WEBVTT - Dance 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.640 Thing, get thing, get thing, thing getting thinet thinkt thing 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:08.479 think think think thing thing thinking think think thing thing. Okay, 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:10.840 my mom's side of the family has this little song 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.159 and we sing to kids. And I remember when my 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:16.599 youngest cousin, Jesse, was tiny, like maybe nine months old. 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.439 Somebody sat around a blanket and did the thinking think song, 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.119 and this wet mouthed, grinning kid starts dancing, like really dancing, 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.439 and all the women are freaking out because look at 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.000 this tiny thing breaking it down. I was a teenager then, 0:00:30.280 --> 0:00:33.320 but I was legitimately taken aback, Like, how does this 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:36.159 brand new, soft little person know how to do that? Already? 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:39.360 She doesn't know any words yet, she can't walk. She's 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:41.800 like a cheese curd with arms and legs. So where 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:44.240 does she learn how to dance? And why does she 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.880 do it when we sing the Tinka think song? Why 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.640 indeed does music animate you or me? Why do we 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:53.800 toe tap or chair dance or just not along while typing, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.600 I'm Dessa, You're listening to deeply human and in less 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:01.480 than half an hour you're going to have a basic 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.440 understanding of why people dance. So get ready to impress 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:12.760 everyone at the next raid with your shouted explanations. Oh God, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.880 when you hear music that you like, there's a chill 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.240 that starts from your head and goes all the way 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:21.959 down to your feet and then it comes back up 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:26.840 the other side. And so that chill, that feeling, you 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.839 just take it and ride that right into the movement. Okay, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.520 But then, if you are fortunate, you will experience that 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:41.560 point where you just completely leave your body. Everything gets blurry. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.520 I'll see like um, kind of like an orange light. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:49.320 Sometimes it's silver, and then it's like I'm at another 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.440 location in the room, and then I'm watching myself dance. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.920 And that's the feeling that every dancer wants, you know, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.080 like you want that feel. It doesn't happen all the time, 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:04.800 but when it does, it's the best thing that's happened 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:11.959 all year. Darien Parker is a dancer and instructor with 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.040 Comb Bay Center for African Diaspora Dance in New York, 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:20.320 and he is dancing like a cent of the time. Yeah, 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.560 even if I'm not teaching or performing, I'm always dancing 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:29.799 in my room or in my head. I'm always making 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:35.440 up choreography or imagining myself doing something or yeah, wait, 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:36.880 are you saying that, like in the way that I 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:38.560 might have a song stuck in my head, you might 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:40.560 have a dance stuck in your head? Oh yeah, all 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:47.639 the time. Darien may pose a particularly intense example, but 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.359 there's neuroscientific evidence that all human brains are inclined to 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.360 move when we listen to music. When people are simply 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:00.239 listening to music and yeah, not's moving their body. That's 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.960 still in their brain, we see that that there's motor 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:07.639 activation when they listen to music. Our motor cortex becomes activated. 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.000 So that's the part of the brain that is responsible 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.799 for the planning, control and execution of voluntary movements. So 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.080 even if we do not move, we are inclined to move. 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.160 Our brain wants to move. That's Edith van Dyke. She 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.880 studies the way that people interact with music at Ghent 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.760 University in Belgium, and her account of our brains dancing 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.560 in our heads reminds me of like an office space 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:33.120 when a good song comes on and everybody's dancing in 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:37.400 their chairs. It's just this automatic urge to move. Edith 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:40.320 says that our ability to process music might be built 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.760 in just like languages. So there's something in our brain, 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:48.480 that is their naturally that makes us respond to music, 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.240 but so also in the bodily way also moving to music, 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.880 there's evidence of the music acquisition module in our brains. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.640 Research indicates that infants, as for the example of baby Jesse, 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.080 moved to beats well before they're a year old, which 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.680 seems to suggest it's innate, were predisposed to move to music. 