Sharing human movement for well-being: Research on communication in infancy and applications in dance movement psychotherapy

Abstract

This article outlines a theory of the social psychobiology of movement that recognises humans have a special, body-based talent for sharing in the imaginative creation of emotionally coloured life stories. Microanalysis of natural mother–infant play demonstrates an innate preparedness for whole-bodied, synchronous participation in social life. We discuss how an affective and relational sense of self develops before speech, how a young child’s motives regulate experience with rhythms of communicative musicality and how this inspires cultural learning. Trevarthen relates how vitality, from the deep integration of body and mind, grows through playful relationships into an imagination for acquired movements of language and the arts. We discuss how science that perceives infants as imaginative, motivated persons, eager to learn in affectionate attachments and in the inventive companionship of play has direct application in dance movement psychotherapy.