Creative and democratic empowerment
PD Dr. Bettina Bläsing, cognitive and movement scientist at Bielefeld University, talks to explore dance about what the reception and communication of dance can achieve and why this art form in particular is indispensable for young audiences and in cultural education.
explore dance and Dr. Bettina Bläsing | June 5, 2024
explore dance
Can dancing make you happy?
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
Dancing has many aspects that make us happy: we are physically active, we listen to music, we do it together with like-minded people. We can be creative through our movements, interact with each other and exchange ideas. We can experience a sense of community without talking or listening. Dancing connects us and allows us to express ourselves and communicate, even across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
explore dance
Can you give us a brief insight into your research on dance?
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
I am particularly interested in the cognitive aspects, i.e. the question of what dance has to do with learning and thinking. At first I was mainly interested in how complex dance movements – for example classical pirouettes – are stored in the memory and how this is related to the ability to physically perform such movements. Then other aspects came into play, such as the role of language in learning dance sequences, but also the importance of dance expertise in watching and learning dance movements. In summary, one can say that dancing is not only a physical exercise, but also a very effective cognitive one.
Dancers are not only experts in physical movement, but also in learning itself and in the artistic implementation of what they have learned; they have a highly complex embodied movement archive. Dance is based on numerous memory functions, from the precise learning and retention of complicated choreographies over very long periods of time to the spontaneous application of an extensive movement vocabulary. Dance improvisation is embodied thinking and physically creative problem solving in real time, an impressive achievement of working memory – and good training for dealing with the unexpected in many life situations.
explore dance
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
What feelings, what experiences can the reception of dance as an art form trigger?
In the 1990s, neuroscientists discovered that many brain cells are active both when performing and observing certain movements – they called these cells mirror neurons at the time and ascribed numerous important functions to them. Dance then played an increasingly important role in this research, particularly with regard to the impact of one’s own movement experiences and aesthetic evaluation, i.e. whether one likes or dislikes something. In short, this research has shown that we have a widely branched, extensive network of brain areas that all contribute in different ways to the perception of human movement in particular, and that are also very important for social and emotional functions. The perception and execution of movements are therefore closely linked. When we watch dance, our brain dances along, so to speak. This effect can be so strong that we directly feel the “danced” emotions, just as we can physically feel the movements – this effect is called “kinesthetic empathy”.
explore dance
Dance therefore has great developmental potential for one’s own body as well as for people as social beings. Isn’t it an important experience, especially for children and young people, to watch dance performances and experience dance?
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
Dance enables physical communication, experiencing oneself in movement together with others. Children and young people in particular are often looking for new ways to communicate. Many younger children like to experiment with movement. For young people, dance as a non-verbal form of expression, which often focuses on emotions, can offer a counterbalance to the verbal, mostly factual communication that is the focus at school. Even for those who find dancing themselves unpleasant, reflective viewing of dance can convey many things: openness to the diversity of cultures, fascination with physical abilities, interest in different forms of dance, the need for one’s own creative dance movement. Dance can convey a feeling of participation and self-efficacy both in reception and in artistic practice – and this is particularly important for a democratic society as a whole.
explore dance
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
Can getting to know different ideas about body and movement be valuable, especially for young people?
Dealing with one’s own body – and with the reality of human bodies in general – is a central issue for young people, and one that is often steered in questionable directions by media influences. Dance offers a special opportunity to deal intensively and constructively with one’s own body perception, to shift the focus from “what one sees” to “what one feels” – that is, proprioceptive and kinesthetic perception, the sense of touch, the sense of balance. On the basis of this body awareness, authentic self-confidence can develop, in the sense of “being aware of oneself”. Unlike in many sports, dance training consciously trains this perception and opens up opportunities to experience one’s own body as a means of personal expression beyond verbal language. At the same time, different dance styles have their own ideas and norms regarding body image, which differ essentially in ballet and hip hop, for example. Discussing these differences can be enriching in a world in which visual ideals are easily elevated to restrictive norms.
explore dance
explore dance involves students in production processes – for example by attending rehearsals, providing dramaturgical feedback, in the form of research workshops or discussions. Does it make a difference to develop dance pieces with the audience rather than for them?
Dr. Bettina Bläsing
The experience of being actively involved in something, of being able to leave a personal footprint in a work, can be very enriching – the experience of making a visible impact yourself can encourage you to get actively involved in other areas as well. Through the aspect of cultural participation, which is also at the forefront of explore dance, the students not only experience how a professional dance production is created, they are also allowed to have an influence themselves, are involved in decision-making processes, are involved in dramaturgy, choreography and production and can thus help to shape “their piece”. In this way, the students experience themselves as co-creators of an artistic work – this is also creative and democratic empowerment.
