ABSTRACT
Singing and dancing are both rooted in rhythmicity. In music, rhythm is the element that organizes and structures the melody and the body of its underlying harmonies. The common experience of a perfect union of two bodies dancing to the same music seems to have represented a sufficiently secure base for the dreamer not only to dare, but also to enjoy stepping out of the rhythm for a moment and thereby taking the first "leaps of imagination". This chapter suggests that mental development grows on the ground of a basic trust in an ongoing rhythmical object, which can, once it is securely internalized, also be playfully varied. It describes that the perception of the rhythmical sounds of the maternal organism during prenatal life may constitute the base that prepares the foetus to receive the sound and rhythm of the mother's voice, with its infinitely more complex articulations in terms of pitch, loudness, timbre, and rhythm.
