Commentary Blog

Today, I came across this fascinating article that described ballerina's brain activity while learning new routine. The conclusion of the experiment performed was that brain activity when learning a new dance takes an inverted U shape when graphed. This means brain activity started out low before beginning to learn the routine and as the routine is being taught to the dancer, his/her brain activity levels jump up during that process. At the end of the learning process, the dancer's brain activity levels go back down to where they were before the learned the dance. As a dancer, the conclusion of this experiment makes sense seeing as learning new dances not only requires ability to memorize the moves in your head, but also the muscle memory that is built to make your body recreate the sequence of steps and allow your brain to focus on your technique. It is incredible the process our minds go through in harmony with our body to be able to produce fluid movements in a certain order. The study also showed that at the end of the 34 weeks, the brain activity had decreased, but not as much as before they began learning the dance, so I wonder that if a dancer practices a dance enough and builds muscle memory, their brain activity will slowly decrease because they no longer have to think so much as to what move comes next. I believe that once we do not have to think of the routine itself while we dance, it means muscle memory has taken over, which is a beautiful feeling to have.