How Some Groups of Dancers Move Like One Body

MIND IN MOTION · SPECIAL EDITION

I'm interrupting our regular series to celebrate something: Skills 'n' Zills, an Austrian FCBD festival, is almost here. One of the workshops I'm teaching in Linz this August is built on the ideas I've been developing in Mind in Motion: Blog to Book, so it felt like the right moment to share them with you directly, whether you’ll be in Austria or not.

Picture: Me and my identical twin sister, Terri Allred. Being identical twins has a body matching advantage that most people don’t have.

Body Matching for Synchronization

Have you ever been hypnotized by a group of dancers who all have different heights, body types, and levels of experience but move as though they share a single nervous system? Those are magical performances. I used to think, "they must have been dancing together for years." Sometimes that is true. But sometimes the secret is not time. It is a specific set of skills that you rarely learn in dance class. I call the collection of skills “ Body Matching”.

The science that helps us synchronize is useful beyond achieving those magical performances. Body matching also helps with:

•        Effective rehearsal, even when we are injured or sick and can't dance

•        Movement discrimination- our ability to watch another dancer, identify the differences, and correct them

•        Improved emotional and social connection in your troupe

What is Body Matching?

Body matching is the practice of mirroring your leader and troupe mates with precision. It means scanning from head to toe and noticing the details of weight, angle, timing, arm position, and more… then adjusting your own body to match. In group improv dance especially, it is what separates a collection of individuals doing the same move from a group that moves as one.

Most dancers do some version of this instinctively, but instinct will only take you so far. When you make this practice conscious and learn what to look for and how to look for it, the improvement is immediate and often surprising.

The Science Behind It (This part is cool)

When you watch another dancer move, the part of your brain that controls your own movement activates. Your brain is essentially practicing the movement while you watch. Scientists call this our mirror neuron system.

Observation doesn't replace physical practice, but combining the two accelerates learning. Research shows that people who learn movement by watching and copying acquire skills more rapidly and more precisely than those who learn through verbal description alone. Words are too slow and too linear to capture the simultaneous, multi-dimensional experience of a dance move. Your body learns differently when it watches another body “do the thing”.

I have a vivid memory of my General Skills training, with Carolena and Megha saying "less talking, more dancing" and Carolena telling us we learn better by watching and following. They were teaching us that when it comes to complex movement, observation is more effective than explanation.

This is also why injured dancers who observe class carefully are still genuinely learning. Their brains are mapping the movement even when their bodies can't execute it.

Body Matching is About More Than Copying

Here's where it gets interesting, and where body matching goes deeper than most dance classes go.

Because everyone's body is different, true body matching requires you to translate the movement- not just copy it. If your leader has a longer torso, matching her arm line exactly might look wrong on your body. If she is six inches taller, her reach creates a different spatial relationship to her center than yours does.

This is why the body scan I teach goes head to toe, and why the question isn't only "what is she doing?" but "what would this look like if my body were doing it?" Translating movement to your body is a more sophisticated task than copying, and it is a skill you can develop with practice.

What We Will Work on in August

My Body Matching workshop begins with around 20 minutes of discussion, followed by a series of movement exercises.

Some of the things we will work on:

•        The head-to-toe scanning technique: both what to look for and in what order

•        Body type adjustments: how to match your leader's intent and quality when exact replication isn't possible

•        Flocking and group awareness: responding to the whole group, not just the person leading

•        Using observation intentionally during class: whether you're dancing full out, marking, or sitting out with an injury

•        The connection between body matching and fearless following: why better body matching makes you a more confident follower and a stronger leader

This workshop is for any level of group improv dancer who wants to look more synchronized. The content is as helpful to new dancers as it is to experienced teachers.

It is especially useful for:

•        Dancers who are attending a festival and asking their bodies to dance harder and longer

•        Intermediate dancers who can't figure out why they aren't progressing

•        Teachers who want to build body matching exercises into their curriculum

•        Troupe members who want to wow people with magically synchronized performances

•        Any dancer who is injured or returning from injury and wants to accelerate their recovery

Come ready to watch, to practice, and to be pleasantly surprised by how quickly this changes the way you move in a group.

For teachers: If you attend the August workshop in Linz, I will share the written instructions for every exercise we do. Please take them and feel free to adapt for your own students.

Not coming to Austria? This content is part of the book I'm writing. If you signed up to receive chapters as I write them, watch your inbox. Body Matching is covered in chapter 6. If you didn't, it isn’t too late!  Here is the link to make sure you don’t miss any Mind in Motion: Blog to Book content.