(updated 9 July 2007)
I think that Plato did Dance a disservice with his mind-body dichotomy, implying that we have intelligence in the mind, but none in the body. Current academia still has this bias. But I think the body is intelligent, and this can be felt by good dancers and sportspeople too. When I am dancing well, I do not think about what I am doing: indeed I feel that I am observing what I am doing. My body is moving with its own intelligence. Sport and Dance are about the study of this body-intelligence, just as Psychology is study of the mind-intelligence. Sport is about goal-directed body-intelligence, or applied body-intelligence. Dance is about more general aspects of body-intelligence, for example viewing a Pas de Deux as a conversation between bodies. Without a study of Dance: we are ignoring half of our life.