Dancing to Learn: The Brain's Cognition, Emotion, and Movement

Dancing to Learn: Cognition, Emotion, and Movement explores the rationale for dance as a medium of learning to help engage educators and scientists to explore the underpinnings of dance, and dancers as well as members of the general public who are curious about new ways of comprehending dance. Among policy-makers, teachers, and parents, there is a heightened concern for successful pedagogical strategies. They want to know what can work with learners. This book approaches the subject of learning in, about, and through dance by triangulating knowledge from the arts and humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and cognitive and neurological sciences to challenge dismissive views of the cognitive importance of the physical dance. Insights come from theories and research findings in aesthetics, anthropology, cognitive science, dance, education, feminist theory, linguistics, neuroscience, phenomenology, psychology, and sociology. Using a single theory puts blinders on to other ways of description and analysis. Of course, all knowledge is tentative. Experiments necessarily must focus on a narrow topic and often use a special demographic—university students, and we don’t know the representativeness of case studies.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgments Prelude: To Dance Is Cognitive, Emotional, and Moving What Do We Know about Dance? Triangulating Knowledge Brain Scientists Study Dancers and Spectators Disclosure Steps toward Understanding Dance as a Learning Medium Chapter 1. The Brain ”Choreographs” Dance-Maker, Dancer, and Spectator Cross-Cultural Conceptualization of Dance The Body in Space, Time, and With Effort Transformation of Everyday Movements for Expressive Purpose Culture The Moving Body Aids Human Evolution Dancing Nourishes a Ravenous Brain Architecture of the Brain Neurons – Atoms of Thinking Sparking – Neurogenesis Dance Embodies Cognition Senses, Interoception, and Perception Vision, an Especially Important Sense Mirror Neurons Mind and Consciousness Memory Dance in Mind, Space, Pace, and Aging Verbal and Nonverbal (Dance) Languages of Thought Comparison of Languages Many Languages and Dialects of Dance Thinking through Language Multilingualism in Dance Feeling and Emotion Stress Recollection/ Reconsolidation of Emotion Motivation and the Pleasure of Dance Encore Chapter 2. The Mentality and Matter of Learning through Dance The Brain Sustains Dance Languages Powerful Hand Communication More Body Parts, More Powerful Dance Declarative, Procedural, and Social Knowledge for Dance Music and Dance Together Packing and Unpacking Meaning in Dance Symbolization Dancing a Science Dissertation Dimensions of Meaning in Dance (Probing with a Semantic Grid) Dance in the Moment and Memory Visual Images and Mindfulness Perception of Emotion Thinking through Memorable Images of Dance Dance Sparks Brain Networks and Learning for Old and Young Dance Lowers Risks for Brain Deterioration Performing Arts in General Acquisition of Learning Skills through Dance Creativity Challenges Prompting Creativity Encore Chapter 3. Brain-Changing Dance Venues: From Street/Studio/Classroom to Stage and Back Multi-linguistic Dance: Plethora of Genres Many Ways of Learning Dance Academic Schools Pre-School Dance Dance as a Discipline Pre-professional Dance Dance Company Schools and Outreach Programs Arts Magnet Schools Program within a School New York City Public Schools Cluster School Program A County-Wide Multifaceted Program in all Public Schools Dance Integration – with Other Arts or Non-Arts Disciplines Elementary School High School University Dance Education Performing Arts Organization Offerings John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education Washington Performing Arts Society Young Audiences National Dance Institute (NDI) ArtsConnection Young Talent Dance Program/ English Language Literacy Program Community Based Dance Programs Dance Teacher Preparation Private Dance Studios and Conservatories Dance Education Lab Pulse Ontario (Canada) Dance Education Conference National Registry of Dance Educators State Dance Certification In-service Workshops National Dance Education Organization Encore Chapter 4. The Dancing Brain Leaves No One Behind A Performing Art A Liberal Art An Applied Art Personal Development through Dance Aids Learning Dance Engages and Motivates Dance and Changing Behavior Dance Integrated with Other Subjects Assessing Non-dance Learning through Dance Children’s Own Dance as a Diagnostic Tool Transfer of Dance Learning Dimensions of Transfer Brain Action Teaching for Transfer Research on Transfer Tools for Dance Learning Media, Cyberspace, and Social Networks Distance Learning “Pen and Paper” Movement Analysis Dance Curriculum, Standards, Assessment, and Evaluation Dance to Cope with Stress Bad Stress – Distress Good Stress – Eustress Dance a Stressor Escape Encore Chapter 5. Mind and Emotion in Learning Self, Cultural and National Identities through Dance Dancer Identity, Career, Transitions, and Dance-related Options Gender and Sexual Orientation Who Is On-stage? Females Males in Dance Culture, Diversity, Understanding, and Choreographic Inspiration Black/White Interaction Regional or National Identity Applying Cultural Diversity Selecting Dances Cultural Appropriation Playing Anthropologist to Learn about a Culture’s Dance Encore Finale and Révérence Dance – Cinderella of Education and Brain Science Plié: Ready to Soar in Brain and Body Figure 1. Elements of Dance Figure 2. Ways of Conveying Meaning in Dance (Semantic Grid) Appendix 1: Tools to Discover the Dancing Brain Appendix 2: To Dance in a Classroom, Even for Non-Dancers Images and Credits References Cited About the Brain Teaching Dance Index About the Author