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:11.280 On a personal time scale, you probably made your first 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.280 dance move before you can remember it. And on an 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.320 anthropological time scale, Edith says the dancing most likely started 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.320 with our species Homo sapiens, as opposed with other earlier hominids, 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.000 and dancing has likely been instrumental in binding us to 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.479 one another on the long term. Actually, something that has 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.320 been in dance at all times in our history is 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:38.200 the social aspect. So moving together can be regarded as 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.360 a sort of social glue you increase your social bonding. 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:48.760 Take for example, a rain dance. Probably there were a 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.400 lot of people in the communities who believed that when 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.800 times were hearts and there wasn't a lot of rain 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:00.120 and crops were going to fill, that's when you are 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.520 dancing to the gods, that it would start to rape 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:09.440 some people might have believed that, but it's initially started 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.280 from keeping the group together because in hard times, when 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.000 there's not enough foods, there might be starvation, which can 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:20.880 leads to fights, to wars and so on. So it 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.760 is key to keep the group together to bear all 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:28.799 of this together, social cohesion, motor cortex activation. I admit 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.920 that I sort of thought an evolutionary explanation of dance 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.840 was going to be mostly about sex, like you know 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.360 that whole thing. Dance is a vertical expression of a 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:43.839 horizontal desire that stuff, of course. Yeah, well, okay, when 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.599 you dance, it's a sexual display of fitness. You show 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.680 that you're physically fits, but also that you have a 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.960 good working brain because you can conceptualize about things. You 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.400 understand the music when you have good feeling of rhythm. 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.040 You could see it like that, moving in sync and 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:07.080 with style. Maybe the mark of a good mate. Okay, 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:09.520 no anyone who implied. But now let's turn back to 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.520 our dancer, Darien. His focus is on West African traditions 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:19.680 where specific dances are integral to the culture. So when 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.240 you talk about dance West African dances, it's done in 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:28.159 West Africa. You're talking about things that pretty much mark 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:32.679 every aspect of life, you know, So if someone passes away, 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.240 if there's a wedding, if there's a birth of a child, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.280 if there's an initiation ceremony for a young girl or 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.880 for a young boy, pretty much all aspects of life. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:49.960 The dance is very much an articulation of the philosophical system, 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.480 you know, of the people. Can you explain that what 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.480 does that mean? A dance that I'm teaching now is 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.080 a traditional dance for the Malnqua people, and this is 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:02.560 a dance in which young girls mark their right of 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:08.560 passage into womanhood. So there's one movement done, for instance, 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.520 in which you reach to the sky, you come into 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.400 your body, and then you put your arms behind you, 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:18.640 and you keep doing that and repetitions the sky, come 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:21.640 into your body with your arms behind. So essentially what 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.920 you're communicating is I take blessings from God, I bring 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.960 them into my body, and then I scattered them throughout 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.640 the earth. And then I take what I scattered throughout 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:33.960 the earth, I bring them into my body and then 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.960 I give it back as an offering unto God. And 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.240 the ma Linqua people believe in that kind of constant 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:45.480 flow between k of the ethereal, the personal, and then 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:49.240 the rest of society. So yeah, that one movement you 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.280 kind of expressed that aspect of ma Linque philosophy behind 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:59.040 Sky come Into and West African traditions. The body's movement 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:02.360 is also the adduct of a really tight relationship between 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:04.920 the dancers and the musicians who play with them. Like 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.120 I've heard drummers bragging did you see the way I 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.560 made him rip his own shirt? Okay, that does not 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.400 refer to a dancer who like tears his shirt down 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.960 the middle like some cheesy adonis. It's essentially about dancing 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.360 