Dance Dance Meditation

Isadora Duncan once said, “there are likewise three kinds of dancers: first, those who consider dancing as a sort of gymnastic drill, made up of impersonal and graceful arabesques; second those who, by concentrating their minds, lead the body into the rhythm of a desire emotion, expressing a remembered feeling or experience. And finally, there are those who convert the body into a luminous fluidity, surrendering it to the inspiration of the soul.” Emotion plays a key role in promoting coherence between the psychological self and physical body in adjusting to one’s environment. Studies report higher awareness of bodily sensations leads to a greater sense of emotional experiences, and also suggests that individuals vary on how they focus on their bodies. Sze, Gyurak, Yuan, and Levenson (2010) questioned whether having a background in activities that promote body awareness aid in coherence of emotions.

Vipassana meditation intends to increase the mind’s focus as well as awareness of bodily sensations such as heartbeats and breathing. It focuses on maintaining continuous attention and introspection. 

Modern dance and ballet focus on muscles, balance, posture, and coordination in every leap and turn. Instead of maintaining continuous attention, dancers shift their attention between time, space, music, and body. These two groups, as well as a control group without training in either practice, participated in the present study.

Participants completed a series of tests, including heart-rate measurements and questionnaires on their awareness of their own bodies such as internal bodily sensations and body processes. In addition, the participants answered questions about their personality traits and current physical symptoms. Each participant then watched one of four films intended to change the emotional state from neutral to either positive or negative. The participants then reported on their emotional experience.

Results from this study support the notion that the more training one has in body related practices, the higher awareness and coherence of subjective and emotional experience. Those with Vipassana meditation training showed the largest coherence, followed by the dancers, and finally the control group. Training in different forms of meditation or yoga, or even modern and ballet dance serves an important role in one’s ability to gain a heightened awareness of personal emotional experiences. So, in light of Isadora Duncan, the next time you meditate or dance, try embodying the second type of dancer by focusing the mind and body into a state of a preferred emotion.

-Nyssa Schlem

Sze, J.A., Gyurak, A., Yuan, J.W., & Levenson, R. W. (2010). Coherence between emotional experience and physiology: Does body awareness training have an impact? Emotion. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/a0020146