Dancing into Brain Health (S1 Ep3): Moving Toward Embodiment w/ Dr. Glenna Batson
How do we define embodiment? How does the study of neuroscience and dance inform practice and vice versa? How might engaging in these inquiries translate into better quality of life for all of us as we age?
In today’s episode of Dancing into Brain Health, our guest is dancer/researcher Dr. Glenna Batson whose multi-decade long career has aligned dance with critical somatic education, human movement science, embodied cognitive neuroscience and neuro-rehabilitation.
Learn more about Dr. Glenna Batson:
Visit her website www.thfold.net or follow her on LinkedIn and Instagram
Read some of Dr. Batson’s work:
Latest Book Publication (Just released – March 2025 – Epub and Hardback): Susan Sentler & Glenna Batson (eds) artmaking as embodied enquiry: entering the f/old
Batson G, Blaesing BE, Nogueira Haas A, Hugenschmidt CE, DeSouza JFX. Dance, Embodied Agency and Neuroplasticity in Aging. Ebook, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2024.
Glenna Batson with Margaret Wilson – Body and Mind in Motion – Dance and Neuroscience in Conversation (2014)
Batson G. Human Origami: The Embryo as a Folding Life Continuum. Journal of Prenatal and Life Sciences.
Batson G, Hugenschmidt CE, Soriano CT (2016). Verbal Auditory Cueing of Improvisational Dance: A Proposed Method for Training Agency in Parkinson’s Disease. Frontiers in Neurology.
This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced by me, Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.
Highlights from the episode:
“To me, embodiment is our birthright. We're on automatic pilot 90% of our time; we're task driven and we're task involved. So the task becomes more important than the person. And actually what we really need to say is, before I do anything, it's me that has to tune in. I have to be with me. And what does ‘me’ mean? And how does ‘me’ feel? And how does ‘me’ feel safe enough to communicate outwardly to someone else? And this is what dance so readily teaches and in stages that feel safe, that feel right.”
ABOUT DANCING INTO BRAIN HEALTH PODCAST
Join host Magda Kaczmarska, dancer, researcher, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and executive director of arts and health nonprofit, DanceStream Projects, in uncovering the interconnections of dance, brain health and community. Each episode Magda brings together leading researchers, artists, advocates and thought leaders to illuminate the magical interconnections of dance and brain health and explore their influence on all aspects of our lives.
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