a shirt into pieces. So if a drummer notices that 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.720 a particular move seems to strain a dancer's garment, the 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.120 drummer will get the dancer to do it again and 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.040 again and with more and more intensity until the fabric 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:40.160 just can't hold. Drummers are very very observant, skilled people, 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.719 and they're like magicians. And I remember one time I 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.280 was dancing to Mama die Kata, who is known as 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.360 like the pre eminent master drummer of Guinea and dancing 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.000 God Rest his soul. But I had the privilege of 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.440 dancing in a class where he was playing the lead 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.000 and he had had two drums strapped together and he 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.040 was playing them at the same time. And I will 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.240 never forget this, the way his eyes were in tuned 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.959 to what my body was doing. And it was the 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.079 first time in my life that I have ever felt weightless, 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.000 like I was doing all these complicated things, but I 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.599 didn't feel anything. He was making my body move. Just 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:28.480 feel like being merryonetted. Almost. Yeah, it kind of does 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:33.280 feel like being merrionetted, but it's actually something even more 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:39.199 transcendent than that. It's like you feel nothing. The drummers 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.880 can move the dancers, and it's a two way street. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.480 The dancers can influence the drummer's performance too. The goal 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.000 in West African dance or the styles that I do, 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.199 is to have a perfect connection with the music and 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.439 the live musicians. There has to be kind of like 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:00.720 perfect synchronicity between you and the musicians. That conversation has 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:05.000 to be fluid. When that is the case, you will 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:15.880 feel a physical kind of healing of your body. When 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:17.959 I was in my early twenties, I helped teach a 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:20.640 salsa class, which makes me sound like a way better 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.520 dancer than I am. Essentially, I would just show up 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.520 early and learn the moves from Don, the real instructor, 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:28.920 so that he could demonstrate them to the class with 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:34.000 the help of a female lead. And Don was this 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.120 gay dude who, by his own description, would go dancing 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:41.240 flaming like butane, and so to make it look like 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.680 we had chemistry when we danced in front of an audience, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.160 he'd sometimes whisper threats like um he would say, I'm 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.120 going to cut you the nature of a dip, and 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:54.920 I'd giggle, and that would sell our rapport to the crowd. Anyway. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.679 I remember struggling to get this really flashy spin. It 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.599 was a fast double turn that involved ducking under the 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:04.000 dude's arm, and it was awesome. It was super hard. 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.760 I asked Don to slow it down. I'm real cerebral, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.240 and I wanted to talk through each step one by one, 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.280 and he just flatly refused. You can't learn it that way, 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.040 he said, you gotta feel it. Just let the music 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.120 guide you, close your eyes and humble your mind to 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:27.439 your body. How old were you when you started performing 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:32.080 as a musician in dance classes? Nineteen when I played 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.280 dance for a dance studio do you remember the first day? No, 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:40.000 and what instrument did you play piano? And what kind 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.160 of stuff did you play on the piano. Dance teacher 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.400 was a French lady. She liked the Greek movie Sober 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.240 of the Greek. She got fixed safe and I sat 0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:53.720 played different versions of the Greek. That is Craig Harris. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.199 He's loved music and rhythm since he was a kid. 0:11:56.640 --> 0:11:59.280 He studied composition and even though he grew up to 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.200 pursue a totally different career path, he always wrote music 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.679 for dance on the side. But then something started to 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:16.160 change in Craig's body. H In around two thousand six 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.520 or two thousand five. I had weird imbalance and strange 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.560 kind of heavy body feeling, and it was a mystery 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.560 that no one could diagnose. It's like everything has weights 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.160 on it. My body feels a little heavier, so anything 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.880 you do is a little harder, a little more work. 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.600 There was also a marked stiffness, a sense of rigidity. 