Movement is innate to music; do not amputate it.

observation — attributed to J. Francisco Núñez

Núñez was called jumpy as a child because he was always a person who needed to move. In European choral tradition, movement during singing is seen as lesser. In the rest of the world, dance is one of the most important communicators humans have. It is innate. Núñez argues that dancing and singing together at a high level makes humans better people. The implication for choral and arts programs everywhere is that the European convention should not be the default. Embodied music is the older, broader human practice. Programs that integrate movement reach a fuller register of what music is for than programs that hold the body still.

For arts educators, choral directors, and program designers thinking about the default conventions of their genre. The observation is most useful as a corrective when the convention is treated as the standard rather than as one tradition among many.

movement, dance, european-tradition, embodied-music