Neuroaesthetics and Dance (4D)

The more I look into what I really want to find out about dance in education, the more I realise what I am really interested in is what happens cognitively when we dance or watch dance.  In particular I am thinking about how this knowledge of how the brain learns complex actions could help us to be better informed when teaching dance or indeed teaching academic subjects.   Perhaps there is a way to link dance to teaching maths for example which could help students better absorb knowledge.

On the Athens website I found this essay titled 'Neauroaesthetics and beyond; new horizons on applying the science of the brain to the art of dance' (E S Cross, L F Tacini, 2011).

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11097-010-9190-y

It has helped me to feel one step closer to asking the questions I really want to know:  Why do we enjoy dance?  Are some people unresponsive to dance?  If so, is this an unchanging neurological trait or are there other factors that determine it? How can dance enable long term memory?

Through measuring blood flow, electric and magnetic fields in the brain neuroscientists can track how we 'integrate physical and perceptual experience to learn new movement... components of this network of brain regions work together to process action, information, both during action perception and during action execution' (for comprehensive reviews, see Grafton et al. 2009; Rizzolatti et al. 2009).

The article goes on to explain that we use the same neurological patterns  while watching dance as performing it.   Experienced dancers had more activity watching dance. This observation is explained in one study conducted on monkeys.  'The same neurons that fired when monkeys performed a specific action (e.g., grasping a raisin) also fired when the monkey watched another monkey or a researcher execute the same action (e.g., Rizzolatti et al. 1996a). Subsequent research revealed that these particular neurons do indeed respond preferentially to actions that are either observed or performed, which led researchers to name them "mirror" neurons. 'Not surprisingly, professional dancers had more neurological activity of these 'mirror' neurons watching dance.  

However, what I found profound is that in the study conducted by Calvo-Marino and (published in Cerebral Cortex Oxford journals), it only took non-dancers 6 weeks of dance rehearsals to engage these pathways in the same way while watching dance as performing it.  Cross refers to this study 'Action observation and acquired motor skills: and fMRI study with expert dancers' that can be found here http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/3041/1/1243.pdf.

This proves our ability to learn movement patterns through watching dance.  

The Calvo – Merino project was conducted with specifically capoeira dancer, ballerinas and non-dancers.   I am involved in contemporary dance and I wonder whether this process of learning through action-observation is achievable in the same time-scale.   The reason for this is that ballet and capoeira have, in my experience, a clearer movement vocabulary.  The ‘repertoire’ is learnt as procedural knowledge much like running or swimming.   Contemporary is a lot wider in vocabulary so this could affect the time it takes dancers to produce mirror neurons while watching it.   In relation to my inquiry, i would like to ask the question, how long does it take novice dancers to be able to get to a point where they can atch dance and 'see' themselves perform it as an experienced dancer would.

Further questions could also be, can this ability to effectively reflect in-action and on-action through dance be transferred to learning something else? For example if we engage these pathways, can we connect a feeling or a fact to a movement?