Dance and Human Development - Essay Example

 The Role of Dance in Human Development and Play Abstract Various environmental factors, disciplines, and human knowledge influence human development. These influences begin at infancy, during childhood and adolescence and up to adulthood. Dance has a great part in human development; it is found in almost all societies. Some philosophers and scientists posit that movement of the body as communication tool is inherent in humans. An infant for example communicates by body movement, a form of non-verbal communication. This means humans are dancers by birth. Dance is a mean of communication, as therapy for body and mind, and as entertainment. Dance is a part of human existence. It has been used by primitive people to express cultural and artistic desires, religious beliefs or as therapeutic measures for certain illnesses. It has been used in almost every aspect of human activity. We use dance to express our emotions and creativity and to ‘explore new ways of feeling’ (Nemetz, 2006, p. 96) which cannot be truly expressed in other forms. This means it adds to our normal senses since we can express ourselves without using verbal communication. Introduction Literature is filled with studies of human development which revolved around various disciplines. Human development refers to how an individual develops from infancy to childhood, to adolescence and adulthood; development has a broad connotation. Infants use movement to express themselves and even have their own sense of their surroundings. Charles Darwin studied the theory of evolution by studying how his own child played and reacted to the world, how creativity connected with development. Creativity is first expressed in infancy and as the baby grows. Piaget (cited in Gardner, 1990, p. 2) indicated that infants express themselves through the sensori-motor system, which involves the use of sense organs and motor system; toddlers begin to understand the various symbol systems and the workings of the physical world; young children begin to reason out and argue on logic or morality; and adolescents begin to reason in a ‘formal-operational’ attitude (Gardner, 1990, p. 2). Play is an important creative expression of a child. The world of make-believe shapes the child’s emotional, psychological and mental abilities in dealing with the world around him/her. Play has some neurological implication on a child – it enhances brain growth (Kennedy, 2008, p. 16). This proposal aims to provide an analysis of the relevance of the arts to human development and play. The study will discuss aspects of dance, its history and healing power and its role to the development of human personality, and how it affects the psychological, mental, physical and social well being. The methodology will consist of review of the literature. Sources will come from books, online or physical library, journals and other valuable sources of information on human development and dance. After the collection of secondary data and information, the next move is to analyze the data, provide a new perspective on dance and its applications and benefits, and provide recommendations for the development of dance for the new generation. The wonderful creation in dance also provides us with mysticism. Extraordinary and unexplainable things can be made explainable or manageable. Creativity spawns ingenuity. For example in a dance presentation, we can present dance with earthquake, or thunder and lightning effects with the application of technology. Through creativity, we can make earthquake and lightning not threatening for us. An example is the tarantella dance, a powerful dance in Italy. A supposed victim of the fatal spider bite is presented with the dance so that the venom can be removed from the victim’s body and healing can be provided. (Nemetz, 2006, p. 96) Literature Review Human beings undergoing a process of development begin to creatively express at early infancy. An infant expresses through movement of the body. Throughout the different stages of development, movement is used to express or communicate. A child interacts and uses various tools like play. Play is crucial to the development of a child. It involves activity and movement as in dance. Dance does not only involve movement; it has various purposes designed to make human existence more fruitful. Dance is a form of art therapy, an expression of the individual, reflects the culture of a people, and has more meanings to individuals and groups of people. Traditionally, dance is used in expressing individual and communal feelings. Recent forms of dance have separated the audience from the dancer; examples are ballet and other modern dances which are portrayed too technically and with some artistic and creative beauty. (Nemetz, 2006, p. 96) Dance is executed through movement of the entire body, as movement is a basic, human expression. The bones and muscles of the body interact and portray a distinct form of art. Dance is expression of the soul. It is creativity and therapy molded into one. The role of dance in the development of a child cannot be underestimated. There are many forms of expression we use in social interaction but in dance, we use the human body to express hopes, desires and frustrations. Educational institutions and world bodies have realized the role of arts education in human development. The UNESCO has promoted the introduction of arts and creativity in schools and universities. The world body has also involved non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting this initiative. It has organized conferences in promoting arts and has indorsed it in school curricula. UNESCO has encouraged the preservation of traditional dances and music and development of creativity among the youth in order to enhance their development. (Iwai, 2003) At New York University, dance is taught to enhance human development and education. Dance and education are