activation energy

An ounce of movement for a pound of momentum

“Dance of Activation”

Sometimes mechanical movement is all you need to get yourself active again. Release. The emotion. Release everything that was stored within. It has to flow through the points of your body. It’s like a vibe imbalance. Let your body bear the load across its full capacity instead of holding it in just your heart or head.

There have been times where I’ve sat upright in bed, feeling a need to do something– anything–yet lacking the spark to act. It’s tough.

In these times, I found dance as a balm to my hang ups. It was the grease for my gears. A little WD40 for the soul. As I moved, I would sputter to life, my inner stiffness led by my outer fluidity, almost as if it were being held by the hand.

There’s something quite brilliant about the way dance works even when you live alone. You learn to be unrestrained in your expression of the backstage self. When you do it for the first time, it’s hard not to feel awkward and self conscious. Doubly so when you do it in front of a mirror. Yikes. I look like *that?* But in time, and persistence, this feeling passes. Yes, the feeling sucks, but it passes.

To me, the ideal end state is to purely enjoy what you are hearing and to let the music flow through you. “Dance like no one’s watching.” This eye-roll inducing cliche has an irrefutable truth at its center. To dance like no one is watching is a type of freedom.

The music video for Taylor Swift’s song, “Delicate” features her hounded by fans, surrounded by security, and never quite able to exist freely as a public figure. The inciting incident is when she suddenly becomes invisible to everyone, she is no longer under scrutinizing eyes and how does she express this freedom? Through unrestrained dance. It’s not choreographed*, it’s nonthinking, it’s true expression.

It’s not just any song that has this activating effect when you dance to it. Cueing the right one that you can move to makes all the difference. It kickstarts the engine, adding a spark. A study by Maria Witek et al. from Aarhus University in Denmark found that a moderate level of syncopation resulted in compelling gaps in rhythmic structure. The gaps in the beats of the music are invitations. According to Witek’s statements to NPR, they provide us “with an opportunity to physically inhabit those gaps and fill in those gaps with our own bodies." It’s why songs like Pharrell Williams’s “Happy,” Ray Charles “I’ve Got A Woman,” and so many Michael Jackson songs are so dance-worthy. They straddle the line between complexity and simplicity, maintaining familiarity and surprise.

A good song will feature elements that you can track with your body. The head might nod in time with the beat, while the shoulders dip in response to the groove. Maybe you set your timing with the pattern of the hi-hats or the notes of a piano. Whatever you do, that’s unique to you.

The next level after dancing freely by yourself is to dance freely with great partners. Any good dance with a partner involves skills that are translatable to other aspects of life. You have to be attuned to their body. Ready to switch directions or take the lead in certain moments. With each call, there is a response. There is nothing purer than when your selves meld into one kinetic being. A dissolution of self in favor of a union that’s greater than its individual parts.

As I wrote this, I wondered, have people actually done studies to find if there are specific elements that make a dance more attractive? Amusingly, they have done studies on this for men and women.

With women, higher quality dance involved “greater hip swing, more asymmetric movements of the thighs and intermediate levels of asymmetric movements of the arms.” They hypothesized that asymmetrical movement, or the ability to move your limbs independently of each other signals great motor control (as long as it appears intentional and not haphazard).

As for men, three movement measures were significant indicators of assessed dance quality. They were variability and amplitude of neck, the trunk, and the speed of the right knee when it moved. So what does this mean when you’re at a party or in the club? Don’t be closed up. Move! Enjoy yourself, and these movements come along naturally. Either that or learn to get really good at doing body rolls.

I like the idea that whatever skills and experiences we pick up in life are never truly wasted. The things we care about and nurture, when approached in a healthy manner, can ripple outward into every other kind of work we do. Adopting dance into your life when you can, in whatever form, can have more than just an “activation effect.” Yes, it can help you warm up and acquire energy but it can also help you become more accurate in your expression, more connected with others, and much happier. It’s important to note that the activation effect is not necessarily limited to dance. Dance is just the simplest option, no equipment needed. I find working out and playing tennis to be great “activating” activities. Just a little bit of intention, just a little bit of inertia, can carry you further than you thought was possible.

---

*Okay, maybe the dance is choreographed to look uninhibited but the point is if you’re watching, you’re supposed to pick up that it isn’t choreographed to look like a conventional “perfect” routine.

References

Doucleff, Michaeleen. "Anatomy Of A Dance Hit: Why We Love To Boogie With Pharrell." NPR, 30 May 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2023.

Foster Vander Elst, O., Foster, N. H. D., Vuust, P., Keller, P. E., & Kringelbach, M. L. (2023). The Neuroscience of Dance: A Conceptual Framework and systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 150, 105197. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105197

Matthews, T. E., Witek, M. A. G., Lund, T., Vuust, P., & Penhune, V. B. (2020). The sensation of groove engages motor and reward networks. NeuroImage, 214, 116768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116768

McCarty, K., Darwin, H., Cornelissen, P. et al. Optimal asymmetry and other motion parameters that characterise high-quality female dance. Sci Rep 7, 42435 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42435

Neave, N., McCarty, K., Freynik, J., Caplan, N., Hönekopp, J., & Fink, B. (2011). Male dance moves that catch a woman's eye. Biology letters, 7(2), 221–224. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0619