Day 49 of 52 Nia dance
A great New York Times article last summer explored some current research on the neuroscience of dance. It’s worth a read, but requires a subscription.
To summarize the findings of researchers tracking what happen in the brains of dancers: Dance activates multiple areas of the brain: sensory, motor, cognitive, social, emotional, rhythmic, creative. But there’s more. Researchers think these distinct brain areas aren’t only activated, they are interactive with each other.
Julia Basso, the director of Virginia Tech’s Embodied Brain Laboratory called it “intra-brain synchrony.”
I like looking at the actual research, so here’s a link to a piece she co-authored in Frontiers in Human NeuroScience in 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7832346/
There’s a lot to unpack in her research, but I really like the focus on shared experience: “Consciousness can be redefined not just as an individual process but a shared experience and we as individuals can influence the consciousness of others through our shared experiences.”
For me, dancing today with the wonderful dancers out in Pleasant Hill, it’s a compelling idea.
Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now 