Dance has been present in human culture and history for centuries. In its origins, it was meant to be used as a way of communication for ceremonial rites and celebrations, mostly. Nowadays, dance is not only available in theaters and shows, but also can be found in media, schools, and even in a flash mob at the mall. Dance is not limited to people who want to become professionals; anyone can learn to dance any of the many rhythms, variations and at any moment of our lives. Through dance, dancers can express feelings and emotions, conveying a message to the audience. Today, we share with you how dancing can be used as a way of expression and how people react to this manifestation.

Choreographing our feelings

According to choreographer, Diana F. Green, dance uses the body as an instrument. In her book, Choreographing from Within, body language can be exaggerated and abstracted in dance to project an infinite number of feelings, subtle moods, and emotions. Many choreographers, especially those rebelling against what they thought was the overly dramatic early modern movement, have ignored this side of choreography and embraced only the abstract craft of movement. Green emphasizes how important it is to recognize both sides of the spectrum and enjoy, as an audience or performer, both abstract and literal emotion based choreographic shows.

Choreography uses the human form, and an art form that is connected to the human form will tell a human story regardless of whether you intend to create a story. Audiences naturally read emotion and feeling when watching someone move on the stage. Many experimental studies have been performed to find the core elements of movements that communicate different emotions. Some have included brain scan studies that show the different areas of the brain that light up when people watch expressions of emotions. One of those studies was conducted in Edinburgh, in 2010, by Peter Lovatt.

Recognizing Emotion from the Moving Body

Dance psychologist, Peter Lovatt, of the University of Hertfordshire, conducted an experiment to determine how people convey feelings through dance and how these were perceived by the audience. Through an exercise called “think-aloud-protocol”, people were asked to watch lots of different dance pieces, in a wide range of dance styles (e.g. contemporary, Indian Classical, ballet, and hip hop) and instructed them to say out-loud what they were thinking as they watched the pieces. They found out that even when people watched dance pieces that were not choreographed to explicitly express emotions people still tried to make sense of the pieces and would often say things like, “Oh yes, he obviously loves her, but she doesn’t want to be near him so she’s rejecting his advances”, or similar interpretations.

He continued his analysis by making an experiment with choreographers and dancers where they would each perform a specific feeling and then document what the audience perceived. Read the full article: 23 Feelings in Dance. He concluded that it was certain that we can recognize emotions when they are expressed through the moving body and dance.

Dancing is one of the most liberating and open ways to express feelings. Communication is not limited to words only, as movement is an important factor in expressing ourselves. Read more about how Dancing, as an exercise, can bring you amazing health benefits and more health tips for women.

*Dr Dance-a, dr Peter Lovett Web site: Home | Dr Peter Lovatt, and Instagram: Peter Lovatt (@drpeterlovatt) • Instagram photos and videos

On of the messages from dr Dance is: Every body is a dancing body!

Članak Expressing your feelings through dance se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.

Teach me to dance. Will you? Basil
Dance. Did you say, dance? Come on my boy! Zorba

“Zorba the Greek” is a 1964 movie written, produced, edited, and directed by Greek Cypriot Michael Cacoyannis and starring Anthony Quinn as the titular character. Based on the 1946 novel “The Life And Times Of Alexis Zorba” by Nikos Kazantzakis. “Zorbas” (or more commonly, “Zorba’s Dance”) is an instrumental by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. The song featured for the dance which has become known as sirtaki became popular around the world.

In this movie, the main character, played by Anthony Quinn, is Alexis Zorba, a vivid Greek musician who accidentally meets Basil (played by Alan Bates), a British writer of Greek descent who goes to Crete to start a lignite mine and try to find inspiration. The plot shows their adventures, where Zorba will try to teach Basil some life lessons. The film gained exceptional popularity, with an important contribution made by the music of Mikis Theodorakis, and especially the composition Zorbas, which is performed in the anthological dance scene (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzpHvLWFUM)

Every time I look at this scene it is more than just dancing on the beach. There is so much beauty, emotions and wisdom there. Tears of joy every time I see them dancing.
Zorba is expressing the beauty and agony of living. Zorba transforms his metaphysical questionings into structured, rhythmic movement: Who made the world? Why? Why do we die? Where do we come from and where do we go?

Zorba lives life and he dances through it. He, just as Greeks, talks through his body, through body language, creating a dialogue between the western-Apollonian-order with the eastern-Dionysian-chaos.