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.280 It would be like, um, if you're really cold. Then 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.319 a tremor in his left hand. Craig went back to 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.000 the doctor. He's a German doctor and he's very straightforward, 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.040 and he said, well, I'm sorry to tell you this, 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:56.520 but I'm afraid you have Parkinson's. Parkinson's disease is a 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.800 progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement, and it can 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.520 make everyday motions difficult. People with Parkinson's might not swing 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.800 their arms when they walk, or have difficulty writing or 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:12.720 making facial expressions. Movement can be especially difficult to initiate. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:18.640 In late stage Parkinson's, people can experience freezing, rendering someone 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:22.920 temporarily unable to move or walk at all. People sometimes 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.839 describe it is feeling glued to the floor. There's no cure, 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.160 but medication can help treat Parkinson's symptoms, and rhythm can too. 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.760 Music can actually help people lock into a more natural 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.040 walking gate, taking longer, more confident steps. There's even a 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.480 new smartphone app that uses ankle sensors to collect data 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.520 on the gate of Parkinson's patients and then plays music 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:49.200 at a tempo designed to keep them moving smoothly. Craig 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.920 enrolled in a dance class designed for people with Parkinson's disease. 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:58.240 I talked to one of Craig's instructors, Maria Walsh from 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.400 Motion Pacific Dance, and she said that If a dancer 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.840 freezes midstep in class, introducing a little bit of rhythm 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:07.599 can help break the hold. She'll have them home a 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.000 little rhythm, then try to stomp it and eventually walk 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.679 to it again. Craig doesn't suffer from freezing, but he 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.160 does notice that dance eases his symptoms. I moved a 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.120 little easier and lighter, and I felt a little lighter 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:27.080 psychologically but physically too. Dance is both therapy and a 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.040 way to elevate my spirits. It seems to have the 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:35.000 effect of making things more fluid physically and mentally for me, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:38.520 and rhythm holds the same magnetism for him that it 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.960 did as a teenager. It feels like pretty much the 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.960 same as it does when you don't have Parkinson's. You know, 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:48.440 it just feels good. So how exactly do music and 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.800 dance therapy help people with conditions like Parkinson's. Back to Edith, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.280 our Belgian researcher for a bit of neuroscience. Keeping the 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.920 beat is believed to be hardwired in her brain too, 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.440 So we actually we see that our neurals the connections 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.120 in our brain that they can synchronize their firing to 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:10.080 musical beats. When we move, we tend to synchronize in 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:12.880 certain ways to music. We tend to connect to the 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:24.320 sounds and to the vibrations and so on. A research 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:26.760 suggests that when we listen to a song, some of 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.800 our brain waves can actually sink to the tempo. Are 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:33.800 synapses fire and time with the music. Okay, a quick 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:37.120 reminder here that the phrase it's all just vibrations man, 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.080 is not allowed on this program. If all of a 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.520 person's brain waves were perfectly aligned, it wouldn't mean they 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.400 were enlightened. It could mean that they're having a seizure. 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:50.200 So let's just keep it empirical. But yes, it is 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.520 pretty awesome that our brain waves are believed to align 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.000 with what's on the stereo, and that neurological alignment may 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.640 be part of what prompts us to dance. The electrical 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.760 impact is passing through the parts of our brain responsible 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:07.000 for movement are already dialed into the tempo, which maybe 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.320 why it is really challenging to dance out of sync 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.440 with the beat. I'm not dancing to the music. I 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.960 can sometimes jump in rhythm with the music. I can 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.960 go against it. I can completely forget about the music 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:28.080 and do something else. Is it difficult to avoid the 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.720 temptation to dance to be just because that's kind of 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:35.680 maybe naturally what we're inclined to do. Yeah, it's interesting, 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:38.440 I think it is. I think it takes training and 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.560 retraining too long to do that. This is Vangeline. She 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.360 specializes in a form of dance called Bhutto. Bhutto is 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.960 an art phone that came from Japan in the nineteen fifties. 