ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to share scientific perspectives on the neurocognition of dance, and to give an impetus to integrate scientific knowledge and principles into the ways of teaching dance, as well as to integrate body knowledge acquired via (dance) movement into teaching in general. It presents a range of projects along with complementary lines of scientific, artistic and pedagogical work, all of them focusing on different aspects of dance. The book shows how teachers can improve dancers' physical and artistic qualities by substantiating the training process with cognitive methods. It demonstrates how a biomimetic computer simulation of an insect's walking behaviour can be augmented to develop internal world models and, progressively, become 'cognitive'. The book also presents different approaches to studying dancers' particular expertise in motor learning and movement-related memory processes.