Concentration of Modern Dancers While Performing Balancing Tasks

Concentration is an important process in building a dancer's foundation for performance—a learned process. One must be able to focus attention to a purpose, a motive, or an intent and simultaneously remove what is nonessential. To a dancer, concentration is the discovering of a personal awareness of movement, a kinesthetic awareness of the human body (internal focus). This kinesthetic awareness is focused on the conscious use of the center that controls movement, i.e., the center of mass (center of gravity). When the body performs in equilibrium, e.g., in balancing activities, it is necessary to sense energy going from that center and returning to that center. It is the control of the center that provides freedom in the use of the arms and legs, which gives the dancer an effortless carriage of the head, free of tension in the neck and shoulders. Bonsignore (1983) believes that balance is a dynamic concept in dance. The dancer must constantly be kinesthetically aware of the direction of energy as it flows through the body. Muscles are continuously responsive to the center of the body, making minute changes that will be reflected to the distal parts of the body (Hays, 1981).