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I'm wondering if you've noticed any activities in your dance practice and even just your daily life that are predominantly left- or right- side dominant. For most of us writing is one. But what about in dance or yoga? Are there tendencies to balance to one side? If so, is there anything you do in your balancing practice to even this out?
I had noticed that my dance and yoga practices had places where they were right side dominant. I even noticed that at times I was right eye dominant. I've tried to be aware of this and set the default in many instances on left in my own practice.
I was reading a book called The Alphabet vs the Goddess that introduced a really interesting theory about the effect of the early development of language on brain side-dominance and specifically the shift of focus to left brain (right body) dominance and how it may have effected patriarchical society.
I found it intriguing. In any case, it seems like a good idea to keep changing the defaults we set in our brains in order to attain and maintain our highest level of awareness. Especially considering the percentage of our brain we purportedly actively use. Might as well exercise the thing!
I had noticed that my dance and yoga practices had places where they were right side dominant. I even noticed that at times I was right eye dominant. I've tried to be aware of this and set the default in many instances on left in my own practice.
I was reading a book called The Alphabet vs the Goddess that introduced a really interesting theory about the effect of the early development of language on brain side-dominance and specifically the shift of focus to left brain (right body) dominance and how it may have effected patriarchical society.
I found it intriguing. In any case, it seems like a good idea to keep changing the defaults we set in our brains in order to attain and maintain our highest level of awareness. Especially considering the percentage of our brain we purportedly actively use. Might as well exercise the thing!
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Sun, January 8, 2006 - 7:31 PMThis is a great topic. I have noticed that I favor my right side tremendously. And I also have to admit to being somewhat lazy about dealing with the issue. Perhaps because I am still a very new dancer (less than three years learning, and only about a year of serious commitment), I tend to concentrate on what I can do in general rather than attempt to master a move on both sides. I feel very imbalanced as a result.
Your workshops this weekend actually got me thinking about this very issue. I appreciated that you challenged all of us to attempt moves on what I call "the stupid side". Torso rotations, for example, were much harder for me on the left, as was much of the footwork that began on the left.
I am very new to yoga, and am hoping that as I continue to study, I will achieve a greater balance between the "sides" of my body; I want to be a complete dancer, achieving a balanced energy.
Something that I have noticed in some of the tribal fusion classes I have taken is that the moves are only taught on the right side, and in some cases, the instructor has informed me that the moves are only intended to be performed on the right side. I wonder if such choices are a testament to a right-dominate world. Poor southpaws.
The book you were reading sounds interesting, but based on what's written here on tribe about it, I think I will have to look into it. I am very interested in the development of language.
I suggest The Language Instinct, which was a required text for English majors in college who were to seeking teaching certification. It discusses how the brain uses and stores language from a very early, who influences language and sentence structure, and how that structure changes. I wonder if you compared the texts what kind of neat theories you'd develop!
As for hitting the reset button and challenging the defaults we already have, I'm all for it- physically and mentally. But then, aren't the two really intricately enmeshed?
Thanks for the "thinker" topic! -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Sun, January 8, 2006 - 11:14 PMI should clarify, in that book I believe it's actually written language that coincided with the theoretical shift, not language itself which has obviously been around as long as a couple of beings have... But yeah, it would be interesting to compare those texts. Now, watch in your yoga practice and see if you find the tendency toward right occurring there as well; I have. Of course you will do things on both sides but you might find that it often starts with the right or moves in the same direction and I have wondered how much of a difference in type or amount of movement this might create between sides. Hmmm. the research continues.
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Mon, January 9, 2006 - 8:50 PMSeveral different thoughts....
I myself am left-eyed, right handed, and left-legged. Whichever leg you stand on when you're just slouching standing up is your "favored" leg. People I tell this to can't understand why I'm not left-handed or at least amibidextrous, but no, I'm not. Maybe that's why Tribal works for me, as often we "rest" on our left leg while choo-ing, etc.
To that end, our new troupe will totally be trying to learn moves on both sides, instead of just one. Thanks for introducing that to us this weekend. I've often thought about that dichotomy, but never knew how "tribal dumb" I was on my right leg until I tried it this weekend!
As a psych prof, I can tell you what one of the absolute hardest things for your brain to do is, and we probably do it all the time without thinking of it - reading out aloud. It takes so much brain coordination, think about it - to perceive words, to read them correctly, to comprehend the meaning, to tell the mouth what to say, to tell emotions how to read it with emphasis. It is incredibly complicated. Maybe that's something to do with the written word, there....
I always notice that one side is always easier for me to do a yoga move than the other side. Thing is, it's different sides for different poses, not the same side all the time.... -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Tue, January 10, 2006 - 12:04 AMOne thing about working in a group is that you don't ever want to have to think, wait- which side? Performing improv you can't really afford that extra instant. that's why I think it's not a bad idea to set the performance default on right. But then as you get used to working with people over time you can certainly loosen that. Also you can set certain combos up to be led on the left. Meanwhile I really think there is a lot of good to drilling that other side in class and practice and just for fun. Go ahead and perform on the confident side, but don't just leave the poor stepchild side out in the cold. Involve the left side in practice; get past the point where it feels impossible; then proceed to practice and perform on the right, for group improv. I think it will result in more fluidity for both sides to pull the left to a point of ease. And for soloists there's no general excuse to be one sided. -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Tue, January 10, 2006 - 4:13 AMWhat? I have no excuse? Crap! ; )
I tried the torso rotation and pigeon box on both sides yesterday and I think my body and brain are aligning a little more. My muscles have been a little tired after 3rd Coast, so I haven't done any yoga this week yet, but I think I will practice tonight and really start to pay attention to what my body does; I want to challenge myself in yoga and in dance to really bring both sides of my brain and body together more.
