The Language of Movement 2

In this second session we continued looking at the history of body movement in Western cultures. The repression of emotional expressive movement has been attributed to three major factors: the churches that feared that free movements would lead to loss of control; the development of the capitalist society in which people had to be taught to fit into their needed roles; and the rise of the individual self as more important than community identity.
In the late 50's and early60's there was a social revolution in which the youth began to free themselves from what they considered to be the restraints imposed upon them by the adult community. They developed their own music- rock and roll- that came from African-Caribbean roots. Their revolution was aided by the Civil Rights movement that fought to have all minorities recognized as being equal with the majority in our society . This was the Post-Modern world of diversity and multiplicity. Body movements also became more free, as did attitudes towards sex and gender.
We then looked briefly at the movement development of infants, toddlers, and teen agers, observing the stages of changes in muscular control in young people, and the movements of teenagers who experienced radical changes in their bodies.
Next week we'll look at some body language and the interpretations given to them.