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Dancing to Learn

The Brain's Cognition, Emotion, and Movement

Judith Lynne Hanna

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.

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  • Author
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 230 • Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4758-0604-5 • Hardback • November 2014 • $91.00 • (£70.00)
978-1-4758-0605-2 • Paperback • November 2014 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
978-1-4758-0606-9 • eBook • November 2014 • $42.50 • (£35.00)
Subjects: Education / Educational Psychology, Education / Arts in Education, Education / Administration / General
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.
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







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.
— ImagineMag!: A South African Arts & Culture Magazine


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.
— American Anthropologist


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.
— American Journal of Dance Therapy


Dancing to Learn

The Brain's Cognition, Emotion, and Movement

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • 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.

Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 230 • Trim: 6 x 9
    978-1-4758-0604-5 • Hardback • November 2014 • $91.00 • (£70.00)
    978-1-4758-0605-2 • Paperback • November 2014 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    978-1-4758-0606-9 • eBook • November 2014 • $42.50 • (£35.00)
    Subjects: Education / Educational Psychology, Education / Arts in Education, Education / Administration / General
Author
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.
Table of Contents
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







Reviews
Reviews
  • 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.
    — ImagineMag!: A South African Arts & Culture Magazine


    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.
    — American Anthropologist


    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.
    — American Journal of Dance Therapy


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