Ballet as a movement-based contemplative practice? Implications for neuroscientific studies
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience July 17, 2014 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00513 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
Classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practices such as yoga and tai chi both require precise body control and mental skills, but they differ in their neural and mental causes and consequences. This analysis compares them on attention, interoception, meta-cognition, and emotion regulation. Ballet serves as a better contrast than modern dance, which has been influenced by contemplative practice. Limited neuroscientific studies exist due to movement artifacts in neuroimaging. The analysis identifies gaps in understanding and has implications for future research on contemplative practitioners and dancers.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practices differ on dimensions of attention, interoception, meta-cognition, and emotion regulation, with important gaps in neuroscientific understanding. |
Abstract
There is a rising scientific interest in the neuroscience behind contemplative practices (see e.g., Vago and Silbersweig, 2012 for a review), including movement-based practices such as yoga and tai chi. Given that, it becomes important to ask how such contemplative practices differ from Western movement practices such as dance. In both dance training and contemplative movement, one learns to control the body very precisely, and this requires an assortment of mental skills as well. As a practitioner of both classical ballet and contemplation, and as a neuroscientist who studies contemplation, I will examine how the neural and mental causes and consequences of movement training differ between dance and contemplation. Ballet, rather than modern dance, serves as a good contrast for contemplative practice, because modern dance itself has been influenced substantially by contemplative practice (Hay, 2000). I will compare classical ballet and movement-based contemplative practice on the dimensions of (i) cultivation of attention, (ii) development of interoception, (iii) cultivation of meta-cognition, and (iv) emotion regulation. To date, there are limited studies of movement-based practices, for the obvious reason that movement tends to create artifacts in neuroimaging and EEG measures (e.g., Gwin et al., 2010). I will point out important gaps in our neuroscientific understanding of these phenomena. The results have implications for how we conduct studies of contemplative practitioners and dancers.