Dancing Reggie Wilson’s technique has reassured me of the connection of the mind to the body. One of the classes I am enrolled in this semester is the Introduction to Modern Philosophy. The class has focused on reconstructing the arguments Descartes makes in his Meditations of First Philosophy. At the beginning of the Meditations Descartes convinces himself to doubt everything. The only thing that he can be sure of is that “I am thinking, therefore i exist”. When I first encountered this argument, I interpreted the “I” Descartes referred to, to mean the mind. To me, it seemed his argument meant that the mind could exist without the body. Therefore, the body could not exist. This conclusion seemed valid to me, but it went against what I intuitively felt to be true.
As a dancer I am very aware of my body. My body is my instrument to create art. I can distinctly perceive the differences in flexibility between my left and right ankles. I notice as muscles that were less flexible two weeks ago, gradually gain flexibility.
When I am studying as a Yale student I tend to neglect the presence of my body and focus on thinking by using my brain. What I have discovered while dancing Mr.Wilson’s technique is that the body can think too. I am better able to execute the difficult combinations that are in his choreography when I let my body be the movement, rather than if I think about what the movement is supposed to look like. When I let my body be the movement, I am actually letting my body think. My mind simply focuses on where each movement ends and begins in order to connect them.

Dancing is similar to riding a bike. After you spend a lot of energy familiarizing yourself with the movement, your body simply knows what to do. I simply have to focus my mind away from the idea of the movement and to the actual movement.