Brain Dance

The Brain Dance was developed by Anne Green Gilbert, a Seattle based dance instructor. It is composed of eight developmental movement patterns that healthy human beings naturally move through in the first year of life. The eight patterns are:

• Breath
• Tactile
• Core-Distal
• Head-Tail
• Upper-Lower
• Body Side
• Cross Lateral
• Vestibular

I have included a link to an instruction sheet by Anne Green Gilbert on how to do the Brain Dance below. There are many benefits of doing the Brain Dance with your students. Besides being fun and getting students' blood moving it helps reorganize the neurological system, increase blood and oxygen flow to the respiratory system and brain, and enhance core support, connectivity, and alignment.

“The BrainDance is an exercise I developed in 2000 comprised of eight fundamental movement patterns that we move through in the first year of life,” from touching and squeezing to creeping and crawling. “These movement patterns wire the central nervous system by laying the foundation for appropriate behavior and attention, eye convergence necessary for reading, sensory-motor development and more.” -Anne Green Gilbert


How to do the Brain Dance- instructions by Anne Green Gilbert

A group of 5th graders doing the Brain Dance

Article About Anne Green Gilbert- "Dance Teacher Uses Movement to Sharpen Minds"