Teaching Dancing with Ideokinetic Principles

Appendix to Chapter 3: The Dancer's Posture

Appendix to Chapter 3 The Dancer’s Posture Lulu E. Sweigard, with Introduction by Martha Hill During a distinguished career in research, teacher training, and private teaching, Dr. Lulu E. Sweigard came to the Juilliard School of Music, Dance Department in 1956, in the sixth year of that pioneer project in the professional training of young dancers—a pilot project by virtue of its introduction of serious study of the art of the dance in its various aspects into one of the world’s great schools of music and by virtue of its aim. As Juilliard president William Schuman has written, “The musician [dancer] must not be content with technical proficiency alone. He must be equipped to contribute, through his profession, to the development of music [dance] as a constructive force in contemporary life.” To anyone who is familiar with the historical development of research and practice in the field of posture and efficiency in movement, Dr. Sweigard’s work has always been in the vanguard of the mid-twentieth-century revolution in this field. Soundly based in the sciences of anatomy and body mechanics as well as neurology and physiology and drawing upon developments in psychology, her principles provide a common grammar for dancers and teachers of dance: “Movement resides in the thinking, not muscle action.” “There is no voluntary control over muscle action.” “Thinking and emotions influence muscle action.” “Movement imagined in the body results in change in established patterns of neuro-muscular co-ordination.” The proof of the principles lies in the results achieved. Through Dr. Sweigard’s meetings with the entire department, her laboratory sessions with the students, Source: Impulse: The Annual of Contemporary Dance (1961), pp. 38–43. i-xiv_1-130_Will.indd 47 7/8/11 12:28 PM her teaching of Anatomy for Dancers and her collaboration with dance faculty members, change in dance instruction and in accomplishment in movement go on continually. The results: more understanding of the instrument of the dance, the human body, and the medium, movement; realistic self-evaluation by the student of his own potentials and limitations; greater freedom and skill in movement; increasingly fewer injuries; faster recovery from strains. The values of Dr. Sweigard’s contributions to the Juilliard program are in­ estimable for the present and the future. These values are apparent in the increased understanding and efficiency of those working with her each year. Through her Juilliard alumni should come future advances not only in the craft of the dance, but, because of their wider perspective, gains in the art itself. Martha Hill, director, Dance Department, Juilliard School of Music The fundamental efficiency of the normal human body as a mechanism for movement can be judged primarily by its posture or posture pattern. Posture is herein defined as the alignment of the body as it occurs habitually in the standing position with the weight distributed as evenly as possible on both feet. This definition recognizes a persistent and consistent position of the various parts of the body relative to each other and to a central vertical axis; also, that there can be but one posture or posture pattern for each individual. Ideal Posture and Its Primary Values. The unattainable “perfect posture” shows the skeletal framework in perfect alignment, in strict agreement with all principles of mechanical balance. Approaching the ideal promotes those attributes so important to the performing artist: (1) a slenderized figure; (2) optimum flexibility of all joints; and (3) minimum expenditure of energy, both in the maintenance of the body in the upright position and in the performance of movement. Deviations from Ideal Body Alignment. The deviations from good alignment in the central portion of the body, including the pelvis, lumbar spine, and upper thighs, are statistically more reliable (.91 to .98) than those in any other area (.73 to .87) when measured in relation to a vertical axis established in line with the center-top of the sacrum where weight divides to pass to the legs. Furthermore, these central deviations occur together consistently as a pattern of deviations in all individuals. And this pattern tends to persist throughout life, with a strong inclination to become worse with increasing age. This information was the finding of a study of bilateral skeletal alignment in the standing position as revealed in the x-rays of 500 subjects, divided into four age-sex groups.* It is logical that there should be a high degree of reliability of the deviations and their association in a pattern in the...