Teaching Dancing with Ideokinetic Principles

Introduction

Introduction When I studied with Dr. Lulu E. Sweigard (b. 1895–d. 1974) in the late 1950s, I went to her for “neuromuscular reeducation.” The name “ideokinesis” didn’t yet exist (the word is a combined form meaning ideo = “idea,” plus kinesis = “body movements” or “gestures”). This name was applied to the discipline in the early nineteen-seventies. There were comparatively few people in the New York dance world (or elsewhere) fifty years ago who had heard of Sweigard and her work in movement education. Moreover, “neuromuscular reeducation ” was not an attractive name, because it implied that something was wrong—something had to be “reeducated.” Nevertheless, I sought her out, and thereafter, my teaching of dancing was changed in fundamental ways. According to Pamela Matt (professor emerita, Arizona State University), I am one of the second generation of teachers inspired by Sweigard’s work, but I would not have gone to her at all if I hadn’t been deeply interested in teaching dancing without physical injury to students. This aim dominated my approach to dance teaching from 1948 until my retirement from teaching dancing in 1970. In fact, the chapters of this book were originally letters addressed to Pamela Matt, who, when our correspondence began in August 2003, was still teaching dance science and somatics in the dance department at Arizona State. We began our extended dialogue as Professor Matt was developing a website, www.ideokinesis.com, for ideokinesis, now available for study. Because I was Sweigard’s student in the late fifties, Pam wanted to know how I used her work both during and after the time I studied with her. In particular, she was interested in connections with the teaching of dancing, for as she points out: Most of the students of Clark and Sweigard were dancers or were affiliated in some way with the dance profession. Some of them continued to teach the material largely as they had been taught, but many others applied knowledge they attained in their study of ideokinesis to the teaching of [the] dance. Thus, the second era in the development of ideokinesis was shaped by the Dance Generation. (From the “Introduction,” page 2, of www.ideokinesis.com) i-xiv_1-130_Will.indd 9 7/8/11 12:27 PM In this book, I attempt to make as clear as possible what I learned from Sweigard . I also aim to make clear the differences between teaching Sweigardian ideokinesis and teaching any form of dancing by pointing out in the first chapter how I used Sweigard’s principles in teaching dancing but did not use her images, nor did I teach “ideokinesis” in ballet or modern dance classes, which permits me to say that the synopsis of chapters and appendices of this book summarizes its content. However, before looking at the synopsis of chapters, I want readers to know what Martha Hill (director of the Dance Department at Juilliard School of Music for many years) said in an introduction to an article written by Sweigard for Impulse Magazine (reprinted as the Appendix to Chapter 3, page 47): 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.” (Hill 1961: 38) Some—or all—of the statements Hill lists are as hard for some people to believe today as they were in 1957 when I met Dr. Sweigard, especially the second: “There is no voluntary control over muscle action,” a statement that is true if (and only if) it is understood in terms of Sweigard’s emphasis on posture, that is, “the alignment of the body as it occurs habitually in the standing position with the weight distributed as evenly as possible on both feet” (Sweigard 1961: 39), and if it is understood that subcortical controls in the nervous system determine the habitual postural patterns of all human beings. Synopsis of Chapters and Appendices Chapter 1 (“Beams of Light”) discusses how I...