BARBARA METTLER
The Language of Movement
THE LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT
Written
for the Conference on Research in Dance
Mexico City, December
6-8, 1985
Page 1 of 6
There is a universal language in which all people everywhere can express themselves and understand one another. It is the language of movement.
We are all using this language all the time. Whatever we are doing, the movements of our bodies express something of what we are feeling. Movement expresses the feeling better than words. For babies, movement (sometimes accompanied by sound and touch) is the only language. Human beings and animals often communicate with one another though movement. Even plants respond with movements of growth or decay to the gardner's care or neglect.
The language of movement cannot be translated into words. It must be sensed in the muscles. We have a muscle sense, technically called the kinesthetic sense. It consists of nerve endings in the muscles and joints which send messages to the brain telling us exactly how we are moving.
Try this: close your eyes, then raise one arm slowly forward. How do you know that you are raising an arm instead of a leg? ... How do you know that you are raising one arm and not two? ... That you are raising trhe arm and not lowering it? ... That you are raising it forward, not sideward? ... Slowly, not fast? You cannot see your movement. It is your kinesthetic sense that is telling you. We make use of this sense unconsciously whenever we move. Learning to use it with awareness and ontrol can enrich all our movement experiences.
The language of movement, like all forms of expression, can be cu;ltivated on the esthetic level and become an art. The art of body movement is dance. It is the primary art because everything we do involves movement.
Art means creating beautiful forms for the pure joy of creating them. Beauty is order, wholeness, truth, perfection - a perfection which is impossible for us to achieve in daily life but which is possible in the art work. Art is not an escape from daily life but a dimension of experience without which human life is incomplete.
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