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38 - Dance and the Imagination: Be a Butterfly!

from Part V - Phenomenology-Based Forms of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

By
Julia F. Christensen  and
Khatereh Borhani
Edited by
Anna Abraham
Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

In dance, there are three components that stir our imagination: the movement of our body or the movement of others (kinesthetic imagery), the music that accompanies the movement (auditory imagery), and the emotions that arise from the physical sensation in our body while we dance (interoceptive imagery). All three types of imagery tap into different yet interrelated neural systems that are engaged both during dancing, as much as during the imagination of a dance. In this chapter, we will describe each of these imagery types in relation to dance. We also show evidence about how the combination of kinesthetic, auditory, and interoceptive imagery helps both amateur and professional dancers to rehearse their dance movements and find inspiration for new moves without actually moving their body at all.

Keywords

Kinesthetic imageryimaginationdanceemotionpsychologyempirical aestheticsmental training
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination , pp. 620 - 634
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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