Movement

Movement often accompanies music. In some of the world's languages, the words for music and movement are interchangeable, or one and the same. In human development, movement plays a key role in shaping the brain for its environment, including musical movement and dance. Movement fosters group cohesion and interpersonal bonding, and signals expertise in musicians and dancers. While disordered movement can be a key indicator for neurological dysfunction, in therapeutic contexts musical movement can be used as a tool to promote healing.

The movements that produce sounds and gestures form the origins of music and dance, and the human body was the first musical instrument. Many cultures have not historically displayed a conceptual distinction between actions that produce musical sound and those that produce dance, as seen in languages that use the same word to mean “music” and “movement.” For example, the Suyá of the Amazon forest use the term ngere to refer to song and dance because to them, “they are one,” and for the Blackfoot of North America, saapup refers to music, dance, and ceremony together. Likewise, in the Bantu language group, the concept of ngoma includes drumming, dance, song, and festivity, while the lingua franca of Papua New Guinea has one term, singsing, which is used interchangeably to refer to singing and dancing. The Greek term mousiké (music) encompasses melody, dance, and poetry (all based on a pulse), and rhythmos, meaning “measured flow or movement,” gave rise to the modern Western concept of musical rhythm.

Rhythm is learned through movement from the earliest days of development. The brain of the fetus in utero receives stimulation from auditory, motor, and vestibular (balance) modalities, which combine to enable multisensory perception of the environment, such as the mother's sounds (e.g., heartbeat and voice) and movements (e.g., walking and swaying). Once in the external world, infants are often held, rocked, and carried. Yet, it is primarily the actions of the infant through self-directed movement that drive sensory learning and enable proper development of all of the senses. Infants are highly receptive to music and dance, even before they are capable of performing it themselves. Yet, the presence of movement with music contributes to their perception of the musical beat and rhythmic structure. This is part of the child's musical enculturation, and helps explain how the brain becomes attuned to the rhythmic and movement structures of a particular musical culture.

A toddler delights in the music of the “Nasty Monkees,” a band playing at a retro-Americana rock ‘n roll event in La Ferté-St.-Aubin, Centre, France, September 22, 2012. As children develop, they naturally demonstrate a spontaneous expression of emotion and musicality through musical movement and dance.