Why Dance?

by
Don Herbison-Evans
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com

(updated 16 January 2009)

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. Rather: 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.