Body Movement

"'Irmgard Bartenieff has a profound knowledge of the human body and how it moves. I am delighted that this will now be made available to many more people.'." -- George Balanchine of Director, New York City Ballet "'Irmgard Bartenieff's pioneering work in the multiple applications of Labananalysis has had a transforming influence on many areas of movement training. Her careful and detailed development of the spatial principles into active corrective work has illuminated and altered the training of people as varied as dancers, choreographers, physical therapists, movement and dance therapists, and psychotherapists. Anthropologists and non-verbal communication researchers have found their world view necessarily altered by her fundamental innovations. The field of body/mind work will need to adapt to include her clear working through of basic principles.'." -- Kayla Kazahn Zalk of President, American Dance Guild

A version of the OpenStax text

Based on a collection of video recordings, this book offers a micro-analysis of the visual and vocal aspects of the interaction between doctors and patients. Using actual examples, Christian Heath explores the moment-by-moment coordination of body movement and speech by and between doctor and patient. This study makes a major contribution both to our understanding of doctor-patient communication, and to the growing body of research on face-to-face interaction.

An eye-opening journey into the power of human movement and how we can harness it to optimize our brain health, boost our mood and improve every aspect our lives For our earliest ancestors who hunted and gathered, movement meant survival. Our brains evolved to reward physical activity. Moving, thinking and feeling have always been inextricably linked. Yet what happens when we stop moving? Today, on average, we spend around 70% of our lives sitting or lying completely still. Our sedentary lifestyle—desk jobs, long commutes and lots of screen time—is not only bad for our bodies. It can also result in anxiety, depression and a lower overall IQ. But there’s good news. Even the simplest movements can reactivate our bodies and open up a hotline to our minds, improving our overall well-being and longevity. And we don’t have to spend countless hours in the gym. In fact, exercise as we understand it misses the point. Veteran science journalist Caroline Williams explores the cutting-edge research behind brain health and physical activity, interviewing scientists from around the world to completely reframe our relationship to movement. Along the way she reveals easy tricks that we could all use to improve our memory, maximize our creativity, strengthen our emotional literacy and more. A welcome counterpoint to the current mindfulness craze, Move offers a more stimulating and productive way of freeing our caged minds to live our best life.

Body Memory, Metaphor and Movement is an interdisciplinary volume with contributions from philosophers, cognitive scientists, and movement therapists. Part one provides the phenomenologically grounded definition of body memory with its different typologies. Part two follows the aim to integrate phenomenology, conceptual metaphor theory, and embodiment approaches from the cognitive sciences for the development of appropriate empirical methods to address body memory. Part three inquires into the forms and effects of therapeutic work with body memory, based on the integration of theory, empirical findings, and clinical applications. It focuses on trauma treatment and the healing power of movement. The book also contributes to metaphor theory, application and research, and therefore addresses metaphor researchers and linguists interested in the embodied grounds of metaphor. Thus, it is of particular interest for researchers from the cognitive sciences, social sciences, and humanities as well as clinical practitioners.

How does the moving, dancing body engage with the materials, textures, atmospheres, and affects of the sites through which we move and in which we live, work and play? How might embodied movement practice explore some of these relations and bring us closer to the complexities of sites and lived environments? This book brings together perspectives from site dance, phenomenology, and new materialism to explore and develop how ‘site-based body practice’ can be employed to explore synergies between material bodies and material sites. Employing practice-as-research strategies, scores, tasks and exercises the book presents a number of suggestions for engaging with sites through the moving body and offers critical reflection on the potential enmeshments and entanglements that emerge as a result. The theoretical discussions and practical explorations presented will appeal to researchers, movement practitioners, artists, academics and individuals interested in exploring their lived environments through the moving body and the entangled human-nonhuman relations that emerge as a result.

As Others See Us, first published in 1994 by Gordon & Breach, is a book designed to introduce the reader to a new way of thinking about the movements, both conscious and unconscious, that we make every day and every second of our lives. Goldman describes the human experience as a continuous stream of body movements, though we are only aware of a small fraction of the more obvious and intrusive physical acts. The aim of this book is first to increase awareness of the subtleties and complexities of our body language, and then to encourage the reader to perceive these intricacies in their own movements and in those of others. Finally, with a more complete understanding and appreciation for the power of body language and non-verbal communication, one can achieve a deeper connection between physical and intellectual spheres, to allow for a fuller and more engaging experience of communication and expression. This new knowledge of the human body's movements not only permits one to more accurately perceive the emotions and thoughts of others, but can allow a glimpse into one's own mind, to see how we present ourselves to the world, and whether our thoughts are in sync with our actions. Central to the text is the author's treatment of the Integrated Movement, a term used to describe the merger of a posture and a gesture with a consistent quality, dynamic or shape. This approach to understanding and explaining human movement offers a unique way of thinking about conscious gesture, unconscious body language, and verbal speech as interconnected communication, a synthesis that allows for a more complete view of ourselves and others around us. The structure of the book follows a logical framework that mirrors the progress of the reader, from perception of movement, to the close inspection of gesture and body language, to the introduction and experience of Integrated Movement, to the application of one's new awareness to different aspects of life. Biographical sketches of leading figures in the field are included, as are suggestions for additional reading and resources. Perhaps the most unique feature of the book are the personal exercises (boxed-off text) that appear on almost every other page. These exercises are designed to allow the reader to experience the power of body language in real-life situations, while working towards the increased awareness and perception that is the goal of the book.

In Body, Movement, and Culture, Sally Ann Ness provides an original interpretive account of three forms of sinulog dancing practiced in Cebu City in the Philippines: a healing ritual, a dance drama, and a "cultural" exhibition dance. Ness's examination of these dance forms yields rich insights into the cultural predicament of this Philippine city and the way in which kinesthetic and visual symbols interact to create meaning. Ness scrutinizes the patterns of movement, the use of the body and of objects, and the shaping of space common to all three versions of the sinulog. She then relates these elements to the fundamental ways the culture bearers of Cebu City experience their world. For example, she shows how each of the dance forms functions to reinforce class distinctions and to establish a code of authenticated "cultural" action. At the same time, Ness demonstrates, the dances manifest and actualize widely applied notions about the nature of "devotion," "sincerity," "naturalness," and "beauty." Throughout the text, Ness provides a close analysis of movement that is all too often missing from anthropological studies of dance. Most significantly, she works to relate the movements used in dance to everyday movement and to interpret the attitudes and values that are embodied in both choreographed and quotidian movement. Important and illuminating, Body, Movement, and Culture is of particular interest to students and scholars of anthropology, folklore, dance, and Asian studies.