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CREATIVITY

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revived as part of the nationalistic movement; it just had not reached lutionary process influenced by social, religious and economic factors
the small gold-mining town where I was growing up. My formal train- that thwart our natural tendency. Famous dancer Agnes de Mille
ing in dance began in San Antonio with my 5-year-old daughter, four said, “The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its
other women and their daughters. The Arathi School of Indian Dance, music. Bodies never lie.”
founded in 1981, is the first Indian dance school in San Antonio.
Music invokes pleasure and reward areas like the orbitofrontal cor-
Why do humans like to dance? Are there animals who like to tex, located directly behind one's eyes, and stimulates a midbrain re-
dance? In an elegant scientific research paper published in 2006, neu- gion called the ventral striatum. The degree of activation matches
roscientist Dr. Anirudh Patel found that a species of cockatoo could with how much we enjoy some particular music.
move to a beat, whereas our closest genetic relative, the chimpanzee,
does not move to music. Other animals that have evolved with hu- I have taught dance every Friday evening for the past 33 years. The
mans for millions of years and that live closely with us, such as dogs students range from age 5 to adults. The moment I start teaching,
and cats, do not move to musical beats. Patel concludes, “Dance may the rest of the world is tuned off. My mind is empty of everything
have evolved as a byproduct of our ability to mimic sounds -- a rare but movement. It is my meditation, my mantra.
ability shared by humans, cockatoos and parrots.” It is not known
why humans have this innate ability. However, it is well known that When young moms observe a class in which I teach their 5- or 6-
babies as young as five months sway to a beat. year-old, they tell me, “You are something else, aunty.” In the Indian
community, you are respectfully addressed as aunty or uncle. In
Dance is in each one of us. Dancing was a way for our prehistoric Bharathanatyam, you stamp the feet to create various rhythmic beats.
ancestors to communicate, and those who were thus bonded had an My calloused soles are an enigma for the pedicurist who will meekly
evolutionary advantage. Another study found that dancers shared ask,”What do you do?” The main posture in Bharathanatyam is a
two genes associated with a predisposition for being good social com- half sitting stance called “Araimandi,” meaning half-bent knee. And
municators. The degree to which you take to dance could be an evo- it does take a toll on your knees if you don’t exercise. Dancers are
phenomenal athletes with a unique variety of health-related issues.

22 San Antonio Medicine • February 2015