This episode is a conversation between Neha and former dancer/current movement teacher Hannah Teutscher. Both Hannah and Neha reflect on the impact of dance and movement in their lives and how movement helps connect our minds to our bodies and unlock new ways of thinking and feeling about ourselves and the world around us. We hope this episode inspires you to think about how movement, in line with your own needs and abilities, can help you tear down your own “armours” and connect to your own authentic self.

Additional Resources

Al-Fawakhiri, N., Kayani, S., & McDougle, S. D. (2023). Evidence of an optimal error rate for motor skill learning. bioRxiv, 2023-07.

Hennah mentioned that for motor learning tasks, failure helps people learn faster. These researchers theorized that motor skill learning is best when the error rate is about 30% and found evidence to support their theory.

Buckingham, M. (2022 May-June). Designing work that people love. Harvard Business Review.

Neha mentioned that when people can shape their roles themselves, they and their employer are better off. This is an accessible read that integrates, among other things, the idea that when people are able to inject their own selves into to the design of their work, you get better results.

Foss, N., Klein, P. (10 November 2022). Greater autonomy and responsibility may aggravate (not cure!) quiet quitting. London School of Economics and Political Science blog post.

Neha mentioned that when people have complete freedom and no parameters, the lack of structure can actually impair performance. This is a blog post from the London School of Economics and Political Science about people’s preference for some degree of structure (i.e. predictability) in their work environment.

Moore, C (8 January 2019) What is flow? PositivePscyhology.com.

Hannah mentions how people can achieve flow through movement. If you’ve not heard this term before, here is a one-stop source about this psychological state as first popularized by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 40(4), 1142.

Neha talks about movement unlocking creativity, and this is a primary research sources for this connection. The link goes to a Stanford University news summary of the research, but you can also access the full research article via the news summary.

As always please send your feedback to droppingyourarmour@atrain.com

Enjoy this episode!