Dance, after all, is a body dialogue with the queries. He deals with God; he speaks a language that cannot be interpreted but felt.

Just as Zorba, the dancers have a lot to say; what can not be expressed with words, can and is expressed with dance, as a primary non-verbal way of communication, as one authentic voice.

“Dance. Did you say, dance? Come on my boy!” Zorba

Sources:

“Speaking Without Words: Zorba’s Dance”, Maria Hnaraki, Drexel University-Philadelphia (from: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2009/0350-08610902025H.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zorba_the_Greek_%28film%29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzpHvLWFUM

Članak Greek Zorba dance – expressing the beauty and agony of living se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.

Carlos Castaneda claimed similarly, and you can read more about that in his book “Magical Movements (The Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico in Practice)”.

In that book, Castaneda says: “Don Juan speculated that the movements that the bodies of these shamans unintentionally performed in a state of heightened consciousness were in fact a kind of hidden heritage of humanity, something that was preserved and revealed only to those who were looking for it. He described these shamans as divers who, unknowingly, surfaced that legacy. He said that these wizards began to carefully connect the movements they remembered. Their effort paid off. They were able to connect movements that were previously considered automatic reactions of the body in a state of heightened consciousness. Encouraged by such success, they then connected hundreds of movements that they performed without ever trying to classify them into some understandable composition. They believed that in a state of heightened consciousness, these movements occur spontaneously and that some force controls their effect without the interference of their will. ”

Don Juan explained that we all have “belonging” energy, which we cannot change. Since we cannot increase our associated energy, the only possibility open to the wizards of ancient Mexico was conversion of that energy. For them, the conversion process began with magical movements and their effect on the physical body.

Stress accumulates in our bodies, which then “closes” and “blocks” the energy body we have around us. The only way to get rid of that stress and relieve, “cleanse” and “open” the energy field is by performing movements.

I immediately went to YouTube to see if there were any recordings of magic movements being performed. I found a warning that it is not thai-chi, or anything like that, it is not an exercise, those are: magical movements!

What I saw reminded me of thai-chi, then the movements during skiing, and of course it reminded me a lot of the elements of different dances.

And as we know, we who are not shamans 😉, all these movements really make us feel much better. Ask people who ski, everyone enjoys it! Why do our energy increase, we feel better, relieved of stress and somehow free…

Movements… Magic…

Dance and enjoy your Healing Dance World!

Članak Magical movements se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.

What you can not discover in your body,
you will not be able to discover anywhere else in the world…

For several years, one of the most wanted topics in the trainings I used to deliver was “Time Management”. Then they started talking about how time can not be managed. You can only manage yourself in the construction of the human mind, called time…

And then in 2001, two Harvard professors, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, wrote an excellent article “Corporate Athlets” in which they tried to draw a parallel between the preparation and “work” of top athletes and managers and leaders in business.

In the article, the authors describe something they called the “Pyramid of Performance”. It looks like there is something at the bottom that they called the “Physical Capacity”, on the next level there is “Emotional Capacity”, then the “Mental Capacity” and at the top of the pyramid is the “Spiritual Capacity”.

The paper discusses that one should not think about time management (nor oneself at that time), but that it is actually necessary to manage energy. On all four levels defined in the pyramid. A healthy body is the basis for healthy emotions, it is the basis for a healthy mind, and it is all the basis for a healthy spirit (In a healthy body, a healthy spirit, isn’t it?).

I think that dance/movement is the most elegant and pleasant way to strengthen the energy of the body that is the basis of everything and to “connect” all parts of the pyramid.

The importance of dance for development, spiritual, was written long ago, long before the Harvard Business Review 😊 My favorite author on that topic was certainly George Gurdjieff. His dances, movements, represent work on self-knowledge.

Gurdjieff said that there is knowledge in movements that is passed from generation to generation: movements can represent a cosmic truth that the observer can understand. These movements can lead to another level of understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

On that path to the awakening of the soul, in these dances, we work on each level of the mentioned pyramid, in a connected way.

Sources:

https://hbr.org/2001/01/the-making-of-a-corporate-athlete

http://www.gurdjieff.si/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gurdjieff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurdjieff_movements

Članak Why is movement so important to us? se pojavljuje prvo na Ples & Grad.