BARBARA METTLER The Language of Movement Page 2 of 6 The art of body movement, like all art, is primarily something to do and only secondarily something to watch others do. Although movement can be seen, it is not a visual art. It can sometimes be heard, but it is not the art of sound. Dance is a motor art. Unless sensed in themuscles, it is not dance, for either the participants or the spectators. I believe that the increasing tendency today to separate dancers from spectators, so that only a few persons dance while the majority watch, is a distortion of the true nature of dance which is essentially a group activity. I have always believed that dance is a basic human need and that all people should have an opportunity to do it. When I look back on my professional work over the past fifty-two years, I see it as a kind of research, a continuous effort to find basic principles, common denominators and a way of work which can make dance immediately available to anyone who wants it. I have danced and taught dance not only in my own studio but in many parts of the United States, and in Canada, Central America and Europe. I have worked with young and old, male and female, including those with handicaps. Much has been revealed to me about dance and about people. I have found that the average person longs to dance but considers dance an activity out of reach for all but a few. When I hear someone say, "I wish I could dance" and I ask "Why don't you?", the answer is always "I am not graceful" or "I don't have a good body" or "I am not creative" or "I am too old to dance". This means that the average person is deprived of something he or she longs to do, can do and needs to do. Anyone can be graceful, all bodies are good, everyone is creative, and no one is too old to dance. As a result of my continuous experimentations with materials and methods, I have developed a kind of dance which has come to be known as "creative dance" because it can liberate and cultivate the natural creative movement resources which are in everyone. In creative dance we each create our own movements, expressing our feelings. No two people are expected to move in exactly the same way because no two people are exactly alike.   <<< previous >>> next