ABSTRACT
Dancers often claim to think with the body and think of the body as a universal tool for cognitive processing. Dancers’ skills are based on a multitude of cognitive functions, in particular memory processes that support the learning, adaptation, modification, (re-)creation, and improvisation of complex movement material. Embodied memories are closely tied to autobiographical history and constitutive for the sense of a consistent self, thereby fundamental for creative processes in the arts. Cognitive scientists, on the other hand, who regard memory as being based on embodied processes, differentiate between the physical body and its representations on different neurocognitive levels. Findings from neurophysiological research support the idea of “multiple bodies in the brain,” indicating that different brain areas contribute to the perception of one consistent body as the basis for an integrated bodily self. Integrating these perspectives through multidisciplinary research that combines theoretical and empirical evidence with knowledge acquired through practise in the performing arts can provide novel insights into cognitive processes underlying the control, learning, and perception of actions. Studies in dance expertise may reveal how cognition works under challenging real-world conditions in individuals with exceptional skills, and to what extent and by what means the performance of the human neurocognitive system is enhanced and modified through specific training. Dancers with bodily or sensorimotor disabilities can be considered experts in their own rights, whose individual constraints might yield exceptional solutions to given problems in motor action, social interaction, and communication. Including their experiences and perspectives into the research in the field might help to push the limits of our understanding of the adaptive capacity of the human neurocognitive system.