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.960 It's an avant garde art phone and it's kind of 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.160 like the dance of the subconscious, exploration of the unconscious. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.360 Photo is sometimes called the dance of darkness, and it 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.400 is unlike any dance you've ever seen. Tatsumihi Jakata, one 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:07.240 of the choreographers who created Bhutto, would sometimes fast before 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:11.920 performances for a dramatic, emaciated look. He and other dancers 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.160 would often cover their bodies in bone white paint before 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.680 taking stage. I'd only run across Bhutto once years ago, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.399 having accidentally stumbled across a YouTube link, and in it, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.440 the body of a tall, hairless man painted lunar white 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.000 falls down a stone staircase. He pieces himself back together 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:36.080 at the bottom, moving with so many tightly controlled, isolated movements. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.359 It's as if there were tiny rotors spinning in each joint. 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.119 He doesn't look human. He looks like a first failed 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.960 hybrid of machine and man, able to suffer but not survive. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:49.399 And one gets the sense that the kind thing to 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.560 do would be to find a rock and put the 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.040 thing out of its misery, but also that you'd never 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.120 be able to summon the grit to do it yourself. Booto. 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.359 It's it's just intense man. She was purely Japanese. Then 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.280 it moved to Europe in the seventies, and then it 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:09.600 exploded all over the world. Vangeline is from France, but 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.960 she studied in Japan and Mexico. When I asked about 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.120 the aesthetic of bhutto, it seems like I just sort 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.680 of missed the point. It's also much about how it 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:23.600 looks as how it feels. So if you're watching you 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.600 budo performance, probably you you're having some kind of people 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:31.040 have very violent response. They hate it, they love it, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.040 they go into a deep trance, they relax, some people leave, 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.159 and I really offended. Like I think when it began, 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.480 people were fainting when they were watching bud So there's 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:44.840 that kind of visceral response from the body when you 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.959 actually watch it, Bhutto often moves faster or slower than 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.320 the way we do in our normal lives, and it 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.560 incorporates some gestures and expressions that aren't really allowed in public. 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:58.800 And when you think about it, we've got a pretty 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.240 narrow band of just and expressions that are allowed in public. 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.560 Like if a person blinks too frequently, that might be 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.200 enough to weird you out. Let alone, twisting or bending 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.040 their torso, or curling and unfurling their toes. There's a 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.160 lot that's just off limits. All day long, we watch 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.400 people moving a certain way in the way that society 0:19:19.480 --> 0:19:22.960 has kind of taught us to move walking down the street, 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.119 Like right now we're talking to each other, were standing 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.920 in a specific way. So if I start doing movements 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.119 that are a little bit strange or different, or that 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:36.160 are considered scary or possibly sexual, or you know, outside 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:39.639 of the realm of what's socially acceptable, then that immediately 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:44.520 provokes the viewer. So there's that aspect to bule of 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.119 that da and consciousness of the body brings types of 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.359 movement that we're not really accustomed to seeing in public. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.240 I went to Vangeline Studio to try it for myself. 0:19:57.800 --> 0:19:59.880 It's a single room in Brooklyn and a building near 0:19:59.920 --> 0:20:03.040 the train. Soft rubber mats on the floor fit together 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:05.760 like puzzle pieces, and a sign on the door says 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:11.760 no shoes. Okay, full disclosure. I find Vangeline almost pathologically likable. 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.080 You will hear that in my voice while we are dancing, 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:18.560 and I am not sorry. She is just so likable. Yeah, 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:21.080 And you can totally use the mirror because it's there. 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.040 The mirror is awesome. Is that helpful or is that? 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.440 I like the mirror? Vanity is good? Why not? At 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:33.639 first Vangeline said I could move anyway I wanted. We 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:37.399 were just going to experiment with rhythm. Okay. So the 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.719 first one is you just try to move with the beat. Anything. 