Today I took part in a Brain-Move workshop where we looked at the principles of evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, biomechanics and applied neurology to elicit safety through the subconscious mind and enable easy, fluid and pain free movement.  I wanted to record parts of the workshop on my phone with voice notes but could only enter the space with my water, yoga mat and notepad. The lack of technology allowed full participation and interaction. As humans our only purpose is to survive and we have a survival mechanism thats embedded from the age of 0-6 years old.  The environment during the early years creates a sub conscious reaction whenever we experience stress or pain, therefore, we do not choose our actions, our behaviour is how we have been conditioned to survive….what about the children that are conditioned by technology throughout their Early Years? When they are stressed or threatened will they resort to digital and online coping strategies?

It made me think back to Miller’s (2011) article about the thinking mind and that ‘humanness’ is not captured in the movement of the body but located in the brain through our cognitive thought process. The body/mind dualism is something that has come up a few times in my blog but today I am considering if one learns dance through theory based learning and the

transfer of knowledge using technology gaining only declarative knowledge , is it ok to not have grasped or experienced the movement for themselves? As I think back to the video I shared in Block 1 I find myself asking more questions wondering if we should be aiming for tacit knowledge. I then dwelled on Valverde & Cochrane’s (2014) article that discusses the rooting of humans in their article  particularly when expanding our physical bodies virtually.

“The practice of this conscious attention and intention is directed to sensing one’s weight by becoming somatic/kinaesthetically aware, focusing on breathing to diminish external muscles tension of body parts, following the directions of flow, in order to sense our very weight relaxed and connected”.

References:

Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage. (e-reserve, pdf)

Valverde & Cochrane, T. (2014). Innovative dance-technology educational practices within senses places. Priced Technology, 13, 122-129.

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