And thanks for explaining the default right side. I have never been in a tribal troupe, so maybe that's why I always found it odd that everything was taught on the right; it makes sense now.
I'm going to ask Katy (my teacher) to drill and teach moves on both sides during our lessons. I loved that you did that, Darshan, during our workshop.
Thanks for opening my eyes!
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Tue, January 10, 2006 - 7:34 AMI think a lot of moves are done on the right side for visibility in following issues as well, especially when you do angled formations. For example, if I'm leading in a four person angled formation, where I'm to the front and left of everyone and they're streaming off behind me in a diamond to my back and right, it's going to be very hard for them to see if I start doing things with my left hip. In ATS, your hand movements are directly tied and connected to your hip movements, so that if nobody can see your taxim, they can still be in time by lining up with your hand floreo.
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Tue, January 10, 2006 - 8:56 AMExcellent. Noted, and will be utilized! :) -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Tue, January 10, 2006 - 2:27 PMFantastic information, Natalie!
Maybe I should start learning formation and cues and such, just in case.
; ) -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Sat, July 15, 2006 - 3:44 PMLet me just bump this topic up again, with a new piece of information I came across. Speaking of how it can affect the body to engage in repetitive action on only one side of the body: I was speaking with a gorgeous and talented dancer friend of mine a couple of weeks ago who has been doing ATS for many years, along with other dance studies. Many of you know that, for practical reasons, American Tribal is performed predominantly with the right side of the body. Well, she lost a bunch of weight for whatever reason, and when she turned around to check, she noticed that the two halves of her derriere had two distinctly different shapes: one was more developed in the upper gluteals, and the other in the lower! I found that so fascinating. One side is more often used for hip articulation, and the other for stabilization. She has begun to implement a regimen of esercises to even this out. Goodness! Gotta do some left side drills, if only for this. That pelvis is so easy to put out of alignment in so many ways. -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Thu, April 10, 2008 - 5:49 PMSet dancing can help keep the balance and there is no age limit. Here are some examples:
www.youtube.com/50Dances
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Sat, April 12, 2008 - 4:40 PMI am so glad to read this Darshan.
I always knew this abotu belly dancing and its part of my thing against it. -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Sun, April 13, 2008 - 7:42 PMRight, bellydance is not by its nature one-side-dominant except to the extent that a teacher and her students practice that way. Many of us are one-side dominant, and, just as when one muscle in a group is stronger than the others it takes over unconsciously and the others just get weaker, so it is with the practice. It's enough easier to learn and practice on one side, and sometimes awkward enough on the other side, that without thinking we risk heavily favoring that side. I try in my classes to be sure we work the left side just as much as the right, learn some moves first on the left, even favor the left a little. But I know this is hard when preparing a group for a show for instance, because it precludes taking advantage of some natural muscle memory and things will just generally take longer. If you've got the time, that's great! Anyway the challenge is to give the body and brain a workout that at least evens itself out over time, and watch for unconscious tendencies, and work out beyond the obvious and usual. In any physical practice. -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Fri, April 25, 2008 - 10:35 AMMy teacher is very good about making us work both sides. She always says that in practice you tend to do twice as many reps on whichever side you practice a move first. So whichever side is the weaker side in a particular move start with that side when you practice and it will eventually catch up to the favored side. It works!!!
Jennifer -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Wed, April 30, 2008 - 12:43 PMThis really is a great topic for discussion because it applies to so many of us....and I'll even venture to say, a large portion of us might be unaware of how deep it goes.
When I was in school and playing a lot of competitive sports this discussion occured *freqently*. As a setter on our volleyball team, I had to be aware of my hitters' eye dominance, because it greatly influenced/effected how they would hit depending upon where I would place it; consequently I was asked to place the ball in different regions depending upon who was hitting. In softball it's the same thing with eye dominance; for any number of reasons, hitting, fielding, throwing....
In my dance life this has been a constant source of frustration with regard to my left arm and that didn't start getting better until I took Bharatanatayam. When I had to perform *the exact* same moves on the left as on the right, I noticed a marked improvement on my left arm. This was one of the reasons I loved B.N. so much - there's so much left to right balancing going on, that I imediately saw an increased equality between left and right.
I do notice though, on a regular basis that I favor putting my weight on my left foot/hip. There's a distinct difference between my left and right glutes, my left glute, while definitely weaker is easier to manipulate because it's not as strong and therefore (in my mind) not as willful as my right glute :) My classes usually get lost at some point because while we are almost all right side dominant, I move 'on the 1' from my left rather than from my right.
I might be off my rocker on this bit, but I think Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen goes into this in "Sensing, Feeling, Action"....I'll check that source this evening and correct this if I'm wrong. I got into this whole line of study about pyschology from right to left side a few years ago. There are some very interesting studies that talk about how in the female body, the right side of the body displays/emulates our relationships to others while in the left side refers to 'Self' and vice-versa for the male body. So then my practice went through a whole other more somatic discussion between right and left.
But now I must definitely go check out Alphabet and the Goddess....thanks. -
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Re: left/right body/brain balancing
Fri, May 2, 2008 - 7:11 AMI felt it was interesting that I read this post the other day for the first time and this morning, Dunya posted to her blog blog.dancemeditation.org about right/left and lateral differences..
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