About the Author :
Judith Hanna earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University, an M.A. in political science from Michigan State University, and a B.A. in political science from UCLA. She is an Affiliate Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland, an educator, writer and dance critic.

Review :
Dancing to Learn does not provide all the answers about the impact of dance on the brain but it does provide more than enough evidence to proudly refute any outdated, biased, and misinformed claim that dance is irrelevant to cognition and education….Dancing to Learn: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement encourages us to find our way back towhat first drew many of us to this profession—the healing inherent in dance. Hanna’s review of the extant literature on the neurological impacts of dance specifically and exercise more broadly is wide reaching…. [T]he range of material she draws on may be very persuasive to her imagined reader, skeptical about the importance of dance in education…. The many examples that Hanna reviews of dance education programs are one of the most valuable resources in the book, and a reader interested in examples of dance-integrated learning will find leads on exciting pilots and thriving dance programs…. [The] case studies are quite rich and fascinating…. On the whole, the work is wide and fast moving, a strong model of one way that comparative cross-cultural anthropology integrating neuroscience and cultural research can be deployed in educational activism. The research for the hypothesis undertaken by Dr. Hanna and all others involved, is impressive. . . .The author's style is academic with an excellent fifteen pages of reference works and a clear and precise index. I thank the author for giving me a new insight into an art form I very much enjoy. Dancing is a powerful human act—perhaps no other human endeavor so thoroughly integrates our capacities for movement, artistic expression, social communication, meaning-making and emotional feeling. Dancing to Learn explains why this is so, and in the process teaches readers how to utilize dance to promote human development and social change...A great read for anyone interested in embodiment, culture and learning, whether or not they dance. Judith Lynne Hanna is a tireless champion of the body, dance and its ability to touch our pleasure spots and panic buttons. She has given us this new treatise, an elegant and magisterial synthesis …that should finally put to rest any doubt that dance is essential to a cultivated, emotionally and spiritually balanced and brave contemporary society — the one we are always seeking to become! …The potential of dance to foster deep thinking and learning is especially potent…. providing nonverbal language mechanisms as important to learning as verbal language. Judith Lynne Hanna takes the idea of dance to promote learning to new levels with Dancing to Learn: The Brain’s Cognition, Emotion, and Movement. Recent findings from the brain sciences suggest that dance promotes…the growth of new brain cells and vital skills for learning including attention, memory, and cognitive flexibility. Hanna provides numerous examples of how dance education programs and dance-integrated strategies in non-dance subjects can enrich students’ educational experiences in formal and informal settings. Dancing to Learn is pioneering, situating us in current neuroscience and other disciplinary research related to dance, demonstrating the orienting and mobilizing power of dance, and suggesting several possible pathways forward for the benefit of every learner and society as a whole. Dr. Hanna's work is a challenging and thoughtful examination of the educational importance of one of humankind's oldest and most unifying practices, and should be read by parents, educators, policy-makers, dance-skeptics, and dancers alike.