considered important aspects of knowledge. (NYU Steinhardt, 2011) Dance and Human Development Dance as a form of nonverbal communication has significant role in human development and in the study of evolution. Scientists have realized that it is not enough to study human behavior through linguistics alone. Charles Darwin, in his study and research of evolution, wrote about non-verbal communication in the book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (Nemetz, 2006, p. 98). Darwin made strong arguments about non-verbal communication. But the study of dance and nonverbal communication began to gain popularity only in the 1960s and 1970s (Levy, 1988, p. 19 cited in Nemetz, 2006, p. 98). Dance is common in every aspect of human endeavor and in many parts of society. The primary aim of dance is to communicate – to people or to the god that people worships. The wonderful meaning of dance is to make the extraordinary explainable and understandable. But as a whole, it reflects the ideas and culture of a people. Dance makes our daily lives transform into rituals and movements that translate a variety of meaning. Gardner (cited in Hanna, 1987, p. 66) argues that children have ‘somatic communicative involvement’, which means they have ‘bodily reaction to symbols’. Dance as an instrument of the human body is a familiar subject to us humans. (Douglas, 1973; Leach 1972 cited Hanna, 1987, p. 66) Dance has more influence to people than any other audiovisual media. A normal learner can easily learn if the senses of sight, hearing, and touch – or sensory experience – are involved. Dance is an effective form of communication than any other form because it ‘fully engages’ us; the effect is ‘multi-sensory’, and it promotes change in a person. Dance can also be used to facilitate right-brain dominance which results in ‘nonverbal experience’. This phenomenon could ease stress and provide pleasure, and possibly healing. (Hanna, 1987, p. 66) Dance as a form of therapy The healing power of dance was introduced by the Greeks. Eastern cultures made use of dance in worshipping the deities to ask for healing. Present forms of dance originated from ritual dance (Lawson, 1955; Wosien, 1974 cited in Nemetz, 2006, p. 95). Sigmund Freud argued on the role of non-verbal communication in man’s illness and healing. He refers to experiences in childhood, and this became a part of the theory on psychoanalysis. Healing can be attained through hypnosis or allowing the patient to remember those childhood experiences and let him/her forget altogether those experiences. Modern dancer Martha Graham expounds on Darwin’s theories, saying that movement is expression that tells the truth. There is a belief in modern medicine that emotions play a significant role in the healing process, and nonverbal factors enhance healing (Osler, 1932 cited in Nemetz, 2006, p. 98). Telling the truth and living by the truth improves the chance of healing and a great possibility of not getting sick. Dance makes use of creative movement. Every movement has a profound meaning. Other forms of physical therapy also use movement but each of these modalities has its own goals. (Sandel and Hollander, 1995, p. 133). The American Dance/Movement Therapy Association in the United States promotes dance and movement as a therapy. It defines dance or movement therapy as the ‘psychotherapeutic use of movement’ to enhance and integrate the different attributes of our individuality, such as our emotional, social, cognitive characteristics. There is a form of psychotherapy known as dance movement therapy (DMT). (ADTA, 2004 cited in Nemetz, 2006, p. 95) Dance as a Cultural Expression We use dance to express our cultural and psychological needs. Dance can relay information about norms, values, or cooperative skills, or can teach ideas and concepts, problem-solving techniques, etc. With dance, people assert authoritative messages or ethnic and class identity (Hanna, 1987, p. 67). Dance is a part of life; it existed for as long as humans set forth on earth. Early primitive dances were executed with impulsive and unorganized movements but it goes with a certain rhythm. In the development of dance, humans realized that dance should belong to a group or identify with a group. Dance performed by or identified with groups produce great effects than dance performed by lone individuals. (H’Doubler, 1998, p. 4) Body movement is a cultural expression learned through social experience; the movements portray ‘social roles, age, sex, and class’ (Birdwhistell, 1970 cited in Hanna, 1987, p. 69). But other scholars say that the movements are universal. Movement styles and structures reflect how a group interacts. Dance has transformed into entertainment but its origin is cultural and spiritual. In various human activities, we introduce dance to provide variety and ease labor and pains. In farms in the remote areas of the Philippines, Filipino farmers dance as they harvest rice or when they have a bountiful harvest. A plentiful harvest cannot escape without dances and music to the fine tune of women’s voices. In India, dance and yoga are combined as a means of communicating with the gods. In the early 1900s, the great dancers Ruth Denis and Ted Shawn, who were also known as Denishawn, were inspired to create ‘exotic and spiritual choreographic’ dances with ancient cultures as their subject. Yoga was founded some 3,000 years ago but it is still popular up to this day. (Nemetz, 2006, p. 97) In Africa, religion is central to the lives of the people and dance is very important on this aspect. African dance has flexibility and dynamism. Changes continue to disturb African dance but it has survived these changes and external influences; dancers maintain their movements. The time and duration however have been affected because of urbanization, but in the past, African dancers would dance for days. African dance is performed in a communal setting; there is no audience since everyone is part of the dance event and musicians exchange roles one at a time as the dance takes place. (Welsh et al., 2010, pp. 29-30) On the other hand, modern dances and live presentations are applied with a lot of technical (colorful and sound) effects that the dance message has become too unclear for anyone to interpret. Some modern presentations on television cannot be called dances but merely presentations. They cannot be regarded as cultural or therapeutic dances, not works of art, but merely live presentations designed to tickle the audience’s ‘sexual’ imagination. But we can distinguish modern dance movement presenters from live dancers. The modern dance advocate injects a cultural message in their dance. They regard ancient dance form as a spiritual activity of mind, body and spirit. It seems any ancient dance has a cultural meaning attached to it. Dance anthropologist Judith Hanna (1988, p. 31, cited in Nemetz, 2006, p. 96) said that the ‘shaman or medicine man’ in the ancient world is also a ‘dance therapist’. But ancient dances are difficult to study and interpret even with the application of modern technology. Cultural dance speaks of the history and psychological mood of a particular people in the past. It is continually changing and can also reflect the present mood of the performers. (Nemetz, 2006, p. 96) Affect of Dance Affect refers to the emotional aspect of dance which is different from bodily changes. In dance, we can consider that affective and cognitive communications are linked with each other, but there is no clear distinction between emotion and cognition (John Spiegel and Pavel Machotka, 1974, pp. 24-25, cited in Hanna, 1987, p. 67). There are only few human feelings and attitudes that are expressed non-verbally, for example like-dislike which can be conveyed in the form of anger; or dominance and submissiveness (Hanna, 1987, p. 67). Dance can convey excitement. Art allows persons to feel chaos symbolically without the presence of danger. Dance can be used as defense mechanism and can function as ‘play, or ritual or rebellion’. The movements in dance can prevent stress and depression (Lambo, 1965, p. 41 cited Hanna, 1987, p. 67). Conclusion and Future Planning Dance has a great influence in people’s lives and in human development. It has been used by our early ancestors for spiritual and therapeutic purposes. Dance is a part of any ethnic group’s culture, be this from the early nomads to modern times. That dance has a great influence on people can be contrasted with what some scientists and philosophers argued that non-verbal communication is inherent in humans. Gardner argued that infants communicate through body movement. Dance is a body movement which transmits messages to the audience. While it is not part of this study to conduct primary research, it is worthwhile to suggest that we observe children as they dance. We can compare students who dance to the tune of modern music and those doing cultural dance. The difference between the two groups is the costume and the movement they are doing, but together they communicate and express themselves as a group. Finally, as we begin to reflect on the many benefits of dance, it is time to suggest what modern technology has done on dance. While we include modern technology in dancing, we have also to consider the message that we want to impart in dance. Much of the dancing nowadays are portrayed with no profound meaning and the belief that dance can provide healing has been lost. We have to be reminded that dance is part of human development and as such we should not forget the meaning and purpose for which it existed. Dance was not discovered; it simply emerged in human psyche and performed by everyone because it is a part of us. References Gardner, H., 1990. Art education and human development. Los Angeles, California: Getty Publications. Hanna, J., 1987. To dance is human. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, Ltd. H’Doubler, M., 1998. Dance: a creative art experience. Madison, Wisconsin; London, England: The University of Wisconsin Press. Iwai, K., 2003. The contribution of arts education to children’s lives (prepared for the Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise in UNESCO under the project to promote arts education in school environment). Available at: http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/files/40522/12669211823contribution_AE.pdf/contribution%2BAE.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2011]. Kennedy, T., 2008. Can we play? Greater Good, Springs 2008. Available at: http://www.ultimateblockparty.com/download/UBP_CanWePlay.pdf [Accessed 30 October 2011] Nemetz, L., 2006. Moving with meaning: the historical progression of dance/movement therapy. In: S. Brooke, (ed.) 2006. Creative arts therapies manual: a guide to the history, theoretical approaches, assessment, and work with special populations of art, play, dance, music, drama, and poetry therapies. Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publisher Ltd. NYU Steinhardt, 2011 (Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions. Welcome to dance education. Available at: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/dance [Accessed 31 October 2011]. Sandel, S. and Hollander, A., 1995. Dance/movement therapy with aging populations. In F. Levy, J. Fried and F. Leventhal, (eds.) 1995. Dance and other expressive art therapies: when words are not enough. New York: Routledge. Welsh, K. et al., 2010. World of dance: African dance (second edition). New York: Infobase Publishing. Bibliography Boas, F., 1972. The function of dance in human society. United States of America: University of Michigan. Jones, P., 2005. The arts therapies: a revolution in healthcare. Great Britain: Brunner-Routledge. Slade, P., 1995. Child play: its importance for human development. Philadelphia, USA; London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd. Read More