Have you ever tried to learn another language? How is language different than other forms of communication? Is there a way to cut through the noise and simply get your message across?

There’s few things in life that simultaneously highlight our differences while emphasizing our commonalities more than travel. Finding yourself in a foreign country is like seeing the world through a different lens. People in all modern societies need and use a lot of the same stuff, only the words are different.

Folks have to get from place to place. So there are trains, planes, and automobiles. No matter where you are, you need to eat, shop, and find a bathroom. Builders are building, gardeners are gardening, stylists are cutting hair.

The human condition requires a similar range of activities across the board. Language itself is an abstraction that each culture has evolved through time. What’s interesting is the fact that the further language is abstracted from face-to-face communication, the more alien it gets.

Imagine yourself listening to a rapid-fire conversation in Chinese, Swahili, or Greek for that matter on the radio. Or picture yourself trying to read a complicated text in any of those or another language.

Listening you might find yourself lost in a sea of gibberish, with only occasional sounds or tones of voice giving you clues. You may do better reading if it happens to be a language with common roots, such as Latin which is the DNA of many words in French, English, and Spanish. If you’re trying to decipher text in an entirely different script such as Cyrillic, Korean, or Japanese, well, good luck.

But now continue your thought experiment by seeing yourself standing across from the friendly foreigner in question. You can read their smile, judge their intent, interpret their body language. With your hands you can point, wave, or wildly gesticulate. The micromuscles in both of your faces exchange understanding or bewilderment as the case may be.

The point is, with full-spectrum communication, you’ve got a far better chance of understanding and getting your point across. What’s the secret sauce? Movement, of course. From the tiniest lift of your eyebrow to a full-on wave of your arms, your body can say more in a moment than your words can say in a week.

So if movement can put the polish on mere words, what does that say about dance? When you dance, it’s as if you’re putting your memoir in motion, your philosophy on point, your attitude in action. To watch a dancer is to witness a life story unfold without words. You can have a cross-cultural conversation without uttering a word.

Folks who work with the universal language of dance are a special breed indeed. Rarer still are leaders who can do it across borders and in different tongues. This week’s Spotlight features Eva Vigran, the founder of Core Connexion who has spent years cultivating a conscious movement community both in the US and in Europe, particularly Germany and Switzerland.

They say that one of the best ways to learn a language if you’re in a foreign country is to get together with folks that are learning something, whether it be cooking, an art or craft, or… well, dancing?

You can speak with your body, and listen with your eyes by reading body language. Let your context flow through you and remember, movement is a lexicon in and of itself.

Tous mes meilleurs!

M+

ML #621

Mark Metz
Executive Director :: Dance First Association