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A neuroscientist explains your brain on dance (it's wild!) As part of our upcoming production (just 6 days away!), artists and students dug deep into their learnings about dance and art to share with you. This week’s post by neuroscientist and Navatman member, Abha Rajbhandari - what surprising functions of the brain light up when we move our bodies? When the Sun Rises June 26-28 Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
 The brain is the organ that allows us to experience the world. It receives light, sound, rhythm, breath, touch, balance, and movement, and transforms them into perception, memory, emotion, and meaning. As a neuroscientist, I have studied the role of the brain in stress regulation for more than 15 years. But the effect of dance on the brain feels especially powerful. When we dance, the brain is not simply controlling the body. It is listening to the body, predicting the next movement, remembering patterns, adjusting balance, feeling rhythm, and expressing something that words often cannot hold. The brain’s ability to listen to bodily rhythms such as breath, heartbeat, posture, and inner sensation is called interoception. Dance is one of the most ancient human languages. Long before ideas were written down, human beings moved together in rhythm. We danced to celebrate, to grieve, to worship, to tell stories, to mark seasons, and to remember who we were as a community. I am learning that in classical traditions such as Bharatanatyam, dance is not only physical exercise. It is geometry, devotion, storytelling, discipline, rhythm, and emotion woven into the body. From a neuroscience perspective, Bharatanatyam is especially meaningful to me. As I prepare for the student showcase with my group, I am observing how much coordination this dance requires. The dancer must bring together footwork, posture, hand gestures, facial expression, breath, rhythm, music, and narrative. Everything has to be integrated. The torso remains stable while the limbs move with precision. The face expresses emotion while the feet keep rhythm. The hands tell a story while the body maintains balance. This means that Bharatanatyam trains not only movement, but also attention, memory, emotional expression, and interoception-brain’s ability to listen to the body. Modern neuroscience is beginning to explain why dance feels so deeply embodied. Dancing engages motor circuits that control movement, auditory circuits that process rhythm and music, vestibular systems that regulate balance, memory systems that store sequences, and emotional networks that give movement meaning. Unlike many forms of exercise, dance requires the brain to coordinate the body in relation to internal signals, external cues, music, space, and other people. It is truly a whole-brain and whole-body practice! This may be why dance and music are increasingly studied in neurological conditions. In Parkinson’s disease, where movement can become stiff, slow, or difficult to initiate, rhythm and dance can sometimes help the body move more fluidly. In Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, music and movement can sometimes bring back memory, emotion, and social connection, even when language and ordinary recall become difficult. Of course, dance does not cure these conditions. But it can offer a meaningful pathway for movement, expression, and care. In yoga and dance, interoception resembles dhārana: the training of attention toward a chosen object. In dance, the object of attention is not only the breath or a mantra, but the living body itself. A dancer learns to ask: How is my breath? Where is my balance? Am I ahead of the rhythm, or am I inside it? Is my body tense, or is it open and alive? This inner listening is not separate from mental health. The brain and body are in constant conversation. When we move rhythmically, breathe with awareness, and coordinate attention with action, we influence the autonomic nervous system, stress physiology, mood, and emotional regulation. This is one reason dance can reduce anxiety and depression. It allows the body to express, release, and reorganize what the mind may not be able to say. One of the most beautiful parts of preparing for this showcase has been the social connection. As a group, dance has allowed us to listen to one another, coordinate with one another, and move within a shared rhythm. In this sense, dance is not only individual expression. It is collective regulation. It teaches us how to belong to a rhythm larger than ourselves. Neuroscience is now catching up to what many cultures have known for centuries: movement is not separate from thought, and the body is not separate from the mind. Dance supports neuroplasticity because it asks the brain to keep learning. It supports emotional health because it gives feeling a rhythm and shape. It supports social connection because it brings people into synchrony. To dance, then, is not only to move. It is to remember with the body, to listen from within, and to transform rhythm into awareness. Dance reminds us that the brain does not live only inside the skull. It lives through the moving body. How beautiful it is to experience all of this as human beings! References: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31481910/ https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11618 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37549216/ About this post This post is part of an ongoing series reflecting on cross-cultural community, ancestral memory, and the ways dance carries both joy and resistance. These stories are not separate from the work on stage. They ARE the work. When the Sun Rises brings these threads together in a live experience. Join us June 26–28 at Ailey Theater. About us
Navatman and Baila Society joined forces in 2024 for a uniquely New York City experience: a place where two women-led arts organizations based in the cultural traditions of Afro-Latinx arts (Salsa, Latin Hustle, Afro-Cuban) and Indian arts (Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Hindustani and Carnatic music) come together. In this shared space, we explore how the force of artists and students working together can promote, define, and create a sense of stability and strength, joy and love within communities at large - particularly through artistic endeavors.
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