dance process, “requires ‘proprioception¡, a term made by the French neurophysiologist and medicine Nobel price Charles Scott Sherrington, which means the conception of our own body.” In other words, proprioception is the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body, that is, both statically and dynamically. Thanks to the ‘proprioception’ the body has a dynamic image of itself under movement and is able to train it.
From my point of view and my own experience, even if your are not a dancer, the mindful movement practice and the body awareness also increases our own ‘proprioception’. When you take your full awareness to the movement, to the areas of strength, stretch, tension, relaxation, balance, to the transitions between one movement and the other, then our own body conception, proprioception, increases.
The article also mentions how the person that is appreciating the dance, the audience, “is watching and feeling the movements, and at the same time evaluating what she can do in relationship to what the dancer can do. Even if the person in the audience is not prepared for that dance, is capable of judging the complexity of the movement since she has her own body reference”. In fact, in mindful movement practices, even if a person has reduced movility, he is invited to follow the movements and the guide in his mind, imagining it and using his own ‘proprioception’ in order to keep stimulating body awareness in the brain and its motor areas. Even if you cannot perform an exercise completely, you can explore your own limits and positioning, observing and being conscious of the whole process.
Also mentioned by Nazareth Castellanos, neuroscientist and doctor”dance improves brain plasticity (learning, memory and attention) and the resistance against illnesses such as dementia and Parkinsson”. Nowadays more is being researched in this area, how is not only the brain the organ implied in cognition and emotion, but the whole body.
I feel very grateful and would like to dedicate these words to all my dance teachers along my life, that have made me be conscious of my own body. Zaragoza, Spain: Cristina Miñana, Escuela Municipal de Danza Zaragoza, Nati Ara y Marga Armills de Coppelia danza Zaragoza, Paul Gray; Helsinki, Finland: Tanssivintti Russell Adamson, BailaBaila, Madrid, Spain: Irene Vázquez, Carmen de La Rosa, David Guerra, Gisele Domit, Escuela Municipal de Musica y Danza Pozuelo.
Post sources:
@NazarethCastellanos
Article in eleconomista.com.mx “Dance explained from a neuroscientific perspective”