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:54.000 Now I'm going to try it to move against the beat, okay, okay, 0:20:54.440 --> 0:21:00.080 so no, because it's home. It's really hard, man. It 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:02.760 is so hard. It's like patch your head and rub 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.800 your tummy hard. Your body just does not want to 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.560 do it. Also, it became clear how impoverished my own 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:13.359 inventory of movements is. I was reusing moves already like 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.320 half a minute in, but Vangeline was doing all sorts 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:20.239 of stuff simple steps to like zombie vibes. You can 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.760 have very tiny tremors and movement that in Japanese they 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.760 call faint soft fructuations, like something's passing through your face, 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.280 one little movement of your fingertip, and then you can 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.359 go from macro to micro, and you can go from 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:41.560 the very exclusive to total stillness. I'm not sure I 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.359 would have been bold enough to try bootle with just anyone, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:48.480 but Vangeline was so compassionate and also really smart. She 0:21:48.600 --> 0:21:52.040 made me feel comfortable enough to risk looking foolish. And 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:54.600 if Booto's aim is to invite the full scope of 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:58.120 our humanity to the dance, well, fear and foolishness, they're 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.639 surely part of it. There was is also just a 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.720 joy contagion. Vangeline is electrified by bhutto, and I was 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:15.480 near enough to catch some sparks. YEA, thank you so much. 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:19.000 The effort it takes to dance against the beat in 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:22.120 a form like bhutto is evidence of just how sensitive 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.280 we are to rhythm. We are primed for music, so 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.840 for instance, just nature sounds or sounds on the streets 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.560 or something can become musical to you. That, of course 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.840 was Edith. Again. I make my living as a musician, 0:22:36.040 --> 0:22:37.840 and when I'm in the van with my band and 0:22:37.920 --> 0:22:40.160 we're stopped at a red light waiting to make a turn, 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:42.960 I have noticed on more than one occasion that all 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:45.440 of us are like grooving to the clicking of the 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:50.680 turn signal. Edith says, there's another theory about why we're 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.960 compelled to dance, one that's totally different from anything we've 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.320 heard so far, and it has to do with our 0:22:56.359 --> 0:23:00.560 appetite for control. Well, there is a thing called agency. 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:04.960 That's a theoretical idea about the fact that when you 0:23:05.080 --> 0:23:07.960 feel in control of things, it makes you feel good. 0:23:08.320 --> 0:23:12.359 It's motivating, it's fun. So you're kind of imitating your music, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:16.160 but it can also feel as if you are creating. 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:20.160 It's because you're dancing more strongly, fiercely, and so on. Yeah, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:23.080 that's something you can clearly have when you're listening to 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.320 music and you play the musical director. That sense of 0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:30.959 agency all over, so you act as if you are 0:23:31.160 --> 0:23:34.399 making the music yourself, which feels awesome. What do you 0:23:34.440 --> 0:23:36.720 mean when you act as a musical director. You're talking 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:40.200 about like air guitar. Yeah, I was talking about like 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:43.359 a director of a symphonic orchestra. But yeah, air guitar 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.199 is exactly the same, of course. Yeah. For all her 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:51.600 knowledge about the complex neurological and psychological underpinnings of dance, 0:23:52.160 --> 0:23:55.720 Edith has a pretty simple takeaway message. We should all 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:59.119 dance more. People who think that it's just some past 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.840 time are so wrong, because it's much more than that, 0:24:03.080 --> 0:24:07.119 and it can help us in so many ways. I 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:11.679 sort of dance almost every morning when my kids are up, 0:24:11.720 --> 0:24:15.320 everybody's downstairs. I usually shower a little bit later than 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:17.960 the rest. I put on my music and I danced 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:22.600 in the bethroom, and I usually come down for breakfast 0:24:22.840 --> 0:24:25.600 in the way more positive states than when I got off. 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:31.040 If we can all get over our self consciousness, dancing 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:34.000 just feels good, and we do it because it connects 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:37.320 us to one another like social glue. We sometimes dance 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:40.560 because it's sexy and proves we are too. And dancing 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:43.960 has become folded into our big cultural rituals. The first 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:48.119 slow dance at weddings ringed by wet eyed spectators, the waltz, 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:52.960 the new dresses and borrowed car for prom, the doofy 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:55.600 Congo line, at a work party that started ironic and 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:58.960 ends up awesome. We dance because our bodies are built 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:02.040 to move to music, and maybe also because shredding and 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:09.439 air guitar solo feels red. Well. You know that end 0:25:09.480 --> 0:25:11.920 of program sound as well as I do. But we 0:25:12.040 --> 0:25:15.200 cannot shut down this show about music and dance without 0:25:15.200 --> 0:25:17.960 a killer dance jam. We used to call that stuff 0:25:18.000 --> 0:25:20.000