The Arc Between
I’ve been exploring the idea of a slow and controlled fall, something known in the modern dance world as the Humphrey Fall, named after the great 20th century modern dancer and choreographer Doris Humphrey. She was a contemporary of Martha Graham and had huge influence on many of her students, such as the wonderfully lyrical Jose Limon.
The following excerpt beautifully articulates an important element of Humphrey's approach to movement:
"Humphrey's theory explored the nuances of the human body's responses to gravity, embodied in her principle of 'fall and recovery'. She called this 'the arc between two deaths'. At one extreme, an individual surrenders to the nature of gravity; at the other, one attempts to achieve balance. Through the fall and recovery principle, Humphrey is able to illustrate emotional and physical climax of struggling for stability and submitting to the laws of gravity.” - Au, Susan. Ballet and Modern Dance.
I played with these concepts, as well as the Humphrey Fall, in a dance I developed for a class I taught.
Learning to fall--to make friends with the floor, to dance with gravity and breath--is extremely important.
Gravity and respiration are the two stressors that our body must contend with all day for all of our lives. Gravity is always acting on our tissues, and we must breathe to live. Learning to move and breathe with more ease and efficiency can go a long way toward reducing unnecessary tension. Responding with an appropriate amount of muscular tone or activity is something that our body figures out with time, practice, and play!
This is where moving with music can really help!
There is interesting research looking at how dance and moving rhythmically to music can help people both with (and even those without) Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement. Though most of the research that I have read focuses on people with Parkinson's, there is also research that demonstrates positive outcomes of moving to music for people without PD.
I think that we have all had experiences of watching babies bounce instinctively to a song or a beat; we may have seen elderly people with dementia remember the words to a song or the gestures from a dance when all else seems to have been forgotten. Music is powerful. Making music, moving to a beat is, like dance, something we humans have been doing for thousands of years! Songs have accompanied so many for the great moments of our lives! Have you ever heard an old song and are suddenly flooded with a plethora of memories? Our brain and body remember and synchronize with these rhythms. It is called entrainment and we will look at this in greater depth in the coming days.
For those who are interested in pondering why music and rhythm might be such potent interventions for people with PD (and perhaps those without) you are welcome to read what I have included below.
Enjoy today's practice. I love the music and hope you do too. And remember: It is YOUR practice and YOUR DANCE. Change it, play with it, ENJOY IT!!!
Below is an excerpt from the abstract of a study that looked specifically at dance movement interventions for people with PD.
Rhythm and groove as cognitive mechanisms of dance intervention in Parkinson’s disease.
Abstract
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with a loss of internal cueing systems, affecting rhythmic motor tasks such as walking and speech production. Music and dance encourage spontaneous rhythmic coupling between sensory and motor systems; this has inspired the development of dance programs for PD... [The results of the study] show that dance classes for PD improve both qualitative and quantitative assessments of disease symptoms. The association between these improvements and dance experience suggests that rhythmic motor training, a mechanism underlying dance training, impacts improvements in parkinsonian symptoms following a dance intervention.
You can read